Australian Banking & Finance articles from June 2002

Australian Banking & Finance archives from June 2002

Wholesale banks lift profits: Australian wholesale banks have reported a sound result in difficult global economic conditions, according to a survey by KPMG Financial Services.(Brief Article)(Statistical Data Included)
June 17, 2002... OPERATING PROFIT AFTER TAX for the sector rose by 18.5% during 2001, representing a surprisingly strong result when considering the low merger and acquisition transaction levels, lower equity market volumes and bad debt losses. KPMG...

Investment bankers find salvation in power assets.(steaming coal)(Brief Article)
June 17, 2002... STEAMING COAL IS BACK IN fashion. At least as far as investment bankers in the Asia-Pacific are concerned, where more than $8 billion of power assets are being sold as advisory fees dry up amid a slump in takeovers. The failure of Enron...

Westpac to expand SA call centre. (Current Account).(South Australia)(Brief Article)(Statistical Data Included)
June 17, 2002... WESTPAC IS IN NEGOTIATIONS TO establish a new call centre in the ex-Ansett call centre site at Bedford Park in Adelaide. In addition to the existing 320 staff in Westpac's Adelaide call centres up to 350 new jobs will be created at the new...

National to open agribusiness unit. (Current Account).(Brief Article)
June 17, 2002... THE NATIONAL PLANS TO OPEN AN agribusiness credit centre in Albury Wodonga, employing 19 agribusiness financial, specialists in July. Agribusiness Financial. Services general manager Mike Carroll said the move is a significant boost to the...

Banking world. (Current Account).
June 17, 2002... Caption: Chicago Mercantile Exchange Chairman Terrence A. Duffy, right, gives a tour of the Eurodollar Futures area to Federal Reserve Bank of New York President William J. McDouough, centre, as Mercantile Senior Policy Advisor Leo Melamed...

Royal & Sun Alliance coy on sale talk. (Current Account).(Brief Article)
June 17, 2002... AUSTRALIA AND NEW ZEALAND are still core areas for British insurer Royal & Sun Alliance Plc, the company's Australian chief said in response to speculation about potential, asset sales. The parent company plans to raise 800 million pounds...

Basel II provides challenges, S&P. (Current Account).(Brief Article)
June 17, 2002... THE IMPLEMENTATION OF BASEL II is providing both challenges and opportunities for the four Australian major banks and their New Zealand subsidiaries, according to Gavin Gunning, director, Financial Services Ratings. Speaking at Standard &...

Alliance Finance seeks $18m in IPO. (Current Account).(initial public offering)(Brief Article)(Statistical Data Included)
June 17, 2002... INSURANCE PREMIUM FUNDER Alliance Finance Corp plans to raise about $8 million before listing on the Australian Stock Exchange on July 4. The Perth-based group plans to offer a 43 per cent stake to investors, comprised of around 16 million...

On the record. (Current Account).(bank officials)(Brief Article)
June 17, 2002... "Wealth management is the fastest-growing area of the bank but we haven't really tapped our customer base. No-one's done it. Everyone, particularly the majors, are talking about [cross-selling]." INCOMING HEAD OF INVESTMENT SERVICES AT ST...

RESI chief attack mortgage brokers as `agents for banks'. (News).(Peter James )(Brief Article)
June 17, 2002... MOST MORTGAGE BROKERS ARE little more than de facto agents for the banks, channelling home buyers' money into propping up huge bank profits, one of Australia's leading non-bank lenders warns. RESI Mortgage Corporation joint managing...

Legislation encourages overseas executives. (News).(Australian finance regulation)(Brief Article)
June 17, 2002... LEGISLATION INTRODUCED TO Federal Parliament this month will remove an impediment to the temporary employment of overseas executives and specialists, enhancing Australia's potential, as a global financial centre. It will deal with a...

Housing activity on the decline. (News).(home loan industry figures)(Brief Article)(Statistical Data Included)
June 17, 2002... THE FINANCING OF AUSTRALIAN housing proved slightly stronger than expected in April, but was bolstered by refinancing of home loans, which analysts said appeared to be owners gearing up for tighter monetary conditions. The April data was...

Borda wins Asian promotion. (News).(Ken Borda appointed chief executive officer for Deutche Bank Asia Pacific region)(Brief Article)
June 17, 2002... KEN BORDA, ONE OF AUSTRALIA'S top investment bankers, has been given an exciting promotion as a reward for his efforts in positioning Deutsche Bank as a leading force in the domestic market. From June 30, Borda will move to Asia and become...

