Australian Banking & Finance articles from March 2002

Australian Banking & Finance archives from March 2002

Credit risk the no 1 concern.(for Australian banking industry; report from Pricewaterhouse Cooper)
March 15, 2002... THE BANKING INDUSTRY FACES the toughest conditions for a decade, with economic, credit and regulatory risks rising sharply, according to a leading regular survey of top international bankers, regulators and analysts. The "Banana Skins"...

This time last year Australian Banking & Finance newsmagazine had AMP chief executive Paul Batchelor on the front page, recording a terrific achievement in presiding over a $1.15 billion annual net profit.(Brief Article)
March 15, 2002... THIS TIME LAST YEAR AUSTRALIAN BANKING & FINANCE newsmagazine had AMP chief executive Paul Batchelor on the front page, recording a terrific achievement in presiding over a $1.15 billion annual net profit. The story this time is not so...

Awards nominations finalised. (Australian Banking & Finance Awards 2002).(Brief Article)
March 15, 2002... THE 2002 AUSTRALIAN BANKING & Finance newsmagazine Awards have been formally launched with an impressive shortlist of nominations for the main categories. The voting coupon appears on Page 5 of this issue and will be contained in...

Homeloans boosts earnings to $3.2m. (Current Account).(Homeloans Ltd.)(Brief Article)(Statistical Data Included)
March 15, 2002... NATIONAL MORTGAGE MANAGER and originator Homeloans Ltd recorded a net profit of $3.22 million for the half year to December 31. This represented an increase of 65% compared to the previous eight months (the period of time from when the...

Banking world. (Current Account).(Argentina)(Brief Article)
March 15, 2002... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Caption: Thousands of people line up outside Argentina's federal courthouse in Buenos Aires. A crowd estimated at about 12,000 waited to present complaints in a bid to sue the government for seizing their bank...

CBA customers can now insure online. (Current Account).(Commonwealth Bank of Australia)(Brief Article)
March 15, 2002... HOME INSURANCE POLICYHOLDERS with Commonwealth Insurance can now submit claims online, at any time, at the Commonwealth Bank's general, insurance website, http://www.comminsure.com.au. The extended internet functionality means customers can...

BankWest claims 23% growth in earnings. (Current Account).(Brief Article)(Statistical Data Included)
March 15, 2002... BANKWEST HAS ANNOUNCED AN operating profit after tax of $140.4 million for the 10 months from March 1 to December 31. There is no figure available to compare with a previous corresponding period. However, if the results are annualised to...

Salmat wins approval from BPAY service. (Current Account).(Salmat Billserv Australia)(Brief Article)
March 15, 2002... SALMAT BILLSERV AUSTRALIA, A joint venture between Salmat and Billserv, Inc has become the first BPAY View(tm) certified online bill service provider in the country. The endorsement of Salmat Billserv Australia's electronic bill...

On the record. (Current Account).(Australian bank executives quoted on economy)(Brief Article)
March 15, 2002... "The past year was one of the toughest I have seen in my 30 years in the business." AMP CHIEF EXECUTIVE PAUL BATCHELOR, ANNOUNCING A 40% FALL IN ANNUAL PROFIT TO $690 MILLION. "A lot could happen or indeed very little could happen....

ABA wants better super regulation. (News).(Australian Banker's Association)(Brief Article)
March 15, 2002... THE BANKING INDUSTRY HAS bought into the superannuation debate in a big way, calling for the regulator, the Australian Prudential Regulation Authority (APRA) to be given more power to properly supervise superannuation funds. The Australian...

Davis takes charge of HSBC Australia. (News).(Stuart Davis)(Brief Article)
March 15, 2002... STUART DAVIS HAS BEEN appointed chief executive of HSBC in Australia and New Zealand, succeeding Chris Crook, who has retired after 40 years of service with the HSBC Group. An Australian citizen, Davis has been with the HSBC Group since...

Locals invade global markets. (News).
March 15, 2002... THE MARKET FOR AUSTRALIAN asset-backed securities has shrugged off the after-effects of September 11 and is shaping up for another strong year, with around $9 billion of deals completed since January and a significant diversification in the...

