K62 Finance

Credit card debt to take 138 years to pay

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Original article by James Frost
The Australian Financial Review – Page: 9 : 23-Mar-18

Commonwealth Bank executive Clive van Horen has conceded that the bank erred in the case of problem gambler David Harris. Harris has told a public hearing of the banking royal commission how the bank had continued to give him credit cards and had extended his credit limit even though he had admitted to being a problem gambler. Van Horen told the commission that the bank has since tightened its rules in relation to giving credit to customers who appear to have gambling problems.

CORPORATES
COMMONWEALTH BANK OF AUSTRALIA – ASX CBA, AUSTRALIA. ROYAL COMMISSION INTO MISCONDUCT IN THE BANKING, SUPERANNUATION AND FINANCIAL SERVICES INDUSTRY

Jobs cool RBA’s outlook on rates

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Original article by David Rogers
The Australian – Page: 19 & 30 : 23-Mar-18

The Australian dollar fell in local trading on 22 March in response to data showing that the number of jobs created in February was below expectations at 17,500. Australia’s unemployment rate rose from 5.5 per cent to 5.6 per cent during the month, while the labour participation rate also increased. Economists suggest that the jobs data means the Reserve Bank is unlikely to increase official interest rates in the near-term. Meanwhile, the strength of the US economy has prompted the Federal Reserve to flag three interest rates rises in 2019, in addition to another two in 2018.

CORPORATES
RESERVE BANK OF AUSTRALIA, UNITED STATES. FEDERAL RESERVE BOARD, UBS HOLDINGS PTY LTD, NATIONAL AUSTRALIA BANK LIMITED – ASX NAB, CAPITAL ECONOMICS LIMITED

US Fed set to rise further above RBA

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Original article by Vesna Poljak
The Australian Financial Review – Page: 1 & 32 : 23-Mar-18

The yield on US 10-year bonds has eased to 2.86 per cent in response to the Federal Reserve’s move to increase interest rates to 1.75 per cent. Kapstream Capital’s Steve Goldman expects the central bank to increase US rates to 2.5 per cent, adding that this is more likely to be in 2019 rather than 2018. The US federal funds rate is now higher than Australia’s cash rate for the first time since 2000. The interest rate differential is expected to widen, as the Federal Reserve has flagged further rate rises in 2018 and 2019. Most analysts do not expect the Reserve Bank to do