Australian Banking & Finance articles from May 2002

Australian Banking & Finance archives from May 2002

McFarlane the top CEO, CBA wins best bank title; the chief executive of ANZ Banking Group John McFarlane has been voted Best Financial Services Executive by our readers in the 12th annual Australian Banking & Finance newsmagazine Awards. (Australian Banking & Finance Awards 2002).(Commonwealth Bank of Australai)(Brief Article)
May 21, 2002... THE COMMONWEALTH BANK WAS named Best Bank and also picked up the best Banking and Finance Promotion prize for its "No Regrets" home loan campaign. It gained further recognition when its managing director David Murray was inducted into the...

A true believer in banking industry; David Murray has had a profound influence on the Commonwealth Bank and indeed the banking industry generally in a career that began in 1966. In this interview with Australian Banking & Finance executive editor Phil Ayling, Murray discusses some of the highs and lows and offers some thoughts about the future. (Hall of Fame: David Murray).(Interview)
May 21, 2002... Q: If you had your time over again would you choose banking as a career? A: Yes I would. Although when I started I didn't have a dear idea of which particular industry or company, or institution I wanted to work for. In hindsight I would....

ANZ chief remedies the `evil sins'. (Best Financial Service Executive).(Brief Article)
May 21, 2002... ANZ CHIEF EXECUTIVE JOHN McFarlane has a framed letter from the nation's top-ranked analyst hanging on his office wall, lauding his effort to remedy the bank's "evil sins". J.P. Morgan Chase & Co. bank analyst Brian Johnson penned the note...

CBA builds on success. (Best Bank).(Commonwealth Bank of Australia)(Brief Article)
May 21, 2002... THE COMMONWEALTH BANK Group has built on the success of its strategic initiatives in the past year. The bank followed up last year's annual $2.26 billion profit with a $1.2 billion return for the first half of the latest year in a...

Deutsche a market leader. (Best Foreign Bank).(Deutsche Bank Australia)(Brief Article)
May 21, 2002... DEUTSCHE BANK IS ONE OF THE world's largest and most prominent financial institutions with 92,000 employees in 60 countries. The group is a significant participant in key investment banking markets worldwide and is ranked No 1 investment...

St George lauds `best bank' program. (Best Regional Bank).(Brief Article)(Company Profile)
May 21, 2002... ST GEORGE, THE NATION'S FIFTH largest bank, continues to offer Australians a real, customer-focused banking alternative by differentiating itself from the four major banks in terms of quality of service and value offered. St George's close...

Macquarie the king of innovation. (Best Investment Bank).(Macquarie Bank)(Brief Article)
May 21, 2002... MACQUARIE BANK IS A PREeminent provider of investment banking and financial services, throughout Australia and in selected international markets. In Australia Macquarie provides a full range of investment, financial market and advisory...

Heritage benefits from cross-border expansion. (Best Building Society).(Heritage Building Society operates in several states)(Brief Article)
May 21, 2002... WITH ORIGINS DATING BACK TO 1875, Heritage Building Society was formed in 1981 from the merger of Toowoomba Permanent Building Society (est 1875) and Darling Downs Permanent Building Society (est 1897). Since that time it has become firmly...

Aussie rebuilds business to generate efficiencies. (Best Non-Bank Financial Institution).(Aussie Home Loans)(Brief Article)
May 21, 2002... DURING 2001, AUSTRALIA'S largest non-bank tender, Aussie Home loans, re-built many facets of its business, creating greater efficiencies in its operations through technological investment. It is already seeing the benefits in the critical...

ANCU attracts members. (Best Credit Union).(Australian National Credit Union)(Brief Article)
May 21, 2002... THE AUSTRALIAN NATIONAL Credit Union has grown to become Australia's leading credit union. Its success continues to attract members, who wish to grow financially, with advice from friendly and approachable staff. It today has more than...

Clasquin drives IT initiatives. (Best CIO/E-Banker).(Tony Clasquin of Colonial State Bank, Australia, head of information technology)(Brief Article)
May 21, 2002... TONY CLASQUIN BEGAN HIS involvement in the banking and finance sector in Australia in 1990, after migrating from South Africa. He joined the then State Bank of NSW as a programmer in the treasury department. In 1995, Clasquin was...

HSBC's export clients endorse DocumentX. (Best New Product).(HSBC Bank Australia)(Brief Article)
May 21, 2002... HSBC BANK AUSTRALIA IS THE first bank in Australia to launch an internet based export document preparation system-DocumentExpress. It allows exporters to prepare and manage their export documentation online and generate key documents...