Staff cuts may damage brands: the banking and finance industry in Australia has laid off thousands of employees in the past few years. Westpac is the latest to announce cuts. The cost effects are obvious but has it affected the corporate brands of major corporations and their ability to attract new recruits. A study in the US provides some answers. (News).
March 15, 2002... AN ANDERSEN SURVEY OF 1200 laid-off workers has found that companies are not handling staff cuts well. The key findings include: & 86 percent reported no opportunity to apply for other positions in the company; & 71 percent blame...

Executive suite: Gavin Gunning, Standard & Poor's director for Financial Services Ratings, comments on Australia's health insurance industry in the wake of reports Axa Asia Pacific is in merger talks with Medical Benefits Fund of Australia. (News).(Brief Article)
March 15, 2002... "The industry is clearly over-insured. There are over 40 health insurance companies in Australia - we believe there is room for consolidation with no detrimental effects on competition. The main benefit of consolidation is there will be...

Non-conforming lenders unite. (News).(non-conforming mortgage lenders; Australia)(Brief Article)
March 15, 2002... SPECIALIST LENDER BLUESTONE Mortgages has called on Australia's fast-growing non conforming mortgage industry to protect itself against questionable lending practices by introducing self-regulation. Alistair Jeffery, Bluestone Mortgage's...

The critical question. (News).
March 15, 2002... Q: What do you think will happen when the bank's articles of association expire in July? "A lot could happen or indeed very little could happen. We'll be on the same level playing field as any other publicly listed company and I'll...

Guarantee cases have common thread. (denovan's law).(Brief Article)
March 15, 2002... THE FACT THAT LAWYERS' newsletters are no longer full of guarantee cases, doesn't mean that the flood of guarantee cases has subsided. We review literally hundreds of case reports to prepare our banking and finance newsletters. Our...

Home loan quality maintained. (News).
March 15, 2002... ARREARS LEVELS IN AUSTRALIAN residential mortgages were unchanged in the December quarter 2001 from the previous quarter, according to Standard & Poor's Australian Mortgage Performance Index (SPIN). The SPIN, which measures securitised...

Customer profitability -- is it enough? (News).
March 15, 2002... CUSTOMER RELATIONSHIP MANAGEMENT demands that you understand which customers create profits and those that destroy it. However this is just not enough if you want stay in business in the long term. Historic profitability measures just don't...

Reorganisations impact premier list; two new chief executives head the list of changes in the top management tier of Australia's financial services sector in the past year. (Top 50 People In Banking & Finance - Special Feature).
March 15, 2002... OUR ANNUAL TOP 50 LISTING THIS YEAR boasts Gail Kelly, the chief executive of St George Bank (and first female chief executive in the industry) and the newly-appointed managing director of Insurance Australia Group (formerly NRMA Insurance),...

Mobile lenders in big demand. (News).(high demand for consumer mortgage lenders; Australia)(Brief Article)(Statistical Data Included)
March 15, 2002... BANKING PROFESSIONALS WITH consumer lending skills can look forward to increased job opportunities in 2002, according to the latest report of the Jonathan Wren Trend Index. The Jonathan Wren Trend Index is a study carried out by Gottliebsen...

Reskilling your staff. (credit union comment).(financial service regulation compliance in Australia)(Brief Article)
March 15, 2002... COMMENCEMENT OF THE Financial Services Reform (FSR) Act on March 11 means big changes for the business of deposit-taking and a bonanza for the training industry. Embarking on the two-year FSR transition period, credit unions (and banks and...

Wide Bay Capricorn enjoys record half. (News).(Wide Bay Capricorn Building Society Ltd.)(Brief Article)(Statistical Data Included)
March 15, 2002... WIDE BAY CAPRICORN BUILDING Society, rated as Australia's best performing financial sector stock in 2001, continued to enjoy strong performances for the six months ended December 2001. The society posted an after tax profit from ordinary...

Engaging the online customer. (the Nielsen/netRatings report).(Brief Article)
March 15, 2002... CUSTOMER ASSOCIATION IS sometimes an overused term because its ambiguity allows for so many definitions - both from the perspective of the customer as well as the business concerned. Online banking, however, has a lot riding on `customer...

