K62 Finance

NAB operations boss quits as Baird firms for top job

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Original article by James Eyers
The Australian Financial Review – Page: 15 & 18 : 28-Aug-18

Former New South Wales premier Mike Baird is now regarded as the leading internal candidate to eventually succeed National Australia Bank CEO Andrew Thorburn. COO Antony Cahill had been seen as a potential successor, but he will leave the bank in mid-September to take up a role at Visa in the UK. Andrew Hagger was also regarded as a contender to replace Thorburn, but he attracted scrutiny by the banking royal commission over the fee-for-no-service scandal. External candidates are said to include former Westpac executive Jason Yetton.

CORPORATES
NATIONAL AUSTRALIA BANK LIMITED – ASX NAB, VISA INTERNATIONAL, AUSTRALIA. ROYAL COMMISSION INTO MISCONDUCT IN THE BANKING, SUPERANNUATION AND FINANCIAL SERVICES INDUSTRY, WESTPAC BANKING CORPORATION – ASX WBC, SOCIETYONE AUSTRALIA PTY LTD, MLC LIMITED, PERPETUAL LIMITED – ASX PPT

Exposure was good for banks: Elliott

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Original article by Richard Gluyas
The Australian – Page: 21 : 24-Aug-18

ANZ Bank CEO Shayne Elliott has no regrets about his involvement in calling for the financial services royal commission, even though the evidence it has presented has been "confronting". The CEOs and chairmen of the major banks urged Treasurer Scott Morrison to hold the inquiry in a letter sent to him in November 2017. They noted that confidence in the financial system was being hurt by the ongoing speculation about the prospect of a royal commission.

CORPORATES
AUSTRALIA AND NEW ZEALAND BANKING GROUP LIMITED – ASX ANZ, AUSTRALIA. ROYAL COMMISSION INTO MISCONDUCT IN THE BANKING, SUPERANNUATION AND FINANCIAL SERVICES INDUSTRY, AUSTRALIA. DEPT OF THE TREASURY

NAB withheld size of fee scandal from ASIC for 11 months

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Original article by Joanna Mather
The Australian Financial Review – Page: 2 : 22-Aug-18

Australian financial services providers could be forced to repay clients more than $1bn over the fee-for-no-service scandal. The Australian Securities & Investments Commission’s deputy chairman Peter Kell has told the banking royal commission that just $260m has been refunded to date. Meanwhile, National Australia Bank informed ASIC in early November 2016 that clients affected by the scandal were owed $34.6m, but ASIC contends that NAB was aware of the extent of these liabilities some 11 months earlier. ASIC’s first report on the scandal had estimated that NAB owed just $12m.

CORPORATES
NATIONAL AUSTRALIA BANK LIMITED – ASX NAB, AUSTRALIAN SECURITIES AND INVESTMENTS COMMISSION, AUSTRALIA. ROYAL COMMISSION INTO MISCONDUCT IN THE BANKING, SUPERANNUATION AND FINANCIAL SERVICES INDUSTRY, AMP LIMITED – ASX AMP

Ticehurst supports lowering RBA inflation target

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Original article by Vesna Poljak
The Australian Financial Review – Page: 31 : 17-Aug-18

Several leading economists have urged the Reserve Bank of Australia to scale back its inflation target. Andrew Ticehurst of Nomura Australia argues that the RBA’s midpoint of the 2-3 per cent target range is higher than that of its counterparts in the US, New Zealand and the UK, while he notes that some Asian central banks have reduced their inflation target without any adverse impact. Ticehurst says the RBA should "fine-tune" the inflation target by reducing it to around two per cent.

CORPORATES
RESERVE BANK OF AUSTRALIA, NOMURA AUSTRALIA LIMITED, BETASHARES CAPITAL LIMITED, UNIVERSITY OF TECHNOLOGY, SYDNEY, BANK OF KOREA, BANK INDONESIA

NAB’s board met ASIC days before Hayne hit

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Original article by Pamela Williams
The Australian – Page: 17 & 20 : 17-Aug-18

Senior National Australia Bank executives held a meeting with Australian Securities & Investments Commission officials at the bank’s headquarters on 30 July. NAB executives subsequently fronted the banking royal commission in early August, after featuring prominently in its previous hearings. An NAB spokesman has indicated that the meeting with ASIC had been organised in late 2017 and such meetings are held regularly. Documents released by the inquiry on 15 August show that ASIC has accused NAB of a range of civil and criminal offences in relation to the "fee for no service" scandal.

