Emerging reports pointed to a possibility that Australia's major banks are inching their way to some sort of reforms that would see the lowering of mortgage exit fess required from clients wanting to change their loan provider.

The speculations swirled as the debate rages on exorbitant banking fees and with government regulators moving closer to crack down on unpopular banking fees, analysts said that the banking sector could move ahead and adjust the fees they impose to placate both the federal government and the Australian public.

With threats of impending law suits expected to rise from the controversial banking fees, analysts said banks may have to implement significant adjustments on the $900 they usually demand from borrowers applying for a switch on their home loan providers within the initial four years of the loan agreement.

As more public attention is attracted by the banking debate, the federal government revealed over the weekend that it would enforce new regulations to push down banking fees, a move characterised by Prime Minister Julia Gillard as a way to encourage a healthier competition in the banking industry.

Ms Gillard added that the new banking measures would ensure that unfair mortgage exit fees would be neutralised and unshackle bank clients from one-sided banking deals, effectively empowering them to exercise more options.

The new measures, however, could prove ineffective without the presence of more competition in the banking sector, according to opposition leader Tony Abbot.

Mr Abbot maintained that the reforms suggested by the federal government have been long delayed, stressing at the same time that "unless the banks are truly competing, making it easier to change from one identical loan to another identical loan isn't necessarily such a great outcome."

In pursuit of its campaign to institute banking reforms, the Coalition announced last week that it would push for a private members' bill that seeks further empowerment of the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) in checking anti-competitive banking policies in the industry, which opposition treasury spokesman Joe Hockey is set to file once the parliament resumes its session on November 15.

Calls for the federal government to check on rising interest rates being imposed by major banks snowballed when the Commonwealth Bank of Australia (CBA) decided to lift its rates by 45 basis points following the Reserve Bank of Australia's (RBA) move to push up the cash rate from 4.5 percent to 4.75 percent in November.

CBA's controversial rates lift stirred the banking debates as Westpac, ANZ and NAB were expected to follow suit and announce their own share of increase rates this week.

Reports also circulated that the four major banks were actively lobbying for changes on the country's tax laws, arguing that they needed to be spared from millions more of taxes in light of the imminent imposition of new global capital and liquidity requirements in the industry.

The proposal, however, earned the ire of the Consumer Action Law Centre which countered that the new rules were meant to deliver more benefits to consumers and its was distasteful on the part of the major banks to dodge the costs by pushing forward for self-serving tax cuts.