The Commerce Commission released a preliminary issues paper in developing the scope of its study into factors that may affect competition for the supply or acquisition of personal banking services (banking services ordinarily acquired for personal, domestic, or household use).
In our submission RWNZ asked that the Commerce Commission consider the barriers rural consumers and communities face in searching and switching between personal banking services due to: branch closures (necessitating travel to the nearest main centre and time away from work to undertake this); and internet reliability and access (connectivity and coverage for digital services).