Q: Can Australia's major banks continue to sustain losses from their online activities? (Viewpoint; three respected industry figures have their say).(Brief Article)
March 15, 2002... Rahoul Chowdry, banking & capital markets leader, PricewaterhouseCooper "In order to remain sustainable, in the long run, each product and channel must add to shareholder value, either directly or indirectly. The exciting long term...

National pioneers voice-enabled ATM. (New Economy Banker).(National Bank Australia Ltd., Diebold Australia form joint venture)(Brief Article)
March 15, 2002... THE NATIONAL HAS LAUNCHED an audio or voice-enabled ATM pilot. The pilot will enable customers who are blind, vision impaired or elderly to perform basic ATM transactions such as, cash withdrawals, printed account balances and transfers between...

Web self-service critical. (New Economy Banker).(Meridien Research report on financial service industry and Web self-service services)(Brief Article)
March 15, 2002... IN A MARKETPLACE WHERE ONLINE financial services remain a competitive battleground, Web self-service is an increasingly important strategic initiative for many financial service institutions, according to Meridien Research. Web...

Reset wireless goals. (New Economy Banker).(Forrester Research report on financial services industry)(Brief Article)
March 15, 2002... FINANCIAL FIRMS SHOULDN'T await technology upgrades to reset their wireless finance goals, according to a new report by Forrester Research. In a report for the UK market, Forrester asserts that firms experienced in WAP finance will stand...

ANZ buys SecureNet scrip. (New Economy Banker).(ANZ Bank)(Brief Article)(Statistical Data Included)
March 15, 2002... SECURENET HAS COMPLETED THE first tranche of its purchase of internationally recognised online security software from ANZ Bank following plans announced last November. Supplementing its existing intellectual property, the acquisition will...

Technology and strategy must work in harmony. (examining the customer).(customer relationship management)(Brief Article)
March 15, 2002... WHAT IS THE FOCUS OF CRM? Is it the software? No. Is it the data warehouse? No. Is it the customer? Yes -- well it's meant to be! But unfortunately so often it's not. The purpose of CRM is to efficiently manage relationships...

Hale briefs local fund managers. (People).
March 15, 2002... David Hale, influential chief global economist for the Zurich Financial Services Group, visited Australia in early March to brief fund managers and financial advisers on the outlook for the global economy. According to Hale, the US economy is...

Kelly joins Murray on representative table. (Behind The Screens).(Gail Kelly, David Murray, Australian Banker's Association)(Brief Article)
March 15, 2002... NEW ST GEORGE BOSS GAIL Kelly is not frightened of work. Fresh from assuming the role of leading our fifth largest bank, Kelly has now taken on added responsibility by becoming deputy chair of the Australian Banker's Association. ABA...

Our governor's a busy man. (Behind The Screens).(Ian Macfarlane)(Brief Article)
March 15, 2002... THE GOVERNOR OF THE RESERVE Bank Ian Macfarlane (right) is not a 10c coin on his predecessor Bernie Fraser when it comes to giving his time to the Australian financial services industry. Different personalities sure. But the position...

Lavish dinner comes at a price. (Behind The Screens).(Barclays fires executives over expensive dinner)(Brief Article)(Statistical Data Included)
March 15, 2002... INVESTMENT BANKERS TAKE NOTE - a report from London reveals that five investment bankers at Barclays have lost their jobs over a 44,000 pound dinner they held last year to celebrate a successful deal. The sackings may provide evidence that...

Heard the latest Euro joke? (Behind The Screens).(financial services anecdote)(Brief Article)
March 15, 2002... A JOKE DOING THE ROUNDS OF dealing rooms is worth passing on. One trader to another:" I have just learned that, should they ever want to meet the conditions for joining the single European currency, citizens of the United Kingdom can no...

Singapore reviews finance strategy. (Behind The Screens).(Financial Services Working Group formed to identify opportunities)(Brief Article)
March 15, 2002... AN EXECUTIVE OF DEUTSCHE Bank is leading a group of local and international bankers acting in their personal capacities in a review of Singapore's financial sector strategy aimed at identifying new opportunities. The Financial Services...

Fees don't spook customers.(few clients change banks)(Brief Article)
March 28, 2002... LATEST RESEARCH HAS FOUND that few bank customers change banks because of increases in fees. A report by management consultants McKinsey shows that customers are in reality fairly tolerant of such price changes. "This is good news for...

