Australian Banking & Finance articles from January 2002

Australian Banking & Finance archives from January 2002

Time for decisive action from executives.(Brief Article)
January 31, 2002... TO BE SUCCESSFUL AND EVEN survive in the next 12 months, financial services firms must be bold and undergo a radical change of their strategies and operations. A shaky global economy and intense competitive pressures will force banks and...

Major banks get poor report card.(Brief Article)
January 31, 2002... AS THE AUSTRALIAN CREDIT CARD market braces for its biggest-ever upheaval, a new study has found that none of the nation's big domestic banks are top tier, world-class cards issuers. ANZ and NAB are ranked as third-tier players on a global...

Bendigo's online share link.(T.D. Waterhouse )(Brief Article)
January 31, 2002... BENDIGO BANK HAS FORMED A STRATEGIC ALLIANCE WITH stockbroker T.D. Waterhouse to offer online broking services to the Victorian-based regional bank's customers. "There is already a very strong demand indicated for online share trading...

IT spending tipped to fall. (Current Account).(Brief Article)
January 31, 2002... RETAIL FINANCIAL SERVICES institutions globally will spend $US33.8 billion in 2002 on strategic technology initiatives, down from last year's estimate for 2001 of $US36 billion, according to Meridien Research. "Clearly, the year 2001...

Banking world. (Current Account).(Brief Article)
January 31, 2002... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Caption: An advertisement for the Argentine magazine Veintitres, bearing the word "devalued" and a photograph of President Eduardo Duhalde, is affixed to the side of a newsstand in Buenos Aires, Argentina. Duhalde...

CBA embarks on big internal restructure. (Current Account).(Brief Article)
January 31, 2002... THE CBA HAS CREATED FOUR NEW divisions in an internal restructure to focus on its money management business. Michael Ullmer was named head of institutional and business services. He has been replaced as head of financial and risk management...

Market comfortable with AMP warning. (Current Account).(Brief Article)
January 31, 2002... AMP EXPECTS TO MAKE A LOSS on stock investments in 2001 after UK equity markets tumbled. Given the levels of international investment markets at December 31, AMP said it expects "marginally negative" investment income during the 12 months....

Bank of Queensland launches phone bank. (Current Account).(Brief Article)
January 31, 2002... BANK OF QUEENSLAND HAS launched its new telephone banking system, EasyPhone Banking. EasyPhone Banking is a unique voice-recognition phone banking system and managing director David Liddy said it had been introduced to offer customers...

Citistreet offers admin services in Australia. (Current Account).(Brief Article)
January 31, 2002... CITISTREET, A VENTURE BETWEEN Citigroup Inc and State Street Corp, is offering investment and administration services to Australian pension funds in its first move to expand outside the US. CitiStreet, formed in April 2000, said its...

Banking professionals outskill IT industry: banking professionals are earning higher salaries as they become more skilled than their counterparts in the IT industry. This is borne out in the latest report of the Jonathan Wren Trend Index for 2001, a study conducted by Gottliebsen Research and commissioned by specialist financial recruiters, Jonathan Wren. (News).(Brief Article)
January 31, 2002... The Jonathan Wren Trend Index records every accounting and banking position, skill and salary advertised in the main employment media during the 00/01 financial year. The study uses factual data to create a relative analysis of changes in...

2IC. (News).(Commonwealth Bank of Australia taps Michael Ullmer)(Brief Article)
January 31, 2002... MICHAEL ULLMER - Head of Institutional and Business Services, Commonwealth Bank of Australia MICHAEL ULLMER JOINED THE Commonwealth Bank in 1997. Prior to joining the bank he was with Coopers & Lybrand as Chairman of its Australasian...

Start planning for Basel II now. (News).(Brief Article)
January 31, 2002... ALTHOUGH THE COMMENCEMENT of Basel II is scheduled for 2005, it is essential that Australia's banks, building societies and credit unions start planning and implementing procedures now to avoid establishing a competitive disadvantage, according...

AB&F funds industry initiative. (News).(Brief Article)
January 31, 2002... AUSTRALIAN BANKING & FINANCE newsmagazine is launching an exciting new initiative this year focusing on the growing funds management sector. The inaugural 2002 Australian Banking & Finance Managed Funds and Markets Forum and Funds...

Viewpoint: three respected industry figures have their say. (News).(credit card market)(Brief Article)
January 31, 2002... The Reserve Bank's proposed reforms to the credit card market allowing non-financial institutions access to the market has met with a negative reaction from the banking industry. David Bell, chief executive, Australian Bankers Association...

Wide Bay produces the best returns for investors. (News).(Brief Article)
January 31, 2002... FOR THE BEST RETURN ON Australian bank stocks last year, investors had to look beyond the nation's largest lenders -- far beyond them. Wide Bay Capricorn Building Society, a regional mortgage tender capitalised at just $113 million, is...

Attracting investors to capital markets. (News).(Brief Article)
January 31, 2002... THE GROWTH IN THE USE OF hybrid equity instruments, such as resetting preference shares, has been one of the most noticeable trends in the Australian capital markets in the past year. Companies such as Coles Myer, St George Bank, Amcor and...

The critical question. (News).(Brief Article)
January 31, 2002... Q: What are your acquisition plans in the UK? "Small UK acquisitions are a possibility. But we are not going to throw a truckload of cash at an acquisition if the numbers don't stack up. If the numbers don't work, there's no deal...

Hard work begins to pay off at Axa: Axa's Australian and New Zealand operations turned in vastly improved results in the latest year with operating profit surging from $106 million to $207 million, helped by a doubling in returns from health activities. Overall operating profit for the year was 47% higher at $362 million. Chief executive Les Owen explains the domestic performance. (executive suite).(Brief Article)
January 31, 2002... "THE FACT THAT WE WERE ABLE TO achieve significant improvements in operating performance in each of the funds management, risk and health businesses in Australia and New Zealand signals that all the hard work we have done in strategically...

Buoyant mortgage and consumer markets underpin regional banks: despite growing global pressures and an increasingly competitive domestic banking market, the financial performance of Australia's regional banks was solid during fiscal 2001. (News).
January 31, 2002... THIS HIGHLIGHTS THE RESILIENCE of the Australian economy and credit environment, and the sector's focus on the buoyant mortgage lending and consumer banking markets. A report on the regionals by Peter Sikora, associate director, financial...

Digital signatures need a reality check. (News).(Brief Article)
January 31, 2002... ONLY A FEW TRUSTED THIRD-party providers will overcome the legal and technological issues needed to bring digital signatures to the B2B market. Four e-commerce pillars are supported by the trusted third-party infrastructure: privacy,...

Tough times ahead for St George. (News).(bank may be acquired)(Brief Article)
January 31, 2002... THE FATE OF AUSTRALIA'S FIFTH largest bank St George looks set to be decided in 2002 after its 10% ownership cap expires, offering a challenging debut for new chief Gail Kelly and more rewards for shareholders. Kelly joined St George on...

Defining the customer. (News).(Brief Article)
January 31, 2002... FINANCIAL SERVICES INSTITUTIONS have spent large volumes of money to try to discover why customers are no longer excited by the value proposition of their products and service. Yet the answer is simply defined by the customer mindset they may...

Non-conforming loan products win support. (News).(Pepper Homeloans)(Brief Article)
January 31, 2002... THERE IS AN EMERGING TREND OF risk-adjusted pricing for mortgages in the Australian home loan industry that is set to have a dramatic impact on the finance sector in 2002. At one end of the spectrum, the banks offer some pricing for risk...

Mobilising your salesforce. (News).(technology for the insurance industry)(Brief Article)
January 31, 2002... TECHNOLOGY VENDORS are vying to meet the insurance industry's mobilisation needs. As the insurance industry begins to mobilise its salesforce, it is faced with a plethora of choices in the wireless industry, including service providers,...

ATM flexibility to improve with Windows XP system. (Special Feature - ATM Technologies).(Brief Article)
January 31, 2002... FOR THE MAJORITY OF BANK customers, the most frequent interaction with their bank occurs via an ATM. These machines, now into their third decade of use in Australia, are invaluable for consumers, despite frequent gripes about increased...

Security under attack. (Special Feature - ATM Technologies).(guarding ATMs)(Brief Article)
January 31, 2002... THE AUSTRALIAN BANKERS Association has poured cold water on government proposals to improve safety at automatic teller machines, saying cameras and security guards would be very expensive. "Certainly, cameras aren't the answer to...

Embracing e-business transformation. (New Economy Banker).(Brief Article)
January 31, 2002... AFTER STRONG PERFORMANCES in 2001, Australia's major financial institutions are now looking to repeat those successes in 2002. Working with them in that task will be the technology enablers, those companies who are assisting the banks to...

Westpac snares Coomer. (New Economy Banker).(Michael Coomer)(Brief Article)
January 31, 2002... WESTPAC HAS SECURED THE services of the former CIO of NAB, Michael Coomer as group executive, e-IT and operations. After leaving NAB at the end of 2000, Coomer has been a director at Adacol, a public IT company, and a number of private...

Bank Qld begins IT talks. (New Economy Banker).(Bank of Queensland may contract with EDS)(Brief Article)
January 31, 2002... BANK OF QUEENSLAND HAS begun contract negotiations with EDS following its evaluation of EDS' outsourcing proposal. The 10-year agreement is expected to yield the bank about $100 million savings on prospective costs. The bank requested EDS...

Bendigo's online portal. (New Economy Banker).(Brief Article)
January 31, 2002... BENDIGO BANK CONTINUES TO bring technological advances to regional Australia with its latest initiative, an online financial portal, to be launched in late January. The portal which follows the regionally-based bank's acquisition of a 30...

Online audiences surge. (the Nielsen/netRatings report).(online banking statistics)(Brief Article)
January 31, 2002... `OUTPERFORM' WAS THE KEY word describing the online banking and finance index for the last half of 2001 when the sector sat well above the performance of the general online market. By December, the total online banking and finance sector...

IT Services Directory - 2002.(Brief Article)
January 31, 2002... IT SERVICES DIRECTORY - 2002 COMPANY NAME: Acxiom CONTACT NAME: Dennis Samuel HEAD OFFICE, AUSTRALIA: Exchange House, 10 Bridge Street, Sydney NSW POSTCODE: 2000 TELEPHONE: ...

RESI gets serious in the mortgage game. (Behind The Screens).(Brief Article)
January 31, 2002... NON-BANK LENDER RESI Mortgage Corporation is expecting a big year, having just moved into a new corporate office which was officially opened by Sydney City Councillor and former Wallabies Captain Nick Farr-Jones. Sixteen years after...

MasterCard's CEO search. (Behind The Screens).(Brief Article)
January 31, 2002... MASTERCARD'S AUSTRALIAN chief John Verco caught the cards group by surprise just before Christmas by handing in his resignation. Verco headed MasterCard's Australian and New Zealand operations for the past four years and offered the usual...

Westpac focuses on brand. (Behind The Screens).(Brief Article)
January 31, 2002... WESTPAC HAS STARTED THE NEW year keen to develop its brand. It has moved its $20 million-plus television and brand advertising account from The Campaign Palace to Singleton Ogilvy & Mather. Campaign Palace, of course, was responsible...

Kelly provides creative copy. (Behind The Screens).(Gail Kelly as the new chief executive of St George Bank)(Brief Article)
January 31, 2002... HEADLINE WRITERS AT THE MAJOR newspapers had a field day last month with the announcement of Gail Kelly as the new chief executive of St George Bank. With the obvious reference to our best-known bank robber Ned Kelly, The Australian's...