April 20, 2023

UOW expert commentary: Dr Paul Mazzola on RBA review

UOW expert wants RBA decision making processes to be more transparent

Dr Paul Mazzola says he is not surprised by the findings of the RBA review. He says the Government is leaning towards creating an RBA board with more representatives who understand the economics behind monetary policy and the ramifications and complexity of setting cash rate targets.

“I’m not surprised by this direction because we’re following what already exists in other jurisdictions similar to ours like in the US and UK,” Dr Mazzola said.

Dr Mazzola believes a new board will lead to more robust discussion around the economics and analysis that’s provided to the RBA board.

“The granularity of the discussion and the quality of the discussion will be improved,” Dr Mazzola said.

“There will also be people around the table that will be able to challenge the governor and the governor’s point of view.”

Dr Mazzola says he’s hoping to see more transparency around how decisions are made by the RBA.

“I'm hoping to see in this report some mechanism for more transparency as to how the decisions are made.

“We we are blessed with the minutes of the board meeting following the actual interest rate decisions, but 
we're never really informed as to how those decisions come about in their debates at the board meeting.”

Dr Mazzola is a Lecturer in banking and finance in the School of Business. He has more than 25 years’ banking and finance experience in the Australian, European and Asian Pacific markets. He is the author of Countdown to the Global Financial Crisis: A Story of Power and Greed.

UOW academics exercise academic freedom by providing expert commentary, opinion and analysis on a range of ongoing social issues and current affairs. This expert commentary reflects the views of those individual academics and does not necessarily reflect the views or policy positions of the University of Wollongong.