Banks label fee cut `unjust'.(Brief Article)
March 28, 2002... THE AUSTRALIAN BANKERS' Association's submission on the proposed credit card intervention supports the Reserve Bank of Australia's reform principles, but argues that the proposed cut in interchange fees is unjustified and not in the public...

Asia-Australia Expo attracts big names.
March 28, 2002... A HOST OF SENIOR FINANCIAL services executives from Australia and Asia have agreed to speak at the inaugural Asia-Australia Investment Conference and Expo to be herd in Sydney on May 16. The conference is being presented by Axiss, the...

Small business loans on the decline. (Current Account).(Australian bank lending)(Brief Article)(Statistical Data Included)
March 28, 2002... GROWTH IN LENDING BY Australian banks and other financial. institutions to small, businesses slowed in the 12 months ended September 30, 2001. In recent years, credit provided by financial, intermediaries to small. businesses has grown on...

Banking world. (Current Account).(Lloyds TSB Group PLC plans job cuts)(Brief Article)
March 28, 2002... The head office of Lloyds TSB in London, England, is shown in this undated company photo. Lloyds TSB Group Plc, the fifth-largest UK bank, plans to cut 3000 jobs after second-half profits dropped 2.4 percent. [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]

Bluestone forges new mortgage alliance. (Current Account).(OnePort)(Brief Article)
March 28, 2002... ONEPORT AND BLUESTONE Mortgages have forged a new alliance to distribute mortgage products through mortgage brokers nationwide. OnePort, the mortgage distribution network launched in October 2000 currently has more than 600 groups of...

SFE records strong growth in earnings. (Current Account).(SFE Corp.)(Brief Article)(Statistical Data Included)
March 28, 2002... SFE CORPORATION HAS EARNED a net profit of $21.4 million for the year to December 31 -- its first full year of trading as a demutualised, shareholder-owned corporation. The financial, performance also incorporates a full year result for...

UK banks hit by price regulation controls. (Current Account).(Brief Article)
March 28, 2002... BRITAIN'S DECISION TO SLAP price controls on its big banks has the flavour of centrally planned economies and could turn out to be an own goal, in its effort to stimulate competition. But where competition fails, price regulation can at...

National Bank coy on St George Bank plans. (Current Account).(would not say whether it will lift stake in St George)(Brief Article)
March 28, 2002... NATIONAL AUSTRALIA CHIEF executive Frank Cicutto says the bank is a "happy shareholder" in St George Bank, but would not say if NAB planned to lift its stake. Restrictive ownership limits on former building society St George will, be...

On the record. (Current Account).(Brief Article)
March 28, 2002... "Why are we looking at interchange for open schemes like Visa and MasterCard but ignoring the closed schemes like American Express and Diners?" NATIONAL GROUP CEO FRANK CICUTTO ON THE PROPOSED CHANGES TO CREDIT CARD INTERCHANGE FEES. ...

Bank Qld begins regional push. (News).(Bank of Queensland)(Brief Article)
March 28, 2002... BANK OF QUEENSLAND HAS mobilised plans to make a major push into regional, and rural, areas, creating 34 new bank branches in less than three years. White the big banks have abandoned rural, Queensland, Bank of Queensland managing director...

Australians lead way in net banking uptake. (News).(online banking usage)(Brief Article)(Polling Data)(Statistical Data Included)
March 28, 2002... AUSTRALIANS SEEM TO BE setting the trend for embracing technology, first in the uptake of mobile phones and Internet usage, and now embracing Internet banking with 23% of adult Australians using online services to some degree. A recent...

Butler gains top job at Zurich. (News).(John Butler)(Brief Article)
March 28, 2002... JOHN BUTLER HAS BEEN appointed CEO of Zurich Financial Services Australia. Butler was previously Zurich's chief operating officer, responsible for the day-to-day management of the Australian business. He replaces Malcolm Jones, who is...

Start preparations for FSR licensing requirements. (News).(Financial Service Reform Act)(Brief Article)
March 28, 2002... FOLLOWING THE ISSUE OF THE first Australian Financial. Services (AFS) licence by ASIC on March 11, the spotlight will now turn to other Australian financial, service providers and their licensing preparations. Phillips Fox manager,...