St George hires Fegan for investment services. (News).(Paul Fegan appointed head of investment services division of St. George Bank)(Brief Article)(Statistical Data Included)
June 17, 2002... ST GEORGE BANK HAS RECRUITED an Australian who has been working as one of National Australia's top UK executives to take charge of its important investment services division. Paul Fegan is currently chief operating officer of Yorkshire Bank...

Respect or reward--which does your customer prefer? (examining the customer: with Carlson Marketing).(financial services industry should work to build relationships)(Brief Article)(Statistical Data Included)(Polling Data)
June 17, 2002... IN TODAY'S FINANCIAL SERVICES market one of the most important marketing activities is retaining existing customers and encouraging them to deepen their relationships with the bank. This depends on strategically driven relationship...

Mutual ownership has strategic value. (credit union comment).(Brief Article)(Statistical Data Included)
June 17, 2002... WITH A RECENT HISTORY OF STOCK exchange Listings by mutual financial services organisations (National Mutual, AMP, NRMA, IOOF), shrinkage of building society numbers through conversion to banks and news of mergers among credit unions, it could...

Proust relishes executive challenges: in the first of a series on the top women in Australia's financial services industry, Sarah Jones profiles Elizabeth Proust. (News).(Brief Article)
June 17, 2002... ELIZABETH PROUST, MANAGING director of ANZ's asset finance division Esanda, has had a career spanning both the public and private sectors. She has jumped from the oil industry to all levels of government, has held chairmanship roles and...

Viewpoint: two respected industry figures have their say. (News).(Brief Article)
June 17, 2002... Q: Should there be more stringent regulations on the non-bank lender market? Derek Robertson, national president, MIAA. "The Mortgage Industry Association of Australia support any reasonable regulation of the non-bank tender market...

Broker regulation on the move. (Denovan's law).(home loan brokers)(Brief Article)
June 17, 2002... MANY GOVERNMENTS AROUND Australia are actively reviewing the regulation of finance brokers. This comes hard on the heels of estimates that up to 50% of home Loans are sourced through broking networks. As would be expected, many...

Ratios, retention and retail banking. (the Nielsen/ netRatings report).(Brief Article)
June 17, 2002... ALONG THE HARD ROAD TO making the Internet a more accountable business channel, it is understandable business owners and managers trying to quantify the level of customer retention associated with their online investments. We also know...

Firms fail to capture customer potential. (Special Feature--CRM Quarterly Report).(Brief Article)
June 17, 2002... THE CUSTOMERS MAY ALWAYS BE right, but firms dealing with them often get it terribly wrong. There are a host of ways to alienate a customer and many businesses make an artform of it: calling people by the wrong title, not knowing what...

Open the communication channel to assist retention. (Special Feature--CRM Quarterly Report).(Brief Article)
June 17, 2002... CUSTOMER RETENTION IS THE Holy Grail of CRM initiatives, or at least many experts think so because landing new customers costs exponentially more than keeping current ones. The trouble is, many companies do not know that a customer is...

Privacy policies need to evolve. (Special Feature--CRM Quarterly Report).(Brief Article)
June 17, 2002... THE POPULARITY OF CUSTOMER Relationship Management (CRM) continues to grow, with analysts Frost and Sullivan predicting that the Australian CRM market will achieve a growth rate of 22 per cent in 2002, and reach saturation by 2005. Banks...

Why the majority of CRM implementations falter. (Special Feature--CRM Quarterly Report).(Brief Article)
June 17, 2002... ACCORDING TO GARTNER, AROUND 85 per cent of CRM implementations fail. Everyone would agree this is totally unacceptable, so why does it happen? There is significant hype around CRM. Not surprisingly, customers are confused by CRM providers...

Confronting a new breed of applications. (Special Feature--CRM Quarterly Report).(Brief Article)
June 17, 2002... COMPANIES WILL CONFRONT the significant challenge of evaluating the potential of new software component architecture and a new breed of business applications in the next two years, according to the annual technology forecast from...

Behind the screens. (News).(Brief Article)
June 17, 2002... The mainstream media keep saying the ACCC "might" block any move by one of the majors on St George Bank. But take it from us, there is no way in the wide, wide world that Professor Allan Fels and his team is going to let any of the big boys...

Fees override reputations. (News).(General Electric's request for more funding)(Brief Article)
June 17, 2002... A RECENT REPORT THAT GOLDMAN Sachs Group Inc declined General Electric Co's request for a $1 billion line of credit was the most-read article on Bloomberg. Small wonder. The world's largest corporation, warned by Moody's Investors Service...

Technology spend soars: new regulatory standards, coupled with new understandings of the horizontal nature of risk management, will demand sizable investments in information technology by financial institutions in the next few years.(Brief Article)
June 30, 2002... A REPORT BY THE HIGHLY--respected TowerGroup predicts spending on risk technology to outpace technology spending growth in most other areas. Globally, TowerGroup expects investments in risk management technology by global financial....

