Author: roymorgansocial

No mercy for unethical banks

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Original article by Phillip Coorey
The Australian Financial Review – Page: 1 & 4 : 4-Feb-19

Prime Minister Scott Morrison and Labor leader Bill Shorten have both made an in-principle commitment to implement all of the financial services royal commission’s recommendations. However, Morrison and Treasurer Josh Frydenberg say that any regulatory changes arising from the inquiry’s recommendations need to be balanced to prevent a further tightening of access to credit. Federal Parliament’s limited number of sitting days before the election means that both major parties will take their responses to the inquiry to the electorate. The inquiry’s final report will be publicly released after financial markets close on 4 February.

CORPORATES
AUSTRALIA. DEPT OF THE PRIME MINISTER AND CABINET, AUSTRALIAN LABOR PARTY, AUSTRALIA. DEPT OF THE TREASURY, AUSTRALIA. ROYAL COMMISSION INTO MISCONDUCT IN THE BANKING, SUPERANNUATION AND FINANCIAL SERVICES INDUSTRY, AUSTRALIA. PRODUCTIVITY COMMISSION, AUSTRALIA. DEPT OF JOBS AND SMALL BUSINESS

Forecasters tipping RBA will cling to its tightening bias

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Original article by Vesna Poljak
The Australian Financial Review – Page: 22 : 4-Feb-19

Andrew Ticehurst of Nomura expects the Reserve Bank of Australia’s board to retain its bias toward tightening monetary policy when it meets on 4 February. Ticehurst also forecasts that the central bank will scale back its economic growth and inflation forecasts. The general consensus of economists is that the RBA will leave the cash rate unchanged at 1.5 per cent throughout 2019, although financial markets have priced in the chance of a rate cut late in the year.

CORPORATES
RESERVE BANK OF AUSTRALIA, NOMURA AUSTRALIA LIMITED, RBC CAPITAL MARKETS, WESTPAC BANKING CORPORATION – ASX WBC, MARKET ECONOMICS PTY LTD, AMP CAPITAL INVESTORS LIMITED, INDUSTRY SUPER AUSTRALIA PTY LTD, CAPITAL ECONOMICS LIMITED, MORGAN STANLEY AUSTRALIA LIMITED

Labor flags modern rules for the media

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Original article by John Kehoe, Max Mason
The Australian Financial Review – Page: 30 : 4-Feb-19

Shadow communications minister Michelle Rowland says public interest journalism will be a priority for Labor if it wins the 2019 federal election. She adds that Labor will also pursue changes to the media industry’s regulatory framework, arguing that it was designed for the analogue era and is outdated. Rowland adds that Labor would not seek to reverse the federal government’s cross-media ownership reforms, despite having opposed the abolition of the ‘two-out-of-three rule’.

CORPORATES
AUSTRALIAN LABOR PARTY, NINE ENTERTAINMENT COMPANY HOLDINGS LIMITED – ASX NEC, FAIRFAX MEDIA LIMITED, NEWS CORP AUSTRALIA PTY LTD, NEWS CORPORATION – ASX NWS, GILBERT AND TOBIN LAWYERS, NETFLIX INCORPORATED, GOOGLE INCORPORATED, FACEBOOK INCORPORATED

Over 3.1 million New Zealanders read newspapers

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Original article by Roy Morgan
Market Research Update – Page: Online : 4-Feb-19

Roy Morgan has released its New Zealand readership results for newspapers and magazines in 2018. Over 3.1 million New Zealanders aged 14+ (79.2%) now read or access newspapers in an average 7-day period via print or online platforms. In addition, a total of 2.2 million New Zealanders aged 14+ (56.1%) read magazines whether in print or online. The New Zealand Herald remains the country’s most-read daily newspaper, with a total cross-platform audience of 1,852,000 in the 12 months to December 2018, up 39,000 on a year ago. However, its cross-platform audience growth of 2.2% over the past year was outpaced by the Waikato Times (+24.1%), the Otago Daily Times (+3.8%), Bay of Plenty Times (+12.9%), Hawke’s Bay Today (+25.7%) and the Northern Advocate (+8.9%). Meanwhile, automotive magazine AA Directions remains New Zealand’s most widely-read magazine, with an average readership of 472,000 for each issue.

CORPORATES
ROY MORGAN LIMITED

Kia joins Osaka & Djokovic as Australian Open winners

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Original article by Roy Morgan
Market Research Update – Page: Online : 4-Feb-19

A Roy Morgan Single Source survey shows that nearly 3.5 million Australians aged 14+ (or 17%) associate the Australian Open’s major sponsor Kia with the year’s first Grand Slam tournament. In addition, nearly 2 million Australians aged 14+ (10%) associate the Australian Open’s associate partner ANZ with the tournament. Leading sports apparel companies Adidas and Nike – which both personally sponsor several leading tennis players – are associated with the Australian Open by 9% and 8% of Australian respectively. Meanwhile, nearly a third of Australians who play tennis (32%) associate Kia with the Australian Open and 19% associate ANZ with the tournament. Once again sports apparel companies Adidas (14% of tennis players) and Nike (13%) are regarded by many tennis-playing Australians as being associated with the tournament, while official sponsors Emirates (7%), Dunlop (4%) and Optus (4%) are also widely associated with the Australian Open by those Australians who play the sport.

