Banks silent ahead of price-gouging inquiry

The big four Australian-owned banks have snubbed the Parliamentary inquiry into their alleged price-gouging, meaning it will sit without input from its main targets.

Labour finance spokesman David Cunliffe said he received four similarly worded thanks-but-no-thanks letters from ANZ-National, Westpac, ASB and BNZ shortly before yesterday's deadline for submissions.

There was a chance the banks would have taken the opportunity to participate in this week's inquiry to justify their profits and interest rate margins.

Mr Cunliffe said he was disappointed the banks were forgoing "the chance to tell their own story".

"If they had a good story and good data they should put it before the inquiry so we can make a fact-based judgment."

Mr Cunliffe said the snubbing by the banks did not mean the inquiry was "nobbled". He said there were still a number of useful submissions and a lot of publicly available data.

The inquiry has been set up by Opposition political parties - Labour, Greens and the Progressives - after Government MPs blocked attempts to set up an official inquiry.

It follows concerns from the Reserve Bank that the major Australian-owned banks have set floating mortgage rates as much as a percentage point too high, costing Kiwis millions of dollars in extra interest payments each week.

Mr Cunliffe said the Reserve Bank was not going to be involved either, although it had pointed the inquiry's MPs to information on its website.

He said Kiwibank's chief executive Sam Knowles would be appearing.

About 40 submissions had been received from banking customers, interest groups and lobby groups.

The public can attend the inquiry, which sits this Wednesday and Thursday at Parliament.