ANZ-Suncorp merger appeal comes full circle in closing arguments
Hearings in a competition review of ANZ's play for Suncorp Bank have ended today much how they started, with debates of uncertainty and in the weeds of semantics.
The end of a two-week trial can be a little anti-climactic. While barristers and the legal teams advising them may breathe sighs of relief to have completed their closing arguments, the case still hangs in the balance, undecided.
So it was with ANZ's bid to convince the Australian Competition Tribunal that its play for Suncorp Group's banking business won’t substantially lessen competition and that the country’s competition regulator was wrong to block the deal.
In a half-day hearing on Friday, almost half of which was heard in closed session, Suncorp barrister Cameron Moore SC and ANZ barrister Ruth Higgins SC closed their arguments very much where the case began: with debates over uncertainty.
At the start of the Tribunal hearings, Higgins had declared that the ACCC's arguments against the deal were highly speculative, comparing its concerns about collusion between banks to the likelihood of a "meteor strike" of the courtroom.
