K62 Finance

Judo kicks in first bank float in 25 years

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Original article by Aleks Vickovich, William McInnes
The Australian Financial Review – Page: 15 : 2-Nov-21

Judo Capital Holdings’ shares closed at $2.26 on 1 November, compared with an issue price of $2.10. The owner of Judo Bank now has a market capitalisation of $2.5bn, making it Australia’s 162nd-biggest listed company. CEO Joseph Healy says Judo has a unique banking business model, and he emphasises that it does not regard itself as a fintech. Judo is focused on lending to small and medium enterprises, and it boasts a loan book worth around $4.4bn.

CORPORATES
JUDO CAPITAL HOLDINGS LIMITED – ASX JDO, JUDO BANK PTY LTD

NAB boosts staff to reduce crime risk

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Original article by Joyce Moullakis
The Australian – Page: 17 : 26-Oct-21

National Australia Bank has ramped up the number of employees who are managing financial risk in recent years. The bank employed more than 1,500 people in this area as at 31 August, compared with just 200 in 2018. In addition, NAB has advised that it spent $816.1m on improving its financial crime and fraud controls in the four years to June. CEO Ross McEwan also recently told a parliamentary economics committee that NAB is taking its obligations regarding compliance with anti-money laundering laws seriously.

CORPORATES
NATIONAL AUSTRALIA BANK LIMITED – ASX NAB

Answers sought on bank closures

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Original article by Patrick Commins
The Australian – Page: 4 : 22-Oct-21

Data from the Reserve Bank of Australia shows that the number of full-service bank branches in regional and remote areas fell by 10 per cent between 2017 and 2020. This equates to about 270 branch closures. The federal government has established a Regional Banking Task Force, which will examine the impact of bank branch closures on regional communities. The taskforce will include politicians and representatives from the banking sector.

CORPORATES
RESERVE BANK OF AUSTRALIA

Economists cast doubt on central bank’s view

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Original article by Cecile Lefort
The Australian Financial Review – Page: 27 : 20-Oct-21

The minutes of the Reserve Bank of Australia’s latest monthly board meeting show that it still expects the cash rate to remain on hold until 2024, when inflation is forecast to be sustainably within its target range of 2-3 per cent. However, the consensus of economists is that the central bank will begin tightening monetary policy in mid-2023. Judo Bank’s chief economist Warren Hogan says the first rate rise could potentially be in November 2022, while Su-Lin Ong of RBC Capital Markets expects a rate rise in the December 2023 quarter.

CORPORATES
RESERVE BANK OF AUSTRALIA, JUDO BANK PTY LTD, RBC CAPITAL MARKETS

Westpac takes $1.3b profit hit on write-downs

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Original article by James Eyers
The Australian Financial Review – Page: 15 & 20 : 13-Oct-21

Westpac has advised that a $965m writedown associated with its institutional banking division will reduce its profit for the second half of 2020-21 by $1.3bn. Westpac will also make further provision of $172m for customer remediation and potential legal action in the wake of the Hayne royal commission. Westpac’s common equity tier 1 capital ratio will be reduced by 15 basis points as a result of the writedowns. Meanwhile, the Commonwealth Bank has indicated that its own its remedial action plan has been completed, more than three years after entering into an enforceable undertaking with the prudential regulator.

CORPORATES
WESTPAC BANKING CORPORATION – ASX WBC, COMMONWEALTH BANK OF AUSTRALIA – ASX CBA

CBA tops complaint list for third straight year

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Original article by Michael Read
The Australian Financial Review – Page: 6 : 12-Oct-21

Data from the Australian Financial Complaints Authority shows that it received a total of 67,613 complaints from customers of financial services providers in 2020-21. This follows a record 76,874 complaints in the previous financial year. About 25 per cent of all complaints were about the nation’s four major banks, with the Commonwealth Bank of Australia topping the list with 5,815 complaints. A CBA spokesman says the number of complaints it received fell by 11 per cent in 2020-21, while it resolved almost two-thirds of complaints without needing to refer them to the ACFA.