CORPORATES
ROY MORGAN LIMITED, AUSTRALIAN OPEN TENNIS, KIA MOTORS CORPORATION, AUSTRALIA AND NEW ZEALAND BANKING GROUP LIMITED – ASX ANZ, ADIDAS AUSTRALIA PTY LTD, NIKE INCORPORATED, EMIRATES AIRLINES, DUNLOP TYRES, SINGTEL OPTUS PTY LTD

Record employment in January driven by increasing full-time jobs

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Original article by Roy Morgan
Market Research Update – Page: Online : 4-Feb-19

A Roy Morgan survey shows that a record 12,397,000 Australians were employed in January 2019, up 161,000 over the past year. The increase in employment was driven by a solid increase in full-time employment of 212,000 (to 8,257,000); part-time employment was down 51,000 (to 4,140,000). The figures also show that 1,253,000 Australians (9.2% of the workforce) were unemployed in January (up 34,000 on a year ago), and the unemployment rate increased by 0.1%. In addition, 1,300,000 Australians (9.5% of the workforce) were under-employed, working part-time and looking for more work, a decrease of 71,000 in a year (down 0.7%). In total 2,553,000 Australians (18.7% of the workforce) were either unemployed or under-employed in January, a decrease of 37,000 in a year (down 0.6%). Roy Morgan’s real unemployment figure of 9.2% for January is significantly higher than the current ABS estimate for December 2018 of 5.0%. Roy Morgan CEO Michele Levine says that despite steady economic growth over the past few years, analysing the employment trends shows that over 2 million Australians have been unemployed or underemployed for over seven years.

CORPORATES
ROY MORGAN LIMITED, AUSTRALIAN BUREAU OF STATISTICS

Pizza Hut ushers in penalty rates after Fair Work ruling

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Original article by David Marin-Guzman
The Australian Financial Review – Page: 9 : 1-Feb-19

Pizza Hut Australia employees will be moved to the industry award after the Fair Work Commission agreed to terminate an enterprise agreement that had expired in 2012. The Shop, Distributive & Allied Employees’ Association had applied to have the agreement terminated in 2017, after Pizza Hut failed to increase its pay rates in line with a 3.3 per cent rise in the minimum wage in 2016. Under the expired workplace agreement, penalty rates had been traded off for a seven per cent increase in base hourly wage rates.

CORPORATES
PIZZA HUT AUSTRALIA, AUSTRALIA. FAIR WORK COMMISSION, SHOP, DISTRIBUTIVE AND ALLIED EMPLOYEES’ ASSOCIATION, DOMINO’S PIZZA ENTERPRISES LIMITED – ASX DMP

AMP reaps $100m in zombie fees

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Original article by Michael Roddan
The Australian – Page: 6 : 1-Feb-19

The federal government’s legislative agenda for February will include a bill to enable the Australian Taxation Office to transfer monies from inactive superannuation accounts with low balances to the fund member. There are about 7.3 million inactive super accounts in Australia, and it is estimated that AMP alone generates at least $100m in fees each year from more than one million such accounts. Australians also pay some $2.6bn a year in fees for multiple super accounts.

CORPORATES
AMP LIMITED – ASX AMP, AUSTRALIAN TAXATION OFFICE, AUSTRALIAN LABOR PARTY, AUSTRALIANSUPER PTY LTD, MOTOR TRADES ASSOCIATION OF AUSTRALIA SUPERANNUATION FUND PTY LTD, REST SUPER PTY LTD, FIRST SUPER PTY LTD, AUSTRALIA. PRODUCTIVITY COMMISSION, AUSTRALIA. DEPT OF THE TREASURY, AUSTRALIAN PRUDENTIAL REGULATION AUTHORITY

ASIC to clarify lending rules post Hayne

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Original article by James Eyers
The Australian Financial Review – Page: 17 : 1-Feb-19

The Australian Securities & Investments Commission is expected to issue revised guidelines covering banks and their responsible lending obligations in coming weeks. The new guidelines are expected to be one of the first regulatory responses to the banking royal commission’s final report, which is due to be released on 4 February. The guidelines are likely to state that it is permissible for banks to use technology to help them to make more speedy decisions on loan applications.

CORPORATES
AUSTRALIAN SECURITIES AND INVESTMENTS COMMISSION, AUSTRALIA. ROYAL COMMISSION INTO MISCONDUCT IN THE BANKING, SUPERANNUATION AND FINANCIAL SERVICES INDUSTRY, AUSTRALIAN PRUDENTIAL REGULATION AUTHORITY, WESTPAC BANKING CORPORATION – ASX WBC, FEDERAL COURT OF AUSTRALIA, JP MORGAN AUSTRALIA LIMITED

Banks, rules to blame for house prices

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Original article by Michael Bleby, Su-Lin Tan
The Australian Financial Review – Page: 5 : 1-Feb-19

Chris Richardson of Deloitte Access Economics claims that both the banks and regulators are to blame for the current decline in house prices. He says that regulators were too slow to realise that record low interest rates were causing the housing market to overheat, while the banks suddenly went from being too generous with their credit to being too stingy. Figures released by the Reserve Bank on 31 January show that lending to owner-occupier borrowers grew by just 6.5 per cent in 2018, the weakest annual rate since 2014.

CORPORATES
DELOITTE ACCESS ECONOMICS PTY LTD, RESERVE BANK OF AUSTRALIA, WESTPAC BANKING CORPORATION – ASX WBC