Australian Banking & Finance articles from March 2004

Australian Banking & Finance archives from March 2004

It's full steam ahead for AMP.
March 18, 2004... AFTER MANY FALSE DAWNS, THE worst finally appears to be behind AMP. It's been a painful exercise for the company and its shareholders, but the creepy shadows of George Trumbull and Paul Batchelor that have hung over the once-mighty company...

Making branch banking pay.
March 18, 2004... FOR TODAY'S CONSUMER BANKS, reinventing local branches as a hub to attract and retain customers is essential to profit and growth. Drugstore soda fountains, penny candy, and five-and-dime stores may be gone for good, but one relic of a...

Visa calls for tough skimming penalities.(Current Account)
March 18, 2004... CREDIT CARD GIANT VISA International has called for tougher penalties to be imposed against criminals convicted of credit card skimming. This follows a raid in Melbourne by officers from the Australian Crime Commission and Victoria's Major...

Banking world.(Current Account)
March 18, 2004... A woman walks past an advertisement for Chinese renminbi services at a bank in Hong Kong. Fourty lenders this month started accepting yuan deposits in Hong Kong for the first time as financial integration with China deepens.

Retail spending patterns show slower growth.(Current Account)(Brief Article)
March 18, 2004... THE CASHCARD RETAIL ACTIVITY Index showed that retail spending in February rose 0.3% seasonally adjusted while growth rates of 0.4% remained in line with January results, also 0.4%. The monthly spending for February was $15.8 billion...

CBA sets aside $2bn for business.(Current Account)(Commonwealth Bank)(Brief Article)
March 18, 2004... THE COMMONWEALTH BANK'S institutional and business services division has set aside $2 billion in new funding for its business clients for the six months to June 30. Michael Ullmer, group executive of institutional and business services...

Finance literacy a problem, Macquarie.(Current Account)(Brief Article)
March 18, 2004... FINANCIAL LITERACY IS CRITICAL to protecting the Australian lifestyle, according to Bill Moss, chief executive of Macquarie Bank's banking and property group. Lack of financial literacy not only leaves Australians open to being defrauded...

On the record.(Current Account)
March 18, 2004... "We have gone through a recovery phase and we are now in the growth phase." SUNCORP METWAY CHIEF EXECUTIVE JOHN MULCAHY, ANNOUNCING AN 81% JUMP IN INTERIM PROFIT. "I firmly believe major banks are going to move more into this...

Cuffe rises to challenge.(News)(Challenger Financial Services Group)
March 18, 2004... CHRIS CUFFE'S QUEST TO TURN Challenger Financial Services Group into a major industry player is off to a strong start. Challenger last month reported a profit of $33 million for the half year to December and answered market criticism about...

Broker education on the improve: more than 10,000 people have completed courses via the Mortgage Industry Association of Australia's (MIAA) Online Education Centre in the past two years and the offering of courses for 2004 is set to increase.(News)(Accredited Mortgage Consultant)
March 18, 2004... THE MIAA ONLINE EDUCATION Centre offers education courses for all members of the mortgage industry, including an essential compliance course for new entrants to the industry which enables them to become an Accredited Mortgage Consultant (AMC)....

Domestic banks ahead on Basel.(News)
March 18, 2004... AS THE CLOCK TICKS towards the implementation of the Basel Accord in 2007, requiring banks to be using Basel compliant systems and data for several years before then, a global survey by KPMG of 294 financial institutions in 38 countries has...

Faces of banking and finance 2004.(News)(Brief Article)
March 18, 2004... PAUL FEGAN IS GROUP EXECUTIVE, WEALTH MANAGEMENT AT St George Bank. He was appointed to the position in June 2002. Previously based in the UK as Chief Operating Officer of Yorkshire Bank, he was also a Director of both Yorkshire Bank and...

CUSCAL lifts business.(News)(CREDIT UNION SERVICES CORPORATION)(Brief Article)
March 18, 2004... CREDIT UNION SERVICES CORPORATION (CUSCAL), the peak industry association and special service provider for the majority of Australia's credit unions, turned in a strong performance in the December 31 half year. Operational profit before...

