Australian Banking & Finance articles from January 2006

Australian Banking & Finance archives from January 2006

Banks losing customer focus.
January 31, 2006... The financial services industry needs to become more attuned to the demands of the community if it wants to win over new generations of customers. That's the view of some key financial leaders who attended Australian Banking & Finance...

Keycorp signs services contract with Bendigo Bank.(NEWS)
January 31, 2006... SECURE ELECTRONIC TRANSACTION solutions provider Keycorp Limited today announced it had been awarded a contract to manage and support the EFTPOS terminals fleet for Bendigo Bank around Australia. Keycorp's customer support organisation....

Fitch affirms ratings of Bendigo.(NEWS)
January 31, 2006... FITCH RATINGS HAS AFFIRMED Bendigo Bank's ratings at Long-term 'BBB+', Short-term 'F2', Individual 'B/C', and Support '4' following a review of the bank. The Outlook for the ratings is Stable. The ratings reflect Bendigo's solid capitalisation...

New CEO for ING Direct: following a decade in Australia, Vaughn Richtor is vacating his position as CEO of ING Direct Australia to take on a new challenge overseas within the ING Group.(NEWS)
January 31, 2006... Richtor was responsible for launching ING Direct in Australia, pioneering the nation's high-interest no bank fees savings category and growing ING Direct to become the country's sixth largest retail hank. Richtor has been appointed CEO ING...

Strong growth in funds for Venture Capital.(NEWS)
January 31, 2006... THE RESULTS FROM THE recently released Australian Bureau of Statistics 2004-05 Venture Capital Survey highlight the increased sophistication of Australian investors and the growing strength of Australia's venture capital industry. In...

Mortgage Choice franchisees benefit from retail choices.(NEWS)
January 31, 2006... MORTGAGE CHOICE, AUSTRALIA'S leading mortgage broker, is supporting its nationwide franchise network in expanding their retail footprint in a quest to increase brand awareness and lead generation for its local offices. Mortgage Choice...

SAS Institute Australia Pty Ltd.(Corporate Performance Management)(Brief article)
January 31, 2006... SAS INSTITUTE AUSTRALIA PTY LTD HAS ANNOUNCED THE APPOINTMENT of Adam Stott as general manager, Financial Intelligence (FI), SAS Australia & New Zealand. This is a new role within SAS Australia and is based in the Sydney office. Stott is...

Signs of success for Australia's financial initiatives.(NEWS)
January 31, 2006... ANZ RECENTLY RELEASED THE results of its second major research study into financial literacy, which found that 80 percent of adult Australians are financially literate--feeling 'in control' of their financial situation. The survey...

Interview with Paul Orton: General Manager Corporate Banking, National Australia Bank.(NEWS)(Interview)
January 31, 2006... As part of a restructuring program in late 2004, National Australia Bank promoted Paul Orton to general manager of Corporate Banking with the remit of overseeing relationship management and product delivery in the hyper competitive Top 500...

BOQ acquires $78m debtor finance business.(bank of queenslands)
January 31, 2006... BANK OF QUEENSLAND RECENTLY announced it had acquired a $78 million debtor finance business as part of its ongoing strategy of building a national retail and business banking network. BOQ paid a premium of $12 million to purchase the Debtor...

Suncorp cracks 1 million online transactions: for the first time Suncorp recorded over one million online transactions in November 2005 representing well over $1 billion worth of transactions.(NEWS--QUEENSLAND)
January 31, 2006... The majority of Suncorp's November 2005 online banking transactions were made up of funds transfers and BPay and external transfers. Suncorp Manager of E-Commerce, Adam Crane, said reaching the one million transaction mark was largely the...

Transforming business to be more customer centric; customers are essential to revenue growth and gaining competitive advantage: CEOs are focusing their attention, resources and people on how to deliver improved customer experiences to gain a competitive advantage and build bottom line revenue.(NEWS)
January 31, 2006... Clearly, a key source of generating revenue streams is through the customer base. In line with this, CEOs are looking at ways to ensure their enterprises become more responsive to customer demand. However, achieving this outcome is no easy...

The big issue.(Mizuho Financial)
January 31, 2006... "16 MILLION BIG ONES... HMMM... what to do?" It's funny how we feel sympathy for those who miss their own intellect's gravy train? Mr Rubik failed to visit the Budapest patents' office with his puzzle in 1974. He left that to his...

The silent 'P' in content management: there's no doubt that selecting an enterprise Content Management System (CMS) for any financial services organisation is a major undertaking.(SPECIAL FEATURE: CONTENT MANAGEMENT--SOFTWARE SOLUTIONS)
January 31, 2006... And that's only the beginning; the next step, implementation of the chosen system, comprises another resource-intensive project. There are many examples in the literature which describe the benefits of a successful CMS implementation to large...

Enterprise content management grows up ... and becomes an infrastructure service: financial services companies need to increase revenue and improve customer service and operational efficiencies in a highly competitive market while lowering the risk of non-compliance. Their content management and collaboration practices can have a significant impact on their ability to do this.(SPECIAL FEATURE: CONTENT MANAGEMENT--SOFTWARE SOLUTIONS)
January 31, 2006... As such, these organisations are asking: Can we.... * Move from paper based credit approval to digital based? * Keep digital copies of all contracts signed by customers, securely accessible by all that need access, including customers?...

World Financial Services Conference.(Hurricanes impact on combined ratios)
January 31, 2006... Top insurers talk about 2006 at the Fourth World Financial Services Conference held on December 15th 2005 in Sydney. Lambros Lambrou from Aon Australia and Simon Swanson from CommInsure outlined the challenges and opportunities in general...

Turnbull and banking heavies at World Finance Conference.(WORLD FINANCIAL SERVICES CONFERENCE--PICTORIAL)
January 31, 2006... Attendees and speakers mingle happily at the 4th Annual World Financial Services Conference held by Australian Banking & Finance newsmagazine. All agreed the presentations were excellent and Malcolm Turnbull's presentation on tax reform...

Behind the screens.(NEWS)
January 31, 2006... Someone's watching you A few unhappy faces in Melbourne, we see, after NAB's recent announcement that it will move its foreign currency options operation to its spaceship-like main dealing room in Sydney. The move, according to a bank...

Developments in multi-channel strategies.(service to customers)(mobile banking channels)
January 31, 2006... BANKERS ARE ALWAYS LOOKING FOR WAYS TO IMPROVE THE effectiveness of their service to customers. One area under constant review is the development and interaction of multi-channel developments. Customers have appreciated the increase in the...