Macquarie confident on airport.(Brief Article)
June 30, 2002... MACQUARIE BANK CHIEF executive Allan Moss (right) has dominated headlines in the past week after the Southern Cross consortium emerged as the successful bidder for Sydney Airport. The $5.6 billion sale will, be good for investors, Moss said. He...

Olrich aims to take CUA into finance big league.(Brief Article)
June 30, 2002... GRAHAM 0LRICH IS MAKING big waves in the financial services industry. The managing director of Brisbane-based Credit Union Australia (CUA) has just engineered a takeover of Sydney's Metropolitan Credit Union to top an active year which has...

Our CEOs the best.(Brief Article)
June 30, 2002... CEOS IN THE FINANCIAL SERVICES industry have a longer tenure than their counterparts in any other industry. But that doesn't mean there is less pressure from shareholders to perform. A survey of the world's largest 2500 companies by...

AMP on target for 10% growth. (Current Account).(Brief Article)
June 30, 2002... GLOBAL FINANCIAL SERVICES group AMP Ltd says it is on track for 10 per cent-plus growth in core operating margins in calendar 2002 after slashing 1500 jobs at its UK operations earlier this month. "We expect to meet our tong term goal. of...

Banking world. (Current Account).(Brief Article)
June 30, 2002... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Caption: From left: Bank of Canada Governor David Dodge, Bank of France Governor Jean-Claude Trichet, US Federal Reserve Chairman Al. an Greenspan and Bank of England Governor Sir Edward George share a laugh before a...

Residential MBS a good buy, SSB. (Current Account).(Brief Article)
June 30, 2002... AUSTRALIAN RESIDENTIAL mortgage-backed securities look like a good buy versus asset-backed securities supported by auto loans, says Salomon Smith Barney research analyst Peter DiMartino. Aussie MBS dealers began courting international,...

CBA adds to bill presentment services. (Current Account).(Brief Article)
June 30, 2002... THE COMMONWEALTH BANK HAS further increased electronic bill presentment services to its customers with the addition of Ergon Energy to BPAY View *, the new Internet bill presentment service. Commonwealth Bank NetBank customers will be able...

Consumers unfazed by rate increases. (Current Account).(Brief Article)
June 30, 2002... AUSTRALIAN CONSUMERS ARE showing resilience to tighter monetary conditions, which may prompt the Reserve Bank into another tightening when the central bank board meets on July 2. The Westpac-Melbourne Institute index of consumer sentiment...

Credit card debt up to $2150. (Current Account).(Brief Article)
June 30, 2002... CREDIT CARD holders racked up debt of more than $2150 a month on average, figures from the Reserve Bank of Australia show. Total credit card debt climbed to $20.317 billion in April--the second highest level on record--from $20.305 billion...

On the record.(Brief Article)
June 30, 2002... "It's good business. What's good for women is good for the bank and good for the community too." WESTPAC CEO DAVID MORGAN, ANNOUNCING A WOMEN IN BANKING PACKAGE, WHICH HE SAID WOULD HELP GIVE BUSINESSWOMEN ACCESS TO SPECIALIST SERVICES AND...

Pepper's new fundinq source. (News).(Brief Article)
June 30, 2002... PEPPER HOMELOANS CEO Richard Klemmer has announced the company's first "whole loan sale" transaction comprising a multi-million dollar portfolio of nonconforming residential mortgages. Klemmer said the transaction marked an important...

Self-service outsourcing to grow 30%. (News).(Brief Article)
June 30, 2002... BANKS AND ATM DEPLOYERS from Australia and New Zealand expect the growth in self-service outsourcing to grow by up to 30% in 2003-4, according to a poll at a conference organised by the ATM Industry Association (ATMIA). The conference,...

Research your customer base to achieve the best results: banks that are "very satisfied" with their understanding of customer needs do a great deal of market research, have an active marketing committee and have a senior management team that has significant customer contact. (News).(Brief Article)
June 30, 2002... THIS EMERGED FROM A survey released last week during the American Bankers Association's (ABA) financial services customer conference, which generated great interest from Australia's retail bankers. Fifty members of the ABA Marketing Network...

Modest Nugent makes a difference: in the second of a series on the top women in financial services, Sarah Jones profiles Helen Nugent. (Top Women In Financial Services).(Brief Article)
June 30, 2002... DR HELEN NUGENT MAINTAINS that her successful career in the corporate world was in part due to luck. This, despite the fact that she has completed an MBA at Harvard, played an instrumental role in turning the fortune of Westpac around in...

