The Australian banking industry is competitive enough, according to Commonwealth Bank of Australia (CBA) chief executive Ralph Norris, who testified before the Senate inquiry on banking competition that enough players are currently engaged in the market.

Norris said that with more than a hundred financial service providers besting its out in the country's banking system, competition is not wanting in the industry, now the focus of government-initiated reforms that aim to encourage the entry of more players to be pitted against the four pillars alleged monopoly.

Commonwealth Bank is part of that vaunted industry domination, along with Westpac, Australia & New Zealand Banking Group (ANZ) and National Australia Bank (NAB), which together amassed whopping billon-dollar earnings this year that caught the attention of the Australian public.

Banking consumers voiced out their exasperations on the industry's questionable practices of exorbitant banking charges, mortgage exit fees and higher interest rates that even exceeded the levels announced by the Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA).

The federal government is now attempting to turn the tide by introducing reform measures it believes would tear down the big four's monopoly, end price signalling and enhance the existing competition in the industry.

Yet Norris told the Senate committee that solid competition already prevailing in the sector led to industry price war that tends to favour the banking public as he stressed that "customers are reaping the benefits of a price war for deposits by getting higher returns on their savings."

CBA, according to Norris, is welcome to the idea of sensible government policy that guns to better the competition situation of the industry but he reminded that balancing the reforms approach is crucial as he noted that "there is a trade-off between financial stability and competition."

Commonwealth Bank is under the impression that too much competition would only lead to more complex issues than what the sector has bargained for, pointing out that the US banking industry is espousing such a strategy yet many banks are still collapsing.

Although cautious of the banking reforms package set to be unleashed by the federal government, Norris said that in the end the proposals' positive impact would be adjudged by their delivered results.

The package's provision for easier funding access would definitely prop up the chances of small players in offering competition within the industry, Norris admitted, but its actual effects on pushing for more competition remains to be seen.