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By: Staff Reporter
Westpac has played down concerns that the major banks are currently fighting a deposit war and said the banking sector remains resilient.
The major’s treasurer Curt Zuber told The Australian Financial Review that overseas investors remain keen on Australian bank paper.
“The Australian story remains positive and the turmoil in Europe means it stands out even more,” he said.
While Mr Zuber conceded that volatility in Europe had prevented Westpac from completing any offshore deals, he said the bank was not competing with the other banks for deposits.
Deposits currently account for 57 per cent of the bank’s funding base.
“At the moment, that percentage is comfortable. Would we like to increase it? Of course we would. But we’re not going to start a pricing war simple to grow our deposits to 60 per cent,” he said.
“We want to grow our customer relations deeper and we want to win more deposits but we’re not going to pull any price levers.”
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