Commonwealth Bank of Australia and Ors

On 17 April 2023, the Commonwealth Bank of Australia, Westpac Banking Corporation, Australia and New Zealand Banking Group Limited, National Australia Bank Limited and Macquarie Bank Limited (the Applicants) applied to the ACCC seeking authorisation to make and give effect to agreements and arrangements to establish a voluntary industry-wide program for participating mortgage lenders to jointly procure assurance reviews of the compliance systems and standards of participating mortgage aggregators (the Aggregator Assurance Program).

Authorisation is sought for a period of 5 years.

The Applicants also sought interim authorisation to take certain preparatory steps to establish the Aggregator Assurance Program prior to the ACCC’s final determination.

On 18 September 2023, the ACCC issued a draft determination proposing to deny authorisation. The ACCC also decided not to grant interim authorisation at this time.

The ACCC invites submissions from interested parties on the draft determination by 3 October 2023. If you wish to make a submission on the draft determination please lodge it via this web form.

A copy of the ACCC’s draft determination is available below.

An indicative timeline for the ACCC’s assessment is set out below.