Australian Banking & Finance articles from December 2002

Australian Banking & Finance archives from December 2002

Banks shift revenue focus.
December 18, 2002... THE AUSTRALIAN BANKING SECTOR is preparing to increase its focus on business lending and other fee-income generating areas following forecasts the home lending market will slump by as much as $35 billion next year. A boom in the housing...

Major lenders prepare for housing downturn: Australian Banking & Finance newsmagazine this month held a panel discussion luncheon featuring some of the leading financial executives in Australia. They all agreed the housing market would lose momentum in the next year.(Brief Article)
December 18, 2002... John McFarlane, ANZ Bank: "I agree that there will be a drop in demand for mortgages. But it is interesting our economists are still predicting that house prices are going to rise in the next year. But I think if you take the total country over...

Mortgage Choice [First Financial Services of America] posts record annual profit. (Current Account).(Brief Article)
December 18, 2002... MORTGAGE BROKER MORTGAGE Choice has posted a record profit before tax of $5.2 million for the year to June 30. The company has declared a maiden dividend of 3c a share. Chief executive Tony Crossley said the company's successful...

Banks and insurers face credit threat. (Current Account).(Brief Article)
December 18, 2002... AUSTRALIAN BANKS AND insurers face a "less favourable" credit rating outlook because of the risk of slowing economic growth and investment market volatility, says Standard & Poor's. The emergence of a "muted economic picture or an...

Banking world. (Current Account).(Brief Article)
December 18, 2002... HONG KONG: Citibank is exiting Hong Kong's mortgage business as fierce competition squeezes profit margins, a Hong Kong newspaper said. The Chinese-language Apple Daily newspaper quoted a senior executive as saying the move was also due to the...

Concerns grow on risk measurement tools. (Current Account).
December 18, 2002... FINANCIAL INSTITUTIONS ARE developing risk management frameworks at a group level, but are struggling to effectively implement those frameworks with the appropriate toots and processes, reveals a global survey by PricewaterhouseCoopers. ...

IOOF delays plan for market listing. (Current Account).(Brief Article)
December 18, 2002... FINANCIAL SERVICES GROUP IOOF said difficult market conditions would prevent it listing in the immediate future, but it intended to publicly list by July 2004. IOOF, which has $3.9 billion in funds under management, completed its...

AIMS establishes $1bn funding deal. (Current Account).(Brief Article)
December 18, 2002... AIMS HOME LOANS, A CLOSELY held non-bank mortgage lender, has set up a new funding program with St George Bank to help it finance new home loans. Sydney-based Aims plans to sell as much as $1 billion of mortgage-backed bonds next year,...

On the record. (Current Account).(Financial industry quotations.)
December 18, 2002... "I am definitely not a caretaker CEO." AMP CHIEF ANDREW MOHL, DEMONSTRATING HIS COMMITMENT TO LONG-TERM PERFORMANCE TARGETS SET BY THE BOARD. "Everybody is going to play their strengths and find market positions which are defensible....

Liddy creates `Virgin Blue' of banking. (News).(David Liddy of the Bank of Queensland.)
December 18, 2002... THE OPENING OF BANK OF Queensland's 100th branch by Queensland Premier Peter Beattie recently may not have grabbed national headlines, but its significance did not go unnoticed in the banking industry. Coming shortly after the bank posted a...

Self-service technology allows product offerings to the unbanked. (News).
December 18, 2002... SELF-SERVICE TECHNOLOGY IS enabling a new generation of product offerings by banks and other mainstream financial, institutions for the unbanked. A new report from Celent Communications, ATMs: Self-Service for the Unbanked, predicts that...

ANZ refunds $31,000 for exceeding service promise. (News).(Customer Charter Annual Report)(Brief Article)
December 18, 2002... ANZ HAS RELEASED ITS FIRST Customer Charter Annual Report providing a detailed review of its performance against the 10 service promises it made to customers. Key points in the 2002 Customer Charter Annual Report include: * A strong...

MasterCard moves to cut credit card fraud. (News).
December 18, 2002... MASTERCARD WILL TRY TO reduce the incidence of credit card fraud through skimming by making use of technology found in most current cards in the interim before smart card EMV chips are introduced internationally. The encoding on magnetic...

