Banking in Australia and New Zealand—Geographic Proximity, Market Concentration, and Banking Integration

Abstract

This chapter focuses on the Australian and New Zealand (NZ) banking industry. Australian and New Zealand banks have undergone significant growth and challenges in the past decade. Australian banks weathered the Great Recession from 2008 and still recorded strong profits and minimal losses while other global banks failed internationally. To understand why this might be, we examine the composition of the closely integrated banking sectors in Australia and NZ, their respective performance, capital levels, and some defining regulatory reforms that have particularly shaped the Australian banking system since the 2008 Global Financial Crisis.