AUSTRALIAN BANKERS' ASSOCIATION WELCOMES THE NEW RUDD MINISTRY

Sydney, 30 November, 2007: The Australian Bankers’ Association (ABA) welcomed the new Ministry which was announced yesterday by Prime Minister-Elect, Kevin Rudd.

The ABA and its member banks look forward to working with the new Australian Labor Party team and we congratulate Mr Rudd and the ALP on the election result.

David Bell, Chief Executive of the ABA, said: “The Federal Government’s foreshadowed review on deregulation will be important in identifying regulation that is unnecessarily burdensome, complex or redundant, or duplicates regulation in other jurisdictions. It was heartening to see that a senior Cabinet Minister, Lindsay Tanner, has been placed in charge of this important project.”

“We look forward to continuing the discussion with the ALP on financial services regulation which affects the banking sector and will participate in the foreshadowed inquiry into the financial regulatory framework.”

“I was very pleased to note that during the campaign, Mr Rudd also outlined his vision on increasing exports of Australian financial services. We believe that Australia has a significant opportunity to position itself as a financial services leader in the Asian region.”

Finance and insurance is the third largest sector of the Australian economy, generating 7.8% or $67 billion of real gross value added – this contribution is up from 6.5% two decades ago¹.


For further information:

Heather Wellard
Director, Public Relations
Phone: 02 8298 0411
Mobile: 0409 830 439

[1]"Australia A Global Financial Services Centre” by Invest Australia, August 2007, page 4