No Regrets split-rate home loans. (Best Promotion).(promotion at Commonwealth Bank of Australia)(Brief Article)
May 21, 2002... THE COMMONWEALTH BANK'S "No Regrets" home loan campaign was originally designed to portray a "great deal, partner for life" message. It evolved to adapting to meet the changing needs of customers now and in the future. It was also...

Online investment a winner. (Best E-Commerce Initiative).(Colonial First State Investments)(Brief Article)
May 21, 2002... COLONIAL FIRST STATE HAS BEEN managing investment funds since 1988, providing investment advice to individual, corporate and public sector investors. Colonial First State online offers a wealth of information and advice to users as well as...

Viewpoint: two respected industry figures have their say. (News).(future of finance companies)(Brief Article)
May 21, 2002... Q: A recent KPMG survey said the finance company sector had experienced a difficult 12 months. What does the future hold for the sector? Peter Nash, head of financial services, KPMG "We expect the finance company sector to remain...

Westpac's fund acquisition provides growth springboard. (News).(Westpac Banking Corp. buys Australian fund management unit of N.M. Rothschild and Sons Ltd.)(Brief Article)
May 21, 2002... WESTPAC BANKING CORP HAS taken an important step in its need to bolster funds management activities by paying $323 million in cash for N.M. Rothschild & Sons Ltd's funds unit in Australia an acquisition that will make it the country's No 8...

RESI Mortgage Corp to offer insurance. (Current Account).(Brief Article)
May 21, 2002... ONE OF AUSTRALIA'S LEADING non-bank lenders has entered the insurance market with the launch of two competitively-priced insurance products offering more inclusions than the industry norm. In a move designed to broaden its customer support...

Banking world. (Current Account).(bomb threats)(Brief Article)
May 21, 2002... Bank customers wait in line withdraw their money following a bomb threat to are banks in Washington DC last month. Only the ATM's were available for money transactions. [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]

Bluestone launches $130 million raising. (Current Account).(Bluestone Mortgages; mortgage-backed securities deal)(Brief Article)
May 21, 2002... SPECIALIST LENDER BLUESTONE Mortgages has launched an innovative $130 million issue of securities backed by a portfolio of non-conforming residential mortgages. The transaction marks Bluestone's debut as an issuer of publicly-rated debt...

Homeloans teams with SA real estate agent. (Current Account).(South Australia)(Brief Article)
May 21, 2002... HOMELOANS SA, THE SOUTH Australian branch of leading national mortgage originator and manager, Homeloans Ltd, has formed a joint venture with Weston Raine & Home Real Estate, to create an additional distribution channel for its range of home...

On the record.(Brief Article)
May 21, 2002... "We would expect over the next year or so to be looking at a portfolio of steps when that money is freed up to reshape our business." WESTPAC CHIEF FINANCIAL OFFICER PHIL CHRONICAN ON THE PROCEEDS FROM THE SALE OF AGC FOR $1.5 BILLION. ...

Refinancing rush raise broker concerns. (News).(home loans)(Brief Article)(Statistical Data Included)(Industry Overview)
May 21, 2002... A RECORD 21 PER CENT HIKE IN refinancings has been an overlooked feature of the home loan boom in Australia. And there are concerns about the role mortgage brokers are playing in the market and of the quality of some of the loans written in...

Investment banking `war for talent' set to intensify; the chief executive of Deutsche Bank Australia Ken Borda provided some fascinating thoughts on the downturn in the investment banking market at an Australian Banking & Finance magazine lecture earlier this month. They are captured here in this edited text of his speech. (News).(Statistical Data Included)
May 21, 2002... HAVING BEEN IN THE INDUSTRY for 20 years, this year allows me to put the current market downturn into a broader perspective. And let me tell you, compared to the crash of 1987 and the recession in Australia in the early 90's, the current...

The customer interaction-where it really counts: optimising the contact centre to win and retain customers. (News).(Witness Systems' software)(Brief Article)
May 21, 2002... WHILE TENS OF MILLIONS OF dollars has been spent on CRM technology by organisations within the banking and finance sector, for many companies there is stilt a tack of understanding of what actually happens at the moment of contact with the...

Moving customers forward. (examining the customer).(banks and business intelligence)(Brief Article)
May 21, 2002... ONE OF THE BUZZWORDS BANKS are facing is business intelligence (BI). There are all sorts of conferences, vendors clamouring for attention and experts talking about the topic and how it is going to change the face of business forever. ...

