The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) said on Monday that it is currently studying the revised proposal submitted by the National Australia Bank Ltd (NAB) for the acquisition of AXA Asia Pacific Holdings.

The ACCC said that it is now in the process of market consultation on NAB's intention to takeover AXA, which it opposed during the initial stage for fear that the deal would adversely affect competition on the investment platform segment of the industry.

Major of the competition watchdog's concern was the prospect of NAB ending up with full control of AXA's North investment platform, which the bank has offered to sell off in order to appease ACCC's utmost reservations.

In its statement, the regulatory body underscored its view that "AXA's North platform has the potential to provide a strong competitive constraint in this market, in the form of platform functionality and innovation, and is likely to be versatile in responding to future competing platform offerings."

However, as NAB pushed forward its new proposal of planned divestiture for the North platform, the ACCC said that it is currently soliciting "views from market participants to assist its consideration of the undertakings and of IOOF as a proposed purchaser of the divestiture business.

The regulatory agency added that while it is studying the revisions in the NAB proposal, it would also "determine whether the proposed divestiture would be likely to alleviate the ACCC's competition concerns."

The ACCC said that they would entertain submissions on NAB's revised proposal until August 23 as it announced that the final decision on whether the undertakings would be accepted or rejected should be released by September 9.