The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission has announced that it will not oppose the proposed acquisition of Count Financial Ltd by the Commonwealth Bank of Australia (CBA).
"The ACCC is satisfied that there is unlikely to be a substantial lessening of competition in any relevant market as a result of this proposed acquisition," ACCC chairman Rod Sims said.
The ACCC conducted a comprehensive review, including extensive market inquiries with participants in the financial planning, mortgage broking, banking, superannuation and insurance sectors.
"The ACCC noted that the acquisition would increase CBA's presence in the supply of financial planning services and mortgage referral services. This 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, mortgage broking firms and investment product providers," Mr Sims said.
With respect to the supply of life insurance and superannuation products, the ACCC concluded that the acquisition would not raise significant competition concerns in either of these sectors. The ACCC noted that the acquisition would result in only limited market concentration and that CBA would continue to be constrained by alternative suppliers of superannuation and life insurance products.