ACCC Chair Gina Cass-Gottlieb has highlighted the challenges facing financial institutions amid declining public trust and rapid technological disruption, addressing the Australian Bankers’ Association conference on the regulator’s evolving role in protecting consumers and promoting competition.

Speaking against the backdrop of the 2025 Edelman Trust Barometer findings, Cass-Gottlieb noted that 62% of Australian respondents reported moderate or high grievance levels, believing the system favours the privileged while government and business serve only a select few.

The survey of over 33,000 people across 28 countries revealed increasing fear among Australians that globalisation, economic pressures, and technology threaten job security.

“When trust collapses, with it goes the confidence to engage and the capacity to believe that meaningful change is possible,” Cass-Gottlieb told the conference, emphasising that trust underpins the social contract, ensuring markets function and economies flourish.

The ACCC’s role has expanded significantly beyond traditional competition enforcement to include new regulatory and digital service delivery functions.

Key initiatives include oversight of the National Anti-Scam Centre, which reported encouraging initial success with scam reports and losses declining 18% and 26% respectively in 2024 compared to 2023.

The upcoming Scam Prevention Framework will establish consistent and enforceable obligations for banks, telecommunications providers, and digital platforms, with mandatory scam intelligence sharing requirements.

Cass-Gottlieb emphasised the need for “right-fit regulation” that balances consumer outcomes with business burden, encouraging continued industry engagement in Treasury’s consultation process.

Digital infrastructure development represents another expanding ACCC responsibility, including oversight of the Consumer Data Right and Digital Identity systems.

The CDR now serves 530,000 consumers with an underlying infrastructure handling increasing API traffic while maintaining fast response times, though uptake has been more gradual than expected.

The regulator is focusing on making CDR compliance more proportionate and efficient while supporting high-value use cases in consumer finance and lending.

Changes include streamlining consent arrangements, removing data sharing requirements for certain niche products, and reducing data retention periods.

Digital ID systems continue expanding, with myGovID now serving over 10 million Australian users accessing more than 230 government services.

New legislation supports phased expansion to state and territory government services and eventual private sector inclusion, with emphasis on ensuring consumer choice between government and private digital identity providers.

Cass-Gottlieb highlighted competition concerns regarding digital platforms, citing the ACCC’s five-year Digital Platform Services Inquiry finding that Apple and Google possess significant market power in mobile operating systems and app distribution.

This creates risks of anti-competitive tying of in-app payment systems and denial of interoperability needed for payment provider innovation.

The regulator has recommended additional regulatory scrutiny for critical intermediary digital platforms, working with Treasury on proportionate responses, including a proposed digital competition regime with targeted service-specific obligations for designated platforms.

“Competition in financial services increasingly depends on competition in the digital infrastructure behind it,” Cass-Gottlieb stated, noting regulatory frameworks must evolve to preserve innovation diversity, reduce systemic risks, and ensure fair treatment for businesses and consumers.

Despite digital payment growth, cash remains essential for economic inclusion and system resilience during power outages, natural disasters, or digital failures.

The ACCC recently authorised the Australian Bankers’ Association coordination of cash-in-transit sustainability measures while ensuring transparency and effectiveness through reporting conditions.

Sustainability collaborations have increased significantly, with one in three 2024 authorisation applications considering environmental benefits compared to one in four in 2023.

Recent authorisations include allowing the Australian Sustainable Finance Institute to collaborate on sustainable finance initiatives, demonstrating that competition law need not barrier environmental collaborations delivering net public benefit.

The ACCC issued detailed guidance for businesses seeking sustainability collaborations and maintains an open-door policy for discussing available competition law exemption processes.

Cass-Gottlieb emphasised the regulator’s commitment to forward-looking, evidence-based approaches while maintaining high performance and transparency standards.

“Trust in institutions and government is not a given. But it can be earned through collaboration, transparency, and a shared commitment to outcomes that benefit all Australians,” she concluded, highlighting the importance of proportionate, risk-based regulatory responses in an environment of persistent disruption.