A proposal to “break up the banks” is being touted by the Greens, as the party looks to build on the anti-bank sentiment emanating from scathing royal commission revelations.  

In a plan to make “banks become banks again,” Greens leader Richard Di Natale wants to separate retail and investment banking, in a seismic plan that bears uncanny resemblance to America’s Glass-Steagall legislation.

Financial service firms would only be allowed to perform one of four different key functions under the plan: taking deposits and lending, asset management and superannuation, insurance, or investment banking.

But Terry McCrann says the proposal is something that would throw the banking baby out with the bathwater. It’s a step too far, for the economic commentator.

“I don’t think we want to get carried away too far with the perception that it would be somehow a good idea to destroy the banks,” says McCrann.

“Fundamentally, we’ve been well served by the banks.”

Because of their ideological bent against big business and private enterprise, it isn’t a surprise that the Greens have capitalised on scathing royal commission findings to try and destabilise the banking status quo.

McCrann says some change should be welcome, but not an overhaul as radical as this.

“(It isn’t a good idea) to chop the banks up into very, very small pieces in ways that would make absolutely no sense in ensuring we get good financial services, home loans and commercial lending and all those things that we obviously need banks for.”

Click PLAY below for the full interview