Executive suite. (News).(interview with National Austrlia Group chief)(Brief Article)
March 28, 2002... THE CHIEF EXECUTIVE OF NATIONAL AUSTRALIA Group Frank Cicutto covered a wide range of issues during a luncheon address in Melbourne this month. Australian Banking & Finance newsmagazine records some of his opinions on. THE FOUR PILLARS...

CBA's processing boost. (News).(Commonwealth Bank of Australia selects the webMethods integration platform)(Brief Article)
March 28, 2002... THE INSTITUTIONAL AND business Services division (IBS) of The Commonwealth Bank of Australia has selected the webMethods integration platform as the integration solution to support productivity and client service initiatives across its business...

Westpac share offer in enterprise agreement. (News).(Brief Article)
March 28, 2002... Westpac (including Bank of Melbourne and Challenge Bank) have reached an agreement with the Finance Sector Union on a new enterprise agreement following an extensive negotiation period. The key elements of the Enterprise Development Agreement...

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 Ian MacDonald. (News).(General Manager, National Australia Group)(Brief Article)
March 28, 2002... IAN MACDONALD, Executive General Manager, Financial Services Australia, National Australia Group. MacDonald, 47, was recently appointed to this role after a major organisational reshuffle. He was formerly Executive General Manager,...

Assessing the security of aggregator services. (Special Report -- Account Aggregation).
March 28, 2002... WELCOME TO THE NEW ECONOMY. Internet banking today is old news but is recognised as an ever growing and developing deliverer of financial services. For many organisations security is still perceived as an inhibiter of new services....

Business models change shape. (Special Report -- Account Aggregation).(aggregation is great opportunity for financial services to learn more about customers)(Brief Article)
March 28, 2002... TWO YEARS AG0, ACCOUNT aggregation made headlines in Web-based financial services. Since then, account aggregation has evolved from a consumer-direct service geared toward increasing a Web site's stickiness to a toot used by financial...

Financial institutions adopt customer-driven models. (Special Report -- Account Aggregation).(aggregation allows insitutions to increase quality of services)(Brief Article)
March 28, 2002... ACCOUNT AGGREGATION IS emerging as more than just a convenient service to customers. A recent Jupiter consumer survey found that 81% of Australian Internet users were likely to take up aggregation services. Such interest is certainly...

How big is Australia's non-conforming mortgage market? (Special Report -- Account Aggregation).(may be around A$6 billion or 2.5% of prime residential housing finance market)(Brief Article)
March 28, 2002... JUST HOW BIG IS AUSTRALIA'S emerging non-conforming mortgage market? This is a question which, to date, has largely gone unanswered. Various commentators have attempted to quantify the potential size of this market, a task made difficult...

R&D tax concession bonus: the Federal Government's recent initiative to increase the tax concessions available on R&D activities has created new opportunities for many companies within the Australian financial services sector. Sandra Mason, a director within Andersen's corporate tax group, discusses these changes and their implications. (News).(Brief Article)
March 28, 2002... OVER THE PAST 18 MONTHS THE Federal Government has been encouraging Australian businesses to review their research and development strategies so as to foster innovation within Australia. In an effort to encourage a renewed focus on R&D...

Time to stake claim in value chain. (News).
March 28, 2002... THE AUSTRALIAN FINANCIAL services industry is facing dramatic structural change coincident with a cyclical downturn. Any actions companies take to mitigate the latter factor need to be consistent with the broader reform agenda of the...

Viewpoint: two respected industry figures have their say. (New Economy Banker).(Jennifer Heffernan and Doug Simpson on financial institutions and information technology)(Brief Article)
March 28, 2002... Q: Are financial institutions demanding more from their IT providers in today's cost-conscious marketplace? Jennifer Heffernan, general manager, operations and information technology, Bank of Queensland "Yes. On the whole I'd say it's...

Is online finance diversity undermining four pillars? (the Nielsen/ netRatings report).(Brief Article)(Statistical Data Included)
March 28, 2002... THE INTERNET WAS ONCE viewed as a solution to the need for greater diversity in media choice, but that was until the incumbent media juggernauts swamped the green fields of online media start-ups with a tsunami of free content. ...

Visa's security offering. (New Economy Banker).(Brief Article)
March 28, 2002... VISA ASIA PACIFIC HAS LAUNCHED Verified by Visa, a new consumer service that adds greater online security to Visa credit and Visa debit card payments. The launch is firmly supported by consumer demand for more online security, as revealed...

Bank Qld outsourcing deal to allow cost-efficient expansion. (New Economy Banker).(Brief Article)
March 28, 2002... THE BANK OF QUEENSLAND HAS awarded global services company EDS a $480 million strategic outsourcing contract. The regional bank made the announcement early this month to the stock exchange and said the 10-year contract would upgrade the...

CeBIT brings technology to Australia. (New Economy Banker).(Brief Article)
March 28, 2002... CEBIT AUSTRALIA, WITH MORE than 300 companies from Australia and around the world exhibiting, is poised to become the premier event in Australia's important Information and Communications Technology industry. The inaugural CeBIT Australia...

Companies reassess storage infrastructure. (Special Feature -- Storage And Data Warehousing).(Brief Article)(Statistical Data Included)
March 28, 2002... RECENT WORLD EVENTS HAVE prompted many companies to rethink their storage infrastructure. New research conducted by StorageTek revealed the top three improvements on every Australian organisation's wish list was better disaster recovery...

Looking past "disasters": it will be human error more often than disasters that will bring your information systems down, EMC CEO Joe Tucci says. (Special Feature -- Storage And Data Warehousing).(Brief Article)(Statistical Data Included)
March 28, 2002... EMC CEO JOE TUCCI WANTS CHIEF executives to know that an effective data storage and disaster recovery strategy is more than just planning for the worst. While the events of September 11 underlined the importance disaster recovery for many...

Storage success: it's all in the execution; you know the data your company generates is important, but what's the best way to store it? We look at how important is storage and data warehousing and why should your company have it. (Special Feature -- Storage And Data Warehousing).(Brief Article)
March 28, 2002... STORAGE AND DATA WAREHOUSING is big business. Global revenues in the data storage industry are expected to surge 12 per cent to $53.3 billion in 2004, up from $28.4 billion in 1999. So, what is a data warehouse and how can it affect a...

Sybase and Sun help customers build the next-generation business analysis capabilities: companies are quickly approaching the day when they will own a petabyte of data, and very large databases (VLDB) -- generally considered to start at least 100GB of data -- are now critical to corporate success. (Special Feature -- Storage And Data Warehousing).(Brief Article)
March 28, 2002... A PETABYTE OF DATA EQUALS ONE quadrillion bytes. It's also a million gigabytes -- the amount of data stored on 50,000 20GB home computers. Or, 250 billion pages of text. Owning and managing large amounts of data has become essential in...

A change in fortunes and CEO change for AMP Bank. (Behind The Screens).(Brief Article)
March 28, 2002... IT'S TAKEN A LOT OF TIME AND money but AMP Bank is starting to show some form and is hoping to continue to produce profits with the appointment of its third chief executive in two years. Fresh from announcing a tax-paid profit of $5 million...

National completes rejig. (Behind The Screens).(National Austrlia Bank appointment)(Brief Article)
March 28, 2002... NATIONAL AUSTRALIA BANK HAS also made an important executive appointment by securing the highly-regarded Ian Scholes as executive general manager, wholesale financial services. Scholes joins the National from Merrill Lynch, where he was...

Amex chief earns $US27 million. (Behind The Screens).(financial executives' salaries)(Brief Article)
March 28, 2002... OUR BIG FOUR CHIEF EXECUTIVES, David Murray, Frank Cicutto, John McFarlane and David Morgan are always being attacked in the mainstream media for their substantial salary packages. But their earnings base pales in comparison with the big boys...

Murray takes on IT heavies. (Behind The Screens).(Brief Article)
March 28, 2002... DAVID MURRAY'S COMMENTS AT the world IT congress in Adelaide made quite a stir and sent shock waves through the IT and financial industries last month. He attacked Microsoft Asia Pacific's white paper to the Government and blamed the US IT...

Capital gains. (Behind The Screens).(Brief Article)
March 28, 2002... "Forgive the mess. Warren just put everything into cash." [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]