Commonwealth Bank of Australia - proposed acquisition of Count Financial

Market definition

The ACCC considered the impact of the proposed acquisition in the context of the supply of a number of relevant products, including financial planning and advisory services, mortgage and mortgage referral services, investment and investment platforms, and life insurance. However, the ACCC did not consider it necessary to precisely define the relevant markets in order to assess the effects of the proposed acquisition.

Competition analysis

The ACCC noted that the acquisition would increase CBA's presence in the supply of financial planning and mortgage referral services. The ACCC considered that this increased presence could potentially have reduced competition in the supply of these services and increased the ability of CBA to direct business to its upstream investment and mortgage related products. However, the ACCC was satisfied that CBA would continue to be constrained by a number of other significant financial planning dealer groups, suppliers of mortgage referral services, and investment and platform providers.

With respect to life insurance and related products such as disability insurance, the ACCC noted that Count Financial's presence as a provider of referral services to customers for insurance products provided by third parties was relatively small. The ACCC found that CBA would continue to be constrained by alternative providers of life insurance and any increased inflows to CBA's own insurance products was likely to be minimal and unlikely to raise significant competition concerns.