CORPORATES
NATIONAL AUSTRALIA BANK LIMITED – ASX NAB, AUSTRALIAN SECURITIES AND INVESTMENTS COMMISSION, AUSTRALIA. ROYAL COMMISSION INTO MISCONDUCT IN THE BANKING, SUPERANNUATION AND FINANCIAL SERVICES INDUSTRY, AMP LIMITED – ASX AMP, COMMONWEALTH BANK OF AUSTRALIA – ASX CBA, AUSTRALIA. ATTORNEY-GENERAL’S DEPT. AUSTRALIAN TRANSACTION REPORTS AND ANALYSIS CENTRE

NAB fee grab slammed by the watchdog

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Original article by Ben Butler
The Australian – Page: 17 & 22 : 16-Aug-18

Documents released by the banking royal commission show that the Australian Securities & Investments Commission has criticised National Australia Bank over its lack of action in addressing the fee-for-no-service scandal. ASIC wrote to NAB in May to express its dissatisfaction with the bank’s proposed remedial action, stating that it did not constitute an "acceptable resolution" to the regulator’s concerns. ASIC has accused NAB of a range of civil and criminal offences.

CORPORATES
NATIONAL AUSTRALIA BANK LIMITED – ASX NAB, AUSTRALIAN SECURITIES AND INVESTMENTS COMMISSION, AUSTRALIA. ROYAL COMMISSION INTO MISCONDUCT IN THE BANKING, SUPERANNUATION AND FINANCIAL SERVICES INDUSTRY, NULIS NOMINEES AUSTRALIA LIMITED

NAB admits to breaking law once a week

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Original article by James Frost
The Australian Financial Review – Page: 10 : 15-Aug-18

A document released by the banking royal commission show that National Australia Bank breached the terms of its financial services licence a total of 297 times between 2014 and 2017. Some 110 of these breaches were deemed to be serious, yet the majority of them were not reported to the corporate regulator within 10 days. The document also shows that 84 per cent of the significant breaches that were not reported within the required time-frame occurred during the 2014-15 financial year.

CORPORATES
NATIONAL AUSTRALIA BANK LIMITED – ASX NAB, AUSTRALIA. ROYAL COMMISSION INTO MISCONDUCT IN THE BANKING, SUPERANNUATION AND FINANCIAL SERVICES INDUSTRY, AUSTRALIAN SECURITIES AND INVESTMENTS COMMISSION, PRICEWATERHOUSECOOPERS AUSTRALIA (INTERNATIONAL) PTY LTD

CBA’s 15,000 crimes waved on by APRA

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Original article by Ben Butler, Michael Roddan
The Australian – Page: 18 & 23 : 15-Aug-18

The banking royal commission has been told that the Australian Prudential Regulation Authority did not pursue action against Colonial First State over its tardiness in transitioning customers to MySuper products. The Commonwealth Bank of Australia subsidiary had been required to shift clients to the low-fee accounts by the start of 2014. However, it did not do so for more than three years. CBA admitted to over 15,000 breaches of the Superannuation Industry Supervision Act, but rather than impose fines, APRA approved a plan to gradually transition CFS clients to MySuper accounts.

CORPORATES
COMMONWEALTH BANK OF AUSTRALIA – ASX CBA, COLONIAL FIRST STATE GROUP LIMITED, AUSTRALIAN PRUDENTIAL REGULATION AUTHORITY, AUSTRALIA. ROYAL COMMISSION INTO MISCONDUCT IN THE BANKING, SUPERANNUATION AND FINANCIAL SERVICES INDUSTRY, AUSSIE HOME LOANS LIMITED, COUNT FINANCIAL LIMITED, FINANCIAL WISDOM LIMITED

NAB hid compo from ASIC

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Original article by Ben Butler, Michael Roddan
The Australian – Page: 17 & 21 : 14-Aug-18

National Australia Bank’s Andrew Hagger has denied allegations that it withheld information on compensation payments from the Australian Securities & Investments Commission. He told the banking royal commission that he had been "open and transparent" with ASIC commissioner Greg Tanzer in a telephone conversation on 24 October 2016, several hours after NAB’s wealth unit passed a resolution to increase compensation over its plan service fee. NAB released its financial results three days later, the same day on which ASIC released a report on the fees-for-no-service scandal.

CORPORATES
NATIONAL AUSTRALIA BANK LIMITED – ASX NAB, AUSTRALIAN SECURITIES AND INVESTMENTS COMMISSION, AUSTRALIA. ROYAL COMMISSION INTO MISCONDUCT IN THE BANKING, SUPERANNUATION AND FINANCIAL SERVICES INDUSTRY, NATIONAL WEALTH MANAGEMENT SERVICES LIMITED, NULIS NOMINEES AUSTRALIA LIMITED

RBA’s Lowe has his share of doubters

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Original article by Jonathan Shapiro
The Australian Financial Review – Page: 32 : 10-Aug-18

The Reserve Bank of Australia has not increased the official cash rate since November 2010, but governor Philip Lowe indicated on 8 August that it may not be long before it has to lift rates. An increase in interest rates would mean that the RBA felt that its inflation target of 2.5 per cent might be not be far off being reached, but some economists are not so certain about this, given the experience of economies in other parts of the world.

CORPORATES
RESERVE BANK OF AUSTRALIA, WESTPAC BANKING CORPORATION – ASX WBC, MACQUARIE GROUP LIMITED – ASX MQG