St George offers SMS facility.(News)
March 18, 2004... ST GEORGE BANK CUSTOMERS, for the first time in Australia, are now able to use the SMS facilities on their mobile phones to monitor their bank and credit card accounts. The new service means that customers can now automatically be sent...

Addressing debt concerns.(News)(Brief Article)
March 18, 2004... THE AUSTRALIAN BANKERS' Association has announced a range of initiatives to assist bank customers in managing their household finances. David Bell, chief executive of the ABA, said: "The ABA and member banks have been listening to...

SAP looks to boost business.(News)(Brief Article)
March 18, 2004... SAP AUSTRALIA AND NEW Zealand (ANZ) announced the appointment of Elizabeth Aris as business development director, Financial. Services, SAP ANZ. This appointment comes as SAP continues to build its financial services capabilities in ANZ to...

Smart card setback.(News)(Brief Article)
March 18, 2004... THE MUCH-VAUNTED EMERGENCE of smart card technology has suffered a major setback. Retailing giant Target Corp has announced it is phasing out computer chips on its Target Visa cards due to limited shopper use, Reuters reports. Target...

NAB leads change in executive ranks: the replacement of Frank Cicutto by John Stewart as chief executive and managing director of National Australia Bank heads several changes to this year's Top 50 list.(Special feature: top 50 people in financial services)
March 18, 2004... As far as the other major commercial, banking and finance organisations go, however, there has been no movement at the top and only a few changes among the top tier of management. Several senior executives at investment banks have stepped...

Unemployment to drive property.(News)
March 18, 2004... LOW UNEMPLOYMENT AND A healthy economy will buoy Australia's property markets over the next three years, according to Westpac's latest Outlook for Australian Property Markets. However Frank Allen, Westpac's head of property markets, said...

2004 features list.(News)(Illustration)
March 18, 2004... 2004 FEATURES LIST Issue Cover Date Booking Material Deadline Deadline 1 30 January^ 19 January 20 January 2 13...

Insurance returns propel Suncorp.(Australian Insurer)
March 18, 2004... SUNCORP METWAY'S GENERAL insurance division underpinned a strong result for the group in the half year to December 31. Profit before tax and goodwill from insurance rose to $215 million from $72 million at December 2002. The company...

'Mega platform' to shape funds industry.(News)
March 18, 2004... THE FUNDS MANAGEMENT industry in Australia today provides a wide variety of choice for investors. In fact, many argue there is too much choice. Certain schools of thought believe there are too many investment products, planners, fund...

Business now not so confident.(News)
March 18, 2004... AUSTRALIAN BUSINESS CONFIDENCE declined to a nine-month low in February, suggesting the economy may slow as a 24% gain in the currency the past year cuts export earnings and a housing boom ends. The business confidence index fell 10.4...

Peter Wuffli, chief executive of UBS AG, speaks at a press conference in Zurich, Switzerland.(News)
March 18, 2004... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Caption: Peter Wuffli, chief executive of UBS AG, speaks at a press conference in Zurich, Switzerland. Europe's biggest bank by assets, reported a fourth straight quarterly profit and said it will pay a record...

Designating the EFTPOS system.(News)(electronic funds transfer point of sale)
March 18, 2004... IN 2000, THE ACCC AND THE RBA undertook a joint study of the structuring and usage of debit cards in Australia. Broadly stated, they found that the network did not operate in a free and fair competitive manner. In 2001 the RBA undertook a...

Behind the screens.(News)
March 18, 2004... AMP chief executive Andrew Mohl must be applauded for his efforts in resuscitating the insurance and funds giant. He's putted off the demerger, wiped the financial slate clean and is now moving on with running the business. Underlying results...

Capital gains.(News)
March 18, 2004... "Call me a sentimental fool, but I still worship the almighty dollar." [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]

FSR licence warning.(News)(Financial Services Reform Act 2001 (Australia) )
March 18, 2004... FINANCIAL SERVICES ORGANISATIONS that have received their new licence from ASIC may feel they deserve to relax for a while, safe in the knowledge that they have fulfilled the requirement of FSRA licensing, and that they can continue to trade....

