The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission broke new ground yesterday when it began its inquiry into Westpac's proposed acquisition of St George Bank. It is asking customers what they think of the merger.The ACCC has put business and retail customer surveys on its website. An ACCC press release said: "In addition to seeking information about their banking habits the surveys provide an opportunity for banking customers to express their views on the proposed acquisitions."The survey … will be used to inform the ACCC of particular markets or issues that may require further investigation."ACCC chairman Graeme Samuel said: "In other areas we have a degree of expertise that we do not have with banking takeovers. "For example, over the years we have come to know what influences consumers to go from one supermarket to another. There have not been a lot of banking mergers. "This is an attempt to deal with the issue of consumer and business trends and attitudes in banking and add that to the array of stakeholder views."We have yet to see how useful it is."The questionnaires ask respondents which institutions they bank with and what services they use with each institution. It asks them to give reasons for their choice of provider, whether they have a single or multiple providers and why. It asks how long they have been with their providers.It asks how often they go to branches and ATMs and what services they use. It wants to know if they have changed provider in the past 12 months. And it wants to know what impact they would feel as a result of a Westpac-St George merger and whether such effects as higher fees or a deterioration in service levels would cause them to switch to another provider.The ACCC has set a deadline of June 23 for responses. The commission hopes to work out its view of Westpac's proposed takeover of St George by the end of July.