The Murray Review – The Odds of Implementation

ARTICLE SUMMARY

As one of the most significant reviews of the financial system in Australia’s history, the Murray Review was eagerly anticipated in December 2014. Since its release, commentary has been widespread.  A number of major recommendations were made by the review, and a broad array of impacts are likely to be felt if these recommendations are implemented.

A wide range of findings are worth re-evaluating as the Commonwealth looks to identify which of these recommendations to take forward in coming months.

• What additional burden will the banks have to carry? Of the 23 findings that impact directly on financial services firms, 11 are carried pre-dominantly by the banks, with 4 of those having a high degree of cost and complexity to implement.
• How are our super funds coping with the likely regulatory burden? Despite the banks carrying proportionally more of the admin burden, super funds also carry a significant burden – three out of a total of seven high-impact recommendations are carried by the super and wealth industry.

SPP has categorised the findings generally into low, medium and high severity, and have assessed the likelihood of the seven highest impact recommendations being implemented.

The banks face four high-severity recommendations – however the odds on implementation are relatively low, at least in the immediate term, whereas the recommendations appear far more likely to win support for the super and wealth firms.

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