Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC)

The ACCC was established in 1995 following the amalgamation of the Trade Practices Commission and the Prices Surveillance Authority. APRA and ASIC were established on the recommendation of the 1997 Wallis Inquiry into the Financial System. The Inquiry argued the need for specialised regulatory arrangements given rapid technological innovation, an evolving and more competitive business environment, and longer-term changes in customer needs and profiles.1 The intensity of these changes—and the need for a sound and flexible financial regulatory structure—has continued unabated in the eight years since this Inquiry.

Below is a extract from Interest rates and informed choice in the Australian credit card market  - December 2015 where the RBA asserts that ACCC is responsible to monitor and regulate bank interest rates, except the Overnight Cash Rate:

"1.8 Dr Edey quite rightly made the point that Australia does not regulate interest rates, and, as such, there is no interest rate regulator.  He told the committee that Australia does have 'an ACCC [Australian Competition and Consumer Commission] that can investigate uncompetitive conduct if they see it, but they clearly have not seen it in this market'.3   It was put to Dr Edey that the issue was not so much whether there was uncompetitive conduct in the market, but whether regulatory settings were conducive to the promotion of sufficient competition to put downward pressure on credit card interest rates.4  In part, the committee's inquiry has been directed at understanding whether existing regulatory settings in relation to credit cards are appropriate in this respect.  More broadly, the committee has sought to determine what might be done to improve competition in the credit card market or otherwise put downward pressure on credit card interest rates."