K62 Finance

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

ACCC under fire as ANZ cartel charges reduced

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Original article by Charlotte Grieve
Brisbane Times – Page: Online : 19-Aug-21

The Australian Competition & Consumer Commission is under scrutiny over its role in prosecuting a cartel case against the ANZ Bank, Citigroup and Deutsche Bank. The Commonwealth Director of Public Prosecutions recently dropped all charges against Citi Australia’s former head Stephen Roberts, plus a number of charges against the other five bank executives involved in the case. However, the DPP wants to re-interview JP Morgan bankers who were given immunity from prosecution by the ACCC in return for providing evidence in the case. Sources have claimed that the JP Morgan witnesses are "fast becoming discredited".

CORPORATES
AUSTRALIA AND NEW ZEALAND BANKING GROUP LIMITED – ASX ANZ, DEUTSCHE BANK AG, CITIGROUP PTY LTD, AUSTRALIA. DIRECTOR OF PUBLIC PROSECUTIONS, AUSTRALIAN COMPETITION AND CONSUMER COMMISSION

ANZ acts to halt fall in home lending

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Original article by Richard Gluyas
The Australian – Page: 17 : 19-Aug-21

The ANZ Bank has revealed that its home loan book fell by $300m during the June quarter, to $280bn. Mortgage lending grew by $16.2bn for the period, but there was a $16.5bn increase in customers paying off their loans amid record low interest rates. Meanwhile, the bank has disclosed that 1,300 of its mortgage customers were still on deferred repayment plans during the quarter, which equates to just 0.2 per cent of its mortgage book. Likewise, only 50 business loans were deferred during the quarter, compared with 24,000 in 2020-21.

CORPORATES
AUSTRALIA AND NEW ZEALAND BANKING GROUP LIMITED – ASX ANZ

NAB’s doubling down on credit cards boosts retail banking arm

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Original article by Cliona O’Dowd, John Durie
The Australian – Page: 17 : 11-Aug-21

National Australia Bank CEO Ross McEwan says the deal to buy Citigroup’s Australian consumer banking division will provide NAB with scale and expertise in unsecured lending, particularly in the credit card market. However, Morgan Stanley has questioned the merits of NAB’s push to expand in the consumer unsecured lending market, which is occurring at a time when younger Australians in particular are shunning credit cards in favour of ‘buy now, pay later’ services. Ord Minnett has in turn warned of the material risk that the transaction will be blocked by the Australian Competition & Consumer Commission.

CORPORATES
NATIONAL AUSTRALIA BANK LIMITED – ASX NAB, CITIGROUP PTY LTD, MORGAN STANLEY AUSTRALIA LIMITED, ORD MINNETT GROUP LIMITED, AUSTRALIAN COMPETITION AND CONSUMER COMMISSION

CBA buyback tipped as earnings swell

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Original article by Joyce Moullakis
The Australian – Page: 18 : 9-Aug-21

The consensus of analysts polled by Bloomberg is for the Commonwealth Bank of Australia to post a 2020-21 cash profit of $8.62bn. This compares with $7.2bn for the previous financial year. CBA’s dividend payout for the full year is expected to be $3.427 per share, with investors having received an interim dividend of $1.50. Meanwhile, Brian Johnson of Jefferies expects CBA to return surplus capital to investors via a $5.5bn off-market buyback. National Australia Bank and the ANZ Bank both recently announced buybacks.

CORPORATES
COMMONWEALTH BANK OF AUSTRALIA – ASX CBA, JEFFERIES AND COMPANY, NATIONAL AUSTRALIA BANK LIMITED – ASX NAB, AUSTRALIA AND NEW ZEALAND BANKING GROUP LIMITED – ASX ANZ

Dodgy advice refunds hit $1.86bn

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Original article by Cliona O’Dowd
The Australian – Page: 17 : 6-Aug-21

The fee-for-no-service scandal has now cost six of Australia’s biggest financial institutions more than $1.6bn in total. New data from the Australian Securities & Investments Commission shows that the four major banks, Macquarie Group and AMP paid out an additional $620.9m during the first six months of 2021. They have also paid out $224.6m in total to customers who received non-compliant financial advice. It has also been alleged that about 2,000 of AMP’s customers had continued to be charged fees after the institution was informed that they had died.

CORPORATES
COMMONWEALTH BANK OF AUSTRALIA – ASX CBA, WESTPAC BANKING CORPORATION – ASX WBC, NATIONAL AUSTRALIA BANK LIMITED – ASX NAB, AUSTRALIA AND NEW ZEALAND BANKING GROUP LIMITED – ASX ANZ, MACQUARIE GROUP LIMITED – ASX MQG, AMP LIMITED – ASX AMP, AUSTRALIAN SECURITIES AND INVESTMENTS COMMISSION

Reserve Bank sticks to the plan despite Covid resurgence

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Original article by David Rogers
The Australian – Page: 15 & 20 : 4-Aug-21

The Reserve Bank of Australia has confirmed that it still intends to reduce its weekly bond-buying program from $5bn to $4bn in early September, following its latest monthly board meeting. Westpac’s chief economist Bill Evans says the decision was surprising, given that the RBA had consistently reiterated that its quantitative easing program would be guided by factors such as the economic outlook and the COVID-19 pandemic. The central bank has conceded that the economy is likely to contract in the September quarter, due to the impact of lockdowns. The RBA has also reiterated its view that the cash rate will not rise until inflation is ‘sustainably’ within its target range of 2-3 per cent.

CORPORATES
RESERVE BANK OF AUSTRALIA, WESTPAC BANKING CORPORATION – ASX WBC

Regulate Apple Pay, says CBA

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Original article by James Eyers
The Australian Financial Review – Page: 1 & 22 : 28-Jul-21

Commonwealth Bank CEO Matt Comyn appeared before the parliamentary joint committee on corporations and financial services on 27 July. He told the committee that Apple Pay is now an essential service in the payments system and should therefore be subject to greater regulation, given that access to the iPhone’s near-field communication chip is restricted solely to Apple’s own digital wallet. Tom Leuner from the Australian Competition & Consumer Commission also noted that restrictions on access to the chip could potentially raise competition concerns. Some 9,000 banks worldwide now use Apple Pay, including Australia’s four major banks.

CORPORATES
COMMONWEALTH BANK OF AUSTRALIA – ASX CBA, AUSTRALIA. PARLIAMENTARY JOINT COMMITTEE ON CORPORATIONS AND FINANCIAL SERVICES, APPLE INCORPORATED, APPLE PAY, AUSTRALIAN COMPETITION AND CONSUMER COMMISSION