Solving the training tangle. (News).(financial analysts, compliance with Financial Services Reform Act)(Brief Article)
May 21, 2002... The Financial Services Reform Act will radically change the nature and quality of advice in the banking industry, while producing onerous training requirements. Fortunately, the Australasian Institute of Banking and Finance has the training...

Building customer alliances. (New Economy Banker).(using the Internet)(Brief Article)(Statistical Data Included)
May 21, 2002... THE RESPONSIBILITIES OF managing and communicating with an online customer base go far beyond the bank's immediate online channel. As mentioned before, online banking customers are some of the most active and engaging of all online users....

Sitescope. (New Economy Banker).(ranking of online banking Web sites)(Brief Article)(Statistical Data Included)
May 21, 2002... THE MERCURY INTERACTIVE SiteScope Availability Ranking is a ranking of the availability of certain pages or resources on some of Australia's leading banking sites. The "availability" is not measured by server uptime or any other IT-centric...

Conflicts built into banking structure. (News).(conflicts of interest)(Brief Article)
May 21, 2002... ENGINEERS HAVE A VARIETY OF technical terms for why buildings can fall down: overload, brittle fracture and bearing failure are some of them. Some of those terms might soon be needed by commentators on the investment banking industry. ...

Interest income, asset growth boost big four; with ANZ and Westpac reaching the billion dollar mark for the first time, Australia's four major banks delivered a combined underlying net profit (adjusted for significant items) of $5.4 billion for the first half of FY02, an increase of 12.5 per cent on the same period last year. (News).(Brief Article)(Industry Overview)
May 21, 2002... A PwC analysis shows that the main contributors to first-half banking profits were asset growth and interest income. "The banks have again performed extremely well despite higher bad debt expenses and softer business Lending growth, and...

Borda address Sydney lecture. (People).(Brief Article)
May 21, 2002... The chief executive of Deutsche Bank Ken Borda was the guest speaker at an Australian Banking & Finance newsmagazine lecture in Sydney last month. The lecture series is sponsored by Fuji Xerox. Kevin Lee, AMP, Arjan Dewin of Westpac and...

Behind the screens. (News).(various news items)(Brief Article)
May 21, 2002... The managing director of Deutsche Bank Ken Borda acknowledges that investment bankers are optimistic by nature. But he is realistic enough to know that times have changed. "A couple of years ago the description of an optimistic investment...

Credit unions offer support for home lending reforms. (credit union comment).(Brief Article)
May 21, 2002... CREDIT UNIONS SUPPORT NEW truth-in-lending laws. Queensland recently passed the Consumer Credit (Queensland) Amendment Act 2002 to amend the Uniform Consumer Credit Code (the Code) to require the mandatory disclosure of comparison rates...

Standards speed loan approvals.(first electronic commerce standards for Australian market)(Brief Article)
May 31, 2002... THE HOME LENDING INDUSTRY can expect cost-savings well in excess of $10 million and times to unconditional approval improved by 40 per cent, with the introduction of the industry's first e-commerce standards for the Australian market. The...

ING Direct starts to repay marketing investment.(Brief Article)(Statistical Data Included)
May 31, 2002... ING DIRECT, THE NATION'S FASTEST growing retail bank, is trading profitably and helped ING Bank Australia turn around it fortunes last year. ING Bank posted a $3.26 million net profit for the 2001 year, compared to a $17.1 million loss in...

ABA advocates super simplicity.(Australian Bankers Association)(Brief Article)
May 31, 2002... THE AUSTRALIAN BANKERS' Association (ABA) has lodged a submission with the Senate Select Committee Inquiry into Superannuation and Standards of Living in Retirement arguing that adequacy and simplicity are the key priorities for reform. ...

St Andrew's secures insurance business. (Current Account).(IMB Ltd.)(Brief Article)
May 31, 2002... FOLLOWING THE SUCCESSFUL launch of a joint bancassurance initiative through Bank of Queensland and existing clients, St Andrew's Insurance and Royal & SunAlliance have been appointed by IMB Ltd as the preferred suppliers of insurance products...

Banking world. (Current Account).(Deutsche Bank resignations, hirings)(Brief Article)
May 31, 2002... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Caption: Hilmar Kopper, left, the outgoing chairman of the board of Deutsche Bank, Josef Ackermann, centre, the new CEO of Deutsche Bank, smiles as he stands next to Rolf E. Breuer, right, retiring CEO, prior to the...

