The Australian Bankers' Association (ABA) said the current debate about banking is long on rhetoric but short on facts. The comments come while Australia's top officials continue to pressure the country's four major banks to ease interest rates as consumers bear the brunt of higher financial service fees on their loans and mortgage debts.

Steven Münchenberg, Chief Executive of the ABA, said: "We welcome a vigorous debate about banking in Australia, but that debate must be based on fact, not just blind assertion. Calls for ever greater levels of costly regulation are being based on assertions that there is no competition in banking, yet there is no evidence to support those claims."

"Those politicians, interest groups and unions calling for more and more costly regulation need to produce the evidence that there is insufficient competition. Claims of massive falls in competition make fine rhetoric, but a proper debate on banking needs to be based on the facts, not misguided myths."

"Banks operate in a competitive set of markets. We welcome debate on sensible measures to further enhance competition in the banking sector to improve the outcomes for customers, but to punish with costly regulation is counter-productive."

Countering the political claims that there is of a lack of competition, the ABA said "there are 111 lenders offering 508 mortgage products, according to the Cannex list on its website."

On the argument banks' profits are excessive, the ABA said "bank profits, as measured by the standard return on equity indicator, are lower today than they were in the 1980s, and well down on pre-global financial crisis levels. This is why bank analysts have been calling on banks to pass on higher funding costs."