Date: Thursday 29 October 2015 Time: 12.15pm for 12.30pm - 1.30pm Venue: Reserve Bank of Australia, 65 Martin Place Presenter: Dr Rob Nicholls, UNSW Business School Abstract: The report on Competition in Financial Services finds that key characteristics of retail banking in Australia have stark implications for the level of rivalry and innovation in the banking sector, and the welfare of retail banking consumers. As a consequence, the report recommends that the four pillars policy be abolished on the basis that it is a policy whose time has gone – a position that is at odds with the view of the Financial System Inquiry. The report also examines consumer switching costs and crowd equity funding. Bio: Dr Rob Nicholls is a lecturer in business law at the UNSW Business School and is a research fellow at the Centre for Law, Markets and Regulation and a visiting fellow at UTS Sydney Law. His research interests encompass competition law and policy as well as the regulation of networked industries and the financial services sector. Rob has had a thirty-year career concentrating on competition, regulation and governance, particularly in networked industries.