National to focus on UK, Ireland. (Current Account).(Brief Article)
May 31, 2002... NATIONAL AUSTRALIA BANK WILL focus on expanding in the UK and Ireland, an opportunity not open to its three biggest rivals, chief executive Frank Cicutto said. Banned from merging with rivals at home, NAB aims to expand in the UK and...

Reid calls it a day at J.P. Morgan. (Current Account).(Scott Reid)(Brief Article)
May 31, 2002... J.P. MORGAN CHASE & CO'S senior country officer in Australia Scott Reid has resigned, ending a 30-year association with the bank. Reid will leave in September. The 54-year old has been J.P. Morgan's representative in Australia and New...

St George rejects card sale talk. (Current Account).(St. George Bank)(Brief Article)
May 31, 2002... ST GEORGE BANK IS NOT CANVASSING the sale of its credit card business, an industry source said. The Australian Financial Review newspaper had quoted banking sources saying St George was in talks with US credit card lender Capital One on...

Macquarie looks to overseas growth. (Current Account).(Brief Article)
May 31, 2002... MACQUARIE BANK PLANS TO expand offshore from within rather than through acquisitions, says chief executive Allan Moss. Moss said the company would grow about 10 of its 50 niche businesses outside Australia, including setting up an oil and...

On the record.
May 31, 2002... "Conditions in our wealth management market are as tough as I have seen in the last decade." AMP CHIEF EXECUTIVE PAUL BATCHELOR. "The bank needs to reinvent itself to survive." OUTGOING DEUTSCHE BANK CEO ROLF BREUER. "We...

Hackers to target online banking. (News).(Brief Article)
May 31, 2002... ONLINE BANKING IS THE NEXT target for computer hackers and could escalate in the next year two years. Dean Kingly, lead partner in Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu Australia's e-business consulting practice, said the financial services industry...

Forex traders seek best practice. (News).(Financial Markets Association)(Brief Article)
May 31, 2002... THE FOREIGN EXCHANGE INDUSTRY'S global trading association ended a European congress last week set to pursue a drive to promote qualifications and best practice in the world's largest but least regulated market. After a year marked by a...

Colonial topples AMP as top fund manager. (News).(Colonial First State)(Brief Article)(Statistical Data Included)
May 31, 2002... COLONIAL FIRST STATE toppled AMP as the nation's biggest domestic fund manager for the first time in more than a century, with $72.3 billion of funds. AMP managed $70.8 billion of assets in Australia, or 10.3 per cent of the market at...

Coles Myer ready for financial services play; Coles Myer is deepening its push into financial services through the introduction of a loyalty card and a possible joint venture with Westpac. KMPG banking and financial services group partner Peter Russell examines its strategy. (News).
May 31, 2002... THE INTRODUCTION OF THE Coles Myer loyalty card provides the company with a number of key strategic choices to grow its revenues and profitability. The key question for the company is how does it develop an attractive loyalty card reward...

Using rewards for wealth. (human capital).(Brief Article)
May 31, 2002... EXPANDING AND GROWING WEALTH management is the focal point of many financial services companies' business strategies--demonstrated recently by industry consolidations such as Westpac's acquisition of Rothschild Australia Asset Management and...

How big is Australia's non-conforming mortgage market? (News).(Brief Article)(Column)
May 31, 2002... WITH THE RECENT RISE IN interest rates and further rate increases predicted, ortgage borrowers may find it increasingly difficult to obtain credit from the banks and other traditional lenders. However, being declined by a bank these days...

Relationship management vital. (News).(Brief Article)
May 31, 2002... WHO IS "THE CLIENT"? The new millennium does not bring with it a new style of client but rather it will continue the evolution of the client we already know. That busy individual who has a broad knowledge of financial matters, but is...

Gilbert takes over as credit union leader. (News).(Brief Article)
May 31, 2002... CREDIT UNION SERVICES Corporation (CUSCAL) has ended its search for a CEO, appointing John Gilbert to the role. Whilst a commencement date is not yet confirmed, Gilbert is expected to start his new role as CUSCAL Chief Executive Officer in...

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 Matthew Slatter. (News).(Brief Article)
May 31, 2002... Slatter was appointed to this role on June 1, 2000. He was previously chief executive officer of Westpac subsidiary, Bank of Melbourne. Prior to appointment to BoM, he was deputy chief financial officer, head of financial planning and...

Banking and finance industry celebrates excellence at premier Awards function. (Pictorial--Awards 2002).(Brief Article)
May 31, 2002... More than 400 members of the financial services community gathered in Sydney on May 21 for the 12th annual Australian Banking & Finance newsmagazine Awards. NSW Premier Bob Carr and the chairman of the Australian Consumer and Competition...