Get smart. (Financial Services).(debit, credit card skimming trends in Australia, but smart cards can help)
December 18, 2002... OVER THE PAST FEW MONTHS, credit and debit card skimming has reared its ugly head across Australia. In a recent raid, fraudsters netted an estimated $300,000 by recording customers PIN and card details and accessing their savings accounts...

ASIC intervention ensures entitlements of employees. (denovan's law).(case involving Coogi Group, employees)
December 18, 2002... A SEPTEMBER 2002 DECISION OF the Federal Court has highlighted the role that ASIC can play in intervening under the Corporations Act to ensure employee entitlements are not sacrificed. In McCluskey v Karagiozis, the administrators sought...

Market leadership: shaping the future of money in Asia/Pacific. (Advertorial).(interview with Master Card Asia/Pacific president, Andre Sekulic)(Interview)
December 18, 2002... As Asia/Pacific economies begin to rebound and strengthen, many industries face numerous challenges and changes. One of the industries poised at the precipice of these challenges, and facing perhaps the greatest changes to its core business...

Banks construct bridges to customers, but where next? (examining the customer).(marketing trends)
December 18, 2002... WITH SO MANY CHANGES IN THE wind occurring in the banking and finance industry, almost every financial services organisation is probably considering what their next step forward will be in terms of building relationships with their best...

SunGard enhances customer satisfaction. (News).(John Wilson is new Asia Pacific president)
December 18, 2002... SUNGARD WILL MAXIMISE ITS strength in the Asia Pacific region, deepen local contacts and provide best-of-breed integrated solutions to individual customers under its new president for Asia Pacific, John Wilson. SunGard, which expanded its...

Challenges ahead in ensuring consistent levels of service. (credit union comment).(call for uniform regulations for mortgage brokers)
December 18, 2002... A RECENT EDITION OF AUSTRALIAN Banking & Finance highlighted the call for national uniform legislation for mortgage brokers, ethical guidelines and an examination of mortgage broking by the Australian Securities and Investments Commission...

Business as usual at Omgeo as GSTPA dissolves. (STP News).(Global Straight Through Processing Association)
December 18, 2002... WHEN OMGEO MANAGING Director for Industry Relations Lee Cutrone spoke at the Asian STP Forum in Singapore in early November he could have had little idea that just two weeks later his chief rival the Global, Straight Through Processing...

Outsourcing entering the trader's middle office: the componentisation of trade order management systems is on the rise, and existing providers may get a surprise if they don't shift away from a traditional technology focus towards a business case-driven solution Merrill Lynch's Sanjay Vatsa. (STP News).(management trends)
December 18, 2002... WHY OUTSOURCE THEN? Investment managers' core competency is not to build and maintain technology but to support the investment decision-making process. "A lot of vendors are evolving as we speak, and even existing vendors are looking...

ANZ Bank chief John McFarlane is getting annoyed at all the attention being paid to his group's underweight position in funds management. (behind the screens).(Brief Article)
December 18, 2002... ANZ Bank chief John McFarlane is getting annoyed at all the attention being paid to his group's underweight position in funds management. He told a panel discussion hosted by this magazine early this month that the media seemed infatuated with...

Aussie John Symond was another panel member with a gripe--please don't call him a banker. (behind the screens).(Brief Article)
December 18, 2002... Aussie John Symond was another panel member with a gripe--please don't call him a banker. (The luncheon was called Best Bankers Panel as it is a spin-off from our annual banking awards). Even though his Aussie Home Loans group is now broking...

One of this country's sharpest banking minds, Rahout Chowdry, has been appointed financial services leader at PricewaterhouseCoopers. (behind the screens).(Brief Article)
December 18, 2002... One of this country's sharpest banking minds, Rahout Chowdry, has been appointed financial services leader at PricewaterhouseCoopers. He brings a wealth of industry experience and knowledge to the role, with a 20 year background advising...

So Axa chief Les Owen has had his contract extended another two years by the board. (behind the screens).(Brief Article)
December 18, 2002... So Axa chief Les Owen has had his contract extended another two years by the board. Chairman Rick Allert says he is pleased with the progress of the company. Pity shareholders don't share that view. Axa shares have gone and appear to be going...

Online shopping flounders. (the Nielsen netRatings report).(a few e-retailers dominate e-commerce growth)
December 18, 2002... FAR FROM OPERATING IN A vacuum, online banking exists within a medium experiencing its fair share of disappointing returns and radical change. Issues such as the broader e-commerce question have as much relevance to the future of online...