👉 Background: ANZ, is one of the big four Australian banks and has over 8.5 million retail and business customers. In July 2022 it announced a $4.9 billion acquisition of Suncorp’s banking arm, but the competition watchdog, the ACCC opposed the deal, saying it would substantially lessen competition.

👉 What happened: ANZ appealed to the Australian Competition Tribunal who backed the deal, and the deal has now gained the Treasurer's approval too.

👉 What else: But, the Treasurer's approval came with some very specific conditions:

• No net job losses across both companies for 3 years
  
• No regional ANZ branches to close for the next 3 years
• $15 billion of lending to Queensland for Olympic Games infrastructure and renewables

And six other conditions too. Clearly, this deal means a lot to ANZ!

What's the key learning?

💡Big banks will stop at nothing to get their hands on a bigger slice of the home-loan pie. After all, it's one of the most lucrative forms of lending.

💡Home loans are long term, secured by a property, and squeaky clean investments, unlike some other industries that banks have dabbled in - like wealth management or insurance.

💡At of the end of 2023, ANZ was 4th in the home loan market with 13.5% of the market. But with Suncorp’s $52 billion worth of mortgages on its books, ANZ would jump to 3rd place. So it’s pretty clear now why ANZ was willing to move heaven and earth to get this deal done.