Third-party product delivery takes hold. (News).(Brief Article)(Statistical Data Included)
June 30, 2002... OPEN FINANCE IS SET TO TAKE the banking world by storm in the next four to five years. Research group Celent Communications predicts that 60% of top US and European banks will sell competitors' products by 2006, up from 15% in 2002. ...

MasterCard head says Australia's card reform plans are `draconian'. (News).(Brief Article)(Statistical Data Included)
June 30, 2002... MASTERCARD INTERNATIONAL chief executive Bob Selander has criticised Australia's plan to cut credit card fees and open the market as "draconian and anti-competitive." Selander voiced his objections during talks with the governor of the...

Viewpoint: five respected industry figures have their say. (News).(Brief Article)
June 30, 2002... Q: With interest rates rising, are we going to see increases in the level of bad debts? Rahoul Chowdry, banking and capital markets sector Leader, PWC Global "Going back to the mid to late 1990s there hasn't been a night follows day...

New rewards for private bankers. (human capital).(Brief Article)
June 30, 2002... THE HIGH NET WORTH (HNW) segment, like other client segments in the wealth management market (see the last Human Capital column), is seeing key changes in the way the segment is being serviced, and the way those providing the services--private...

2IC: in a regular series identifying the executives most likely to be the next breed of CEOs of financial, institutions in Australia, Australian Banking & Finance profiles Steve McKerihan. (News).(Brief Article)
June 30, 2002... STEVE MCKERIHAN, Chief Financial Officer, St George Bank McKerihan joined the bank from the Commonwealth Bank in 1985 as a management accountant. He has since held a range of accounting positions including chief manager financial...

Need for stronger protection increases. (Special Feature--E-Security).(Brief Article)
June 30, 2002... THERE IS A WIDELY HELD perception that financial services are the ultimate form of "virtual" content, because they require little or no physical fulfilment. Based on that, it is easy to understand why the emergence of Internet banking and...

E-business or e-security: Zaid Alsaji, associate director at CMG offers tips on how the two can be successfully managed. (Special Feature--E-Security).(Brief Article)
June 30, 2002... THINK E-SECURITY, AND WHAT images spring to mind? Guards at the front desk? lots of locks and restricted access rooms? Whatever the metaphors, the thinking remains consistent--it's all about keeping what's in, safe, and making sure what's...

Securing online payments. (Special Feature--E-Security).(Brief Article)
June 30, 2002... RUNNING AN ONLINE BUSINESS can be an overwhelming task. Extending a business to the Internet and opening an e-commerce store-front requires not only website development and design, but also maintaining the confidentiality and security of...

UK life insurers under pressure. (News).(Brief Article)(Statistical Data Included)
June 30, 2002... BRITISH LIFE ASSURANCE AND pensions companies were once a good catch for any financial sector player Looking to cast a net into this lucrative market. Not any more. A plethora of government reviews, looming new regulations and a batch...

Online banking--not the end game. (the Nielsen/netRatings report).(Brief Article)(Statistical Data Included)
June 30, 2002... MOST ONLINE MARKETS, including banking and finance, ended in positive territory during May 2002, though the online broking index was down almost 25 per cent on its June 2001 level. In the case of online broking, the growth cycle bares some...

BankWest creates IT unit. (New Economy Banker).(Brief Article)
June 30, 2002... BANKWEST WILL CREATE A NEW division within its organisational structure through the amalgamation of its existing IT services unit and its wholly owned subsidiary CBSIS Ltd. The new Information Technology Division brings together two highly...

Web revolution on the way. (New Economy Banker).
June 30, 2002... THE GROWING IMPORTANCE OF Web services in the financial services industry was a top theme emerging from last week's 2002 TowerGroup Financial Services Business & Technology Conference. Attendees of the Boston-based event were told by...

Behind the screens. (News).(Brief Article)(Statistical Data Included)
June 30, 2002... It's not often a fund manager describes a "zero result" as a good result. But we are speaking about Trevor Rowe here and he's never been known to hold back on waxing big time. Rowe, among other things, is chairman of Queensland Investment Corp...

Australia's finance industry came together earlier this month to support Work-A-Day 4 Kids. (News).
June 30, 2002... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Caption: Australia's finance industry came together earlier this month to support Work-A-Day 4 Kids--the industry's annual charity day which raises money for vital children's medical research programs that would...

Simplifying payment processes. (News).(Brief Article)
June 30, 2002... INTERNATIONALLY, CONTINUED INCREASES IN global cross border trade provide a significant opportunity for banks in terms of transaction and other fees charged to settle those trades. However, for the many multinational corporations around the...