CORPORATES
AUSTRALIAN FINANCIAL COMPLAINTS AUTHORITY, COMMONWEALTH BANK OF AUSTRALIA – ASX CBA

ING home loan customers are the most satisfied with their bank, followed by Suncorp, Bendigo Bank and BankSA

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Original article by Roy Morgan
Market Research Update – Page: Online : 29-Sep-21

New financial data from Roy Morgan shows that ING has maintained its lead at the top of banking customer satisfaction ratings among home loan customers in mid-2021. ING’s satisfaction rating rose 2.6% points year-on-year to 91.3% in August 2021. ING was followed by Suncorp on 90.3% (up 3.9% points on a year ago), Bendigo Bank on 89.1% (up 0.1% points) and BankSA on 87.3% (up 11% points). The latest data covers the six months to August 2021; overall home loan customer satisfaction amongst Australia’s top 12 banks collectively was at 77.9% during this period. This represents a decrease of 0.5% points from a year ago when there was significant financial support being offered to hundreds of thousands of home loan customers in the form of deferred loans. CBA once again has the highest home loan customer satisfaction among the big four banks, with a rating of 78.7%. Average home loan customer satisfaction with the big four banks as a group is 75.9%. These latest banking satisfaction ratings come from the Roy Morgan Single Source survey, derived from in-depth interviews with over 50,000 Australians each year.

CORPORATES
ROY MORGAN LIMITED, ING BANK (AUSTRALIA) LIMITED, SUNCORP BANK, BENDIGO BANK, BANK OF SOUTH AUSTRALIA LIMITED

Banks demand criminal cartel case be tossed

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Original article by Hannah Wootton
The Australian Financial Review – Page: 20 : 17-Sep-21

The Federal Court has been urged to throw out a criminal cartel case against banking firms Citi, Deutsche and ANZ and five of their executives. The case relates to a capital raising by the ANZ, which Citi, Deutsche and JP Morgan were underwriting, with the Australian Competition & Consumer Commission alleging that the executives came to an "arrangement" after the capital raising to purchase a shortfall of shares to limit supply or maintain ANZ’s share price. Tim Game, SC, appearing for the ANZ, said on 16 September that the prosecution’s indictment fails to establish the particulars of the claims being made.

CORPORATES
FEDERAL COURT OF AUSTRALIA, CITI AUSTRALIA PTY LTD, DEUTSCHE BANK AG, JP MORGAN AUSTRALIA LIMITED, AUSTRALIA AND NEW ZEALAND BANKING GROUP LIMITED – ASX ANZ

Alarm bells as borrowers struggle

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Original article by Cliona O’Dowd
The Australian – Page: 13 & 18 : 15-Sep-21

Data from the Australian Banking Association shows that 57,000 homeowners and businesses have requested hardship assistance from their lender in the last month, compared with just 20,000 in the prior month. Home loan deferrals have risen from 14,500 to more than 27,000 in the last month, while the number of deferred business loans has risen from 600 to 3,500. New South Wales has been the biggest source of requests for hardship assistance, with Sydney having been in a COVID-19 lockdown since June.

CORPORATES
AUSTRALIAN BANKING ASSOCIATION

Banks eye mandatory jabs for staff

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Original article by Joyce Moullakis
The Australian – Page: 15 & 19 : 24-Aug-21

An Australian Banking Association working group is believed to have discussed the issue of mandatory COVID-19 vaccination for branch-based bank employees. Some banks have adopted a policy of voluntary vaccination for frontline staff, while the major banks are also seeking legal advice about the issue of vaccinations and their requirement to provide a safe working environment. National Australia Bank recently began offering the AstraZeneca vaccine to its employees, with an initial focus on staff in local government areas that are at the centre of Sydney’s current outbreak.

CORPORATES
AUSTRALIAN BANKING ASSOCIATION, NATIONAL AUSTRALIA BANK LIMITED – ASX NAB