Wayne Swan is correct is chastising the ANZ for their proposed rate increase. The banks are taking advantage of their privileged position in the way that new money is created in Australia. Their competitors are the ones who have to pay more for money. The big banks are able to create money to loan without going to the international market and do NOT pay more for money for new loans let alone more money for existing loans. Swan can give the same privilege to competitors. The big banks are raising their prices because they can, not because competitive pressures force them. The banks are abusing their position and should lose them because they are putting their own profits before the community interests. It is the community who gives them their privileges and if they abuse their rights the community should act in its own defense and widen the privilege to create new loans without backing deposits to other institutions.