Financial institutions urged to take leadership position; volume figures for person-to-person payments still lag far behind the heady predictions that heralded P2P's birth in the late 90s. (Special Report--Payment & Billing Systems).(Brief Article)
May 31, 2002... WHILE ACTUAL TRANSACTIONS between individuals will continue to grow gradually, the greatest opportunity for P2P providers--and most significant threat to the payment franchises of established financial institutions--is the ability of the P2P...

Payments a source of competitive advantage. (Special Report--Payment & Billing Systems).(Brief Article)
May 31, 2002... THE PAYMENTS BUSINESS constitutes up to 35 per cent of revenues and 40 per cent of costs for banks and has a profound impact on overall profitability. It can be a source of true competitive advantage, according to the Latest Global...

Growth in automated billing. (Special Report--Payment & Billing Systems).(Brief Article)
May 31, 2002... "THERE ARE NO LIMITS TO the market segments that automated billing will be applied to in the very near future," says Barry Mulligan, marketing director of billing solutions company, EZYPAY. Just what differentiates EZYPAY's Automated...

STP helps improve cost to income ratios. (News).(Straight Through Processing )(Brief Article)
May 31, 2002... FINANCIAL INSTITUTIONS ARE facing one of their greatest challenges as traditional avenues for cost reduction are exhausted and the demand for greater profits and customer satisfaction continues unabated. After re-engineering, branch...

Suncorp on track with GIO. (News).(Suncorp-Metway Ltd.)(Brief Article)
May 31, 2002... SUNCORP METWAY LTD managing director Steve Jones has insisted the company was on track in bedding down its single biggest business, GIO. By the end of June the company will have completed 300 of the 796 "ideas" that were promised when...

Regional customers on the increase. (the Nielsen/netRatings report).(online banking in Australia)(Brief Article)(Statistical Data Included)
May 31, 2002... THE SOMETIMES VOLATILE MIX of banks and the bush only adds to the whole complex issue of regional Australia and the commercial and political pressures it raises. How interesting then to see Internet use in non-metro Australia outpace much...

Sitescope. (New Economy Banker).(availability statistics for various bank web sites)(Brief Article)(Statistical Data Included)
May 31, 2002... REAL "AVAILABILITY" CAN ONLY truly be measured by the end-user of a system, as ultimately any problem that affects a user's ability to transact--whether the bank's own system problem, or the fault of Internet Service Providers (ISP's), or even...

US banks fail on web service. (New Economy Banker).(Brief Article)
May 31, 2002... A RECENT SURVEY OF 100 TOP US financial institutions has found that most are doing a dismal job of turning prospects that utilise the Web channel into customers. In a new report, entitled Online Customer Service: Enraging or Engaging?,...

St George orders 5000 terminals. (New Economy Banker).(St. George Bank)(Brief Article)
May 31, 2002... SECURE ELECTRONIC TRANSACTION solutions provider Keycorp has signed an agreement with St George Bank to deliver K23 fixed line electronic payment terminals. The initial order is for 5000 terminals, to be delivered within the next year. ...

Murray calls for "realism" after insurance collapses; Commonwealth Bank managing director David Murray has called for more economic reform in Australia to help enhance what he described as a "robust and increasingly competitive economy." (News).(Brief Article)
May 31, 2002... SPEAKING AT THE ASIA AUSTRALIA Investment Conference in Sydney, Murray said the quality of financial services was needed in the region to help support economic and structural change. "Within the financial, sector, regulatory reforms have...

Finance conference examines Asia Pacific investment. (People--Asia Australia Investment Conference And Expo).
May 31, 2002... Axiss Australia staged a major investment conference/expo in Sydney on May 16 to coincide with the APEC Asia Pacific Economic Community conference. The event was organised by Australian Banking & Finance newsmagazine. Mark Howland,...

Behind the screens. (News).
May 31, 2002... Our non-bank financial institutions sure do like giving it to the banks at every opportunity. At this magazine's annual Awards function this month Aussie John Symond and the boss of Australian National Credit Union Rob Nicholls received gongs...

Bancassurance models do work. (News).(marketing of insurance through banks)(Brief Article)
May 31, 2002... WHILE BANCASSURANCE HAS been a powerful model in parts of Europe, in other countries such as the UK and Australia, it has, to date, been less successful. Estimates are that in the UK, only about 7% of new life insurance business is sold through...