Commerce Commission finds no evidence of cartel behaviour in Net-Zero Banking Alliance

Monday, 21 July 2025

A Commerce Commission investigation into bank membership of the United Nations’ Net Zero Banking Alliance has turned up no evidence of cartel behaviour.

Federated Farmers complained to the commission about bank membership of the Net Zero Banking Alliance claiming it was resulting in what it said looked like co-ordinated market effects.

Members of the alliance promise to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from their lending and investment portfolios to align with pathways to net-zero by 2050 or sooner.

But Federated Farmers was worried that was resulting in the withdrawal of lending from rural communities, and pressure being put on farmers.

BNZ, ANZ, Westpac and Rabobank are members of the Net Zero Banking Alliance. ASB is not a member of the alliance, but its parent company, Commonwealth Bank of Australia, is.

But after investigating, the commission said it had found no evidence to support Federated Farmers’ complaint.

Vanessa Horne, the commission’s general manager for competition, fair trading and credit, said: “We found no evidence of unlawful co-ordination between the banks or with the Net-Zero Banking Alliance, either relating to the banks joining or in meeting their obligations under this alliance.”

The commission would be taking no further action.

During Parliament’s banking inquiry last year, banks’ carbon targets for farmers became a fraught issue, especially as several New Zealand banks had tougher emissions reduction targets for New Zealand farmers than their Australian parent banks had set for Australian farmers.

MPs were also concerned that emissions reduction ambitions may have played a role in big banks’ preference for lending to households to buy urban homes, than lending to farmers, which has seen home lending expand and rural lending stagnate.