Esanda court ruling provides warning on debt correction ways: while debt collectors can pursue a debtor with firmness, determination and civility, they must not resort to bullying, bluff tactics, misrepresentation or stand-over tactics.(News)
March 31, 2004... A RECENT INCIDENT INVOLVING the unlawful repossession of a motor vehicle serves as a reminder to finance providers and debt collectors that the Trade Practices Act, 1974 (Cth) (TPA) protects consumers. Consumer watchdog, the ACCC stepped in...

Banks can minimise exposure to phishing.(News)
March 31, 2004... THE AUSTRALIAN FINANCIAL services industry has been offered a best practice guideline for minimising the impact of rapdily-increasing phishing attacks. Phishing, which is one of the latest email fraud schemes to hit both enterprise users...

Banking world.(Current Account)
March 31, 2004... Caption: A student uses a walkway at the University of California at Berkeley's Haas School of Business. David Egan, a second-year student and vice president of career development for the finance club, says the number of banks recruiting at the...

Card providers and right-channelling.(Current Account)(Brief Article)
March 31, 2004... TO REDUCE THE COST OF SERVING customers, credit card providers must focus on right-channelling-migrating transactions from higher-cost, human-assisted channels to the web. According to Forrester Research, most card providers have yet to...

Rabobank achieves record earnings.(Current Account)(Brief Article)
March 31, 2004... RECORD BUSINESS GROWTH HAS resulted in Rabobank Australia and New Zealand reporting a pretax operating profit of $180 million for the year ended December 31. CEO Bruce Dick said the 2003 figure represented a 12% increase on the previous...

Bendigo Bank's higher rating.(Current Account)(Brief Article)
March 31, 2004... STANDARD & POOR'S RATINGS Services has revised the rating outlook on Bendigo Bank to positive from stable and affirmed the 'BBB' long-term and 'A-2' short-term counterparty credit ratings. The outlook revision to positive reflects Standard...

Adelaide Bank flags higher dividends.(Current Account)(Brief Article)
March 31, 2004... Adelaide Bank has continued record mortgage loan approvals into 2004, virtually ensuring a further increased dividend to shareholders at the end of the 2003-04 financial year. At the same time managing director Barry Fitzpatrick flagged...

On the record.(Current Account)(quotes)(Brief Article)
March 31, 2004... "Forget any idea of making a quick killing on residential real estate. That's out the door." AUSSIE HOHE LOANS BOSS JOHN SYHOND, SAYING REAL ESTATE INVESTORS HAD ABANDONED THE MARKET. "There is a view that National is arrogant and...

Finance industry spends up big to satisfy customers: the heyday of customer relationship management (CRM) may be long gone, but reports of CRM's demise are greatly exaggerated.(News)
March 31, 2004... NEW RESEARCH FROM TOWERGROUP finds that while the rate of growth may be off from the high levels experienced in the 1990s, financial services institutions worldwide spent over $5 billion on these technologies in 2003--an investment that will...

Stewart laments human failure.(News)(John Stewart )(Brief Article)
March 31, 2004... "IT WASN'T S0 MUCH THAT THE systems failed, it was that the humans failed in most of the cases." With these words, NAB chief executive John Stewart acted swiftly to sack three senior executives and the five current traders directly...

Traditional values reign.(News)(Brief Article)
March 31, 2004... Forget the Sports Car and owning luxury brands-according to a recent nationwide Newspoll survey commissioned by the Commonwealth Bank, Australians turn to traditional values to define measures of success. The survey found that the...

Banks see positive side to Basel II.(News)
March 31, 2004... A GLOBAL SURVEY HAS SHOWN that many banks around the world believe Basel II will increase their competitive advantage, but widespread uncertainty remains regarding the potential impact on regulatory capital requirements. The online survey,...

Executive suite.(News)(David Murray, Comonwealth Bank)(Interview)
March 31, 2004... DAVID MURRAY, CHIEF EXECUTIVE and managing director of the Comonwealth Bank, discussed superannuation during an interview on the Seven network last week. "The real issue in superannuation in Australia is that it is taxed on the way in, the...

Conflicting influences.(News)
March 31, 2004... THERE ARE A NUMBER COMPETING, and in some cases, conflicting influences surrounding parts of the banking industry at present. These influences are providing a catalyst for continuing change. The first area is the increasing demands of...

Faces of banking and finance 2004.(News)(officials at Wizard Home Loans)(Brief Article)
March 31, 2004... LISA MONTGOMERY IS HEAD OF CONSUMER information and advocacy for non-bank tender Wizard Home Loans. Joining the company in August 2003, Lisa is focused on leading customer service strategies for Wizard, building on the company's solid...

Insurers need some fresh perspective.(News)
March 31, 2004... WITH THE NUMBER OF CAREER life insurance agents on the decline, new research from TowerGroup urges insurers to explore non-traditional distribution outlets as a means to mitigate potential future losses. These channels include banks and...

Insurers eye improved risk practices.(News)
March 31, 2004... THE INSURANCE INDUSTRY HAS been propelled into a heightened risk environment by the series of extraordinary events of the last few years. Following the collapse of some major corporations, insurers have found themselves in a world of...

The challenge of peak performance.(News)(Periodical Review)
March 31, 2004... Retired test cricket captain Steve Waugh built an outstanding test cricket team on the foundation of Alan Border's resolute determination followed by Mark Taylor's attacking flair. Similar to the Australian banking industry's standing on...

The essential importance of data: the need to rebuild the public's trust in corporate governance has seen the introduction of legislation and best practice methodologies.(Special feature: storage & data warehousing)
March 31, 2004... THE BASEL II ACCORD AND Sarbanes-Oxley Act are recent examples of frameworks that instill best-practice, sophisticated, analytically driven risk management policies. Policies that will potentially provide greater risk-management...

Data warehousing comes into its own.(Special feature: storage & data warehousing)
March 31, 2004... ALTHOUGH THE CONCEPT OF DATA warehousing has been around for some time, the reality has rarely lived up to its promise of providing the information "silver bullet" to decision-makers. According to BearingPoint managing director, Data &...

ANZ uses storage solution to slash processing costs.(Special feature: storage & data warehousing)
March 31, 2004... ANZ SLASHED THE COSTS OF storing and retrieving cheque, withdrawal and deposit forms, improved discovery time and future proofed its compliance processes by adopting a new Centera content-addressed storage solution from EMC. ANZ's payment...

ING has flexible platform for managing transactions.(Special feature: storage & data warehousing)
March 31, 2004... FAST, EFFICIENT AND CONVENIENT customer service has been the hallmark of ING DIRECT's impressive rise in the financial services market. In 1999, ING DIRECT launched its Internet and phone-based retail banking service putting its reputation...

Improving data protection.(Special feature: storage & data warehousing)(Brief Article)
March 31, 2004... FINANCIAL INSTITUTIONS ARE planning or considering consolidating or relocating more server and storage infrastructure into a data centre, according to a survey by data storage solutions group, StorageTek. The survey found that organisations...

Challenger funds get 'A' rating.(News)(Challenger International Ltd.)
March 31, 2004... DIVERSIFIED FINANCIAL SERVICES company Challenger Financial Services Group will continue to strengthen its position in managed funds, receiving 'A' ratings for its flagship, style-neutral Australian Share Fund and the new growth-style...

Behind the screens.(News)(banking industry,management)
March 31, 2004... New NAB chief executive John Stewart and chairman Graham Kraehe have passed the first test in running NAB. The swift action in dismissing senior executives such as risk management head Chris Lewis and corporate and institutional banking boss...

CDO investments timely.(News)(Collaterised Debt Obligation )
March 31, 2004... ABSOLUTE CAPITAL HAS launched the first Collaterised Debt Obligation (CDO) fund to be managed by an Australian manager, the Absolute Capital Alternative Debt Fund No 1. According to Deon Joubert, managing director, Absolute Capital the...