Australian Banking & Finance articles from January 2003

Australian Banking & Finance archives from January 2003

Top bankers cautious.
January 31, 2003... GLOBAL ECONOMIC UNCERTAINTY continues to weigh heavily on investment banks in Australia, which in 2002, experienced one of their toughest years on record with large-scale retrenchments and unsatisfactory results. According to the heads of...

Restoring confidence a key challenge for securities firms.
January 31, 2003... BOOSTING CONFIDENCE IN THE industry and gaining enterprise efficiency are the pressing issues for the investment banking and securities industry in 2003, according to Deloitte & Touche. At the outset, the industry will be addressing the...

S&P upgrades NAB outlook to stable. (Current Account).(Brief Article)
January 31, 2003... STANDARD & POOR'S HAS changed the outlook for National Australia Bank to stable from negative. The revision reflects The National's good financial performance in 2002, which is anticipated to be sustainable in the short to medium term. ...

Mortgage choice lifts home loan approvals. (Current Account).(Brief Article)
January 31, 2003... DESPITE RECENT REPORTS ON A slowing housing market, mortgage broker Mortgage Choice has reported an 18% increase in housing loan approvals for the December quarter 2002 compared to the same period in 2001. Figures show an increase from $1.4...

Macquarie the top merger adviser. (Current Account).(Brief Article)
January 31, 2003... MACQUARIE BANK WAS Australia's leading mergers & acquisitions adviser during 2002. According to Thomson Financial's 2002 rankings of M&A advisers, for deals with any Australian involvement, Macquarie advised on 24 M&A announced deals...

Small business seeks competitive offerings. (Current Account).(Brief Article)
January 31, 2003... DOMINANT BANKING INSTITUTIONS hope that getting their wired small business customers to bank online makes banking more convenient for them, engenders loyalty and enhances opportunities to expand the relationship--but, according to a new study,...

On the record. (Current Account).
January 31, 2003... "The evidence that has been tendered by APRA and others is damning. They had all the legal powers they needed to act and they faired." LABOR'S FINANCE SPOKESMAN SENATOR SENATOR CONROY, CALLING FOR THE BOARD OF APRA TO BE REMOVED IN THE...

Gilbert aims to lift credit union profits; John Gilbert, the chief executive of CUSCAL, plans to deliver a commercially acceptable return to credit unions. (News).
January 31, 2003... He has explained this goal to both shareholders and staff and begun initiating the necessary changes. CUSCAL has been comprehensively restructured and its managers are moving to deliver the goods. "The historical underlying profit for...

Prompt approval the top concern for homebuyers. (News).
January 31, 2003... HOME LOAN BORROWERS REGARD a prompt approval turnaround as the No 1 consideration when selecting a loan and still value the personal contact throughout the home loan process highly. A survey by Mortgage Choice of its panel of 29 lending...

`Yes' Optus: Optus supports awards. (News).(Australian Banking & Finance newsmagazine Awards )(Brief Article)
January 31, 2003... Optus has agreed to continue its sponsorship of the Australian Banking & Finance newsmagazine Awards in 2003. Chief Operating Officer Paul O'Sullivan said the group was delighted to be involved in the Australian Banking & Finance Awards...

Finance industry urged to take up disclosure debate. (News).
January 31, 2003... Sixty per cent of financial institutions believe that trust in financial institutions has been eroded but remain uncertain about how best to improve their disclosure and governance standards, according to a study by PricewaterhouseCoopers. PwC...

Bendigo the top performer. (News).(Bendigo Bank was Australia's best-performing bank stock in 2002)(Brief Article)
January 31, 2003... Bendigo Bank was Australia's best-performing bank stock in 2002. Formed in Bendigo, Victoria, in 1858 to fund homes for gold miners, not far from where Ned Kelly and his outlaw gang robbed their first bank, the lender had just one branch until...

Viewpoint: two respected industry figures have their say. (News).(Rahoul Chowdry, PricewaterhouseCoopers; Peter Nash, Head of Financial Services, KPMG)
January 31, 2003... Q. What are the main challenges facing banks this year? Rahoul Chowdry, PricewaterhouseCoopers, Australian financial services reader "Each of the majors has expressed caution over the outlook for FY 03. Most earnings growth...

Online advertising surges. (News).
January 31, 2003... DESPITE EVIDENCE INDICATING a definite softness in the mortgage market, two clear trends are persisting: advertising by property owners and developers continues to grow while online activity in the real estate segment shows no sign of abating....

Packer seeks greater role in funds arena. (News).(Brief Article)
January 31, 2003... KERRY PACKER PLANS TO CREATE a $1 billion financial services group after his investment company launched a takeover for his part-owned fund management and life insurance interests, Challenger International. Challenger was created by Bill...

Axiss program promotes excellence in education. (News).(Brief Article)
January 31, 2003... A PARTNERSHIP BETWEEN industry and universities that promotes excellence in finance education and encourages outstanding students to pursue careers in financial services is calling for its third annual intake of participants. The Axiss...

Super funds increase web-based security. (News).(Brief Article)
January 31, 2003... SIGNIFICANT IMPROVEMENT IN security of information for web-based superannuation services has been made in the past year, according to the latest KPMG Public Offer Superannuation Fund Internet Survey. KPMG's third survey of fund internet...

How to secure the most from customer initiatives: more than 90% of companies are investing in customer-focused initiatives, but only half of them are getting business benefits. (News).
January 31, 2003... Why are these projects failing? New research from PA Consulting Group shows that whilst 86% of companies recognise that customer information is crucial to business success, more than half the companies surveyed are only partially realising...

Banks plan to exploit their knowledge base. (News).
January 31, 2003... AUSTRALIAN BANKS AND insurance companies are ahead of their European counterparts when it comes to planning knowledge management strategies, but they are behind in actual implementation. A study by Monash University and Fuji Xerox Australia...

Bank of Qld selects new IT system. (News).(Brief Article)
January 31, 2003... BANK OF QUEENSLAND AND its global services provider EDS have chosen Fiserv Australia to provide the bank's new core banking system. The multi-million dollar agreement was reached within the framework of Bank of Queensland's 10-year $480...

Self-service approach central to profitable business strategies. (Special Feature--ATM Buyers Guide).
January 31, 2003... MANY FINANCIAL INSTITUTIONS are now re-evaluating their most trusted consumer-facing technology, the ATM network. For traditional and new financial service providers worldwide self-service has become central to a profitable business...

Asia Pacific to lead the world market in terminal growth. (Special Feature--ATM Buyers Guide).
January 31, 2003... THE WORLD MARKET FOR ATMS IS set to grow by 35% over the six years from 2001 to 2007, according to "The Global ATM Market to 2007" a new report by Retail Banking Research Ltd (RBR). At the end of 2001, RBR says there were more than 1.14...

New terminals EMV compliant. (Special Feature--ATM Buyers Guide).
January 31, 2003... ASIA-PACIFIC IS LEADING the way in migration to Europay--MasterCard-Visa (EMV) chip cards, according to a report in e-media. EMV smart cards contain a small 16-kilobyte computer chip that is capable of securely storing data that uniquely...

Top 10 technologies to shape local market. (Special Feature--ATM Buyers Guide).
January 31, 2003... The year of the palindrome has come to pass with many an information communication & technology (ICT) supplier and telecommunications service provider left struggling in its wake. Events both locally and globally have impacted the...

Diebold launches open software. (Special Feature--ATM Buyers Guide).
January 31, 2003... DIEBOLD INCORPORATED recently announced the release of Agilis(tm), its new open standard platform for automated teller machines (ATMs). This innovative software tackles two challenges for financial institutions: it provides the ability to...

ATMS threaten money transfer and remittance market. (Special Feature--ATM Buyers Guide).
January 31, 2003... ATMS HAVE THE POTENTIAL TO threaten the global money transfer and remittance market currently dominated by Western Union, according to a new Celent Communications study. A new report "Global Money Transfers: Exploring The Remittance Gold...

Financial services industry lags others in usage of technology. (News).
January 31, 2003... IT HAS BEEN SAID THAT THE financial services industry as a whole is 10 years behind the manufacturing industry in how it uses technology to drive processes. According to Ian Mathieson, managing director of DST International in Australia, one of...

A dramatic start to the year for Westpac in its recently-expanded funds management business with the sacking of Andrew Brown as Australian equities portfolio manager of BT. (behind the screens).
January 31, 2003... A dramatic start to the year for Westpac in its recently-expanded funds management business with the sacking of Andrew Brown as Australian equities portfolio manager of BT. He has been replaced by the former head of equity research, Crispin...

Don't be surprised to see Bill Ireland try again and launch another funds management group after he leaves the soon-to-be-Packer controlled Challenger International. (behind the screens).(Brief Article)
January 31, 2003... Don't be surprised to see Bill Ireland try again and launch another funds management group after he leaves the soon-to-be-Packer controlled Challenger International. Ireland believes the market did not grasp the group's strategy and next time...

ANZ had a stellar year on a variety of fronts last year, the bank winning several major awards for performance in the financial services space. (behind the screens).(Brief Article)
January 31, 2003... ANZ had a stellar year on a variety of fronts last year, the bank winning several major awards for performance in the financial services space. The big one of course was John McFarlane's crowning as best financial services executive in this...

The credit union industry is buzzing with talk about some big changes afoot on the payments and settlements front. (behind the screens).(Brief Article)
January 31, 2003... The credit union industry is buzzing with talk about some big changes afoot on the payments and settlements front. Stay tuned.

IAG chief Michael Hawker is breathing a little easier as the share price of Australia's biggest general insurer continues its recovery from the $2.40 mark it plumbed immediately after the acquisition of CGU and NZI late last year. (behind the screens).(Brief Article)
January 31, 2003... IAG chief Michael Hawker is breathing a little easier as the share price of Australia's biggest general insurer continues its recovery from the $2.40 mark it plumbed immediately after the acquisition of CGU and NZI late last year. When we went...

Concentration risk issues. (News).
January 31, 2003... CONCENTRATION RISK IS AN issue that banks have had to deal with for many years. It takes the form of limits against capital, geography, product type or industry. In addition, those on the trading desks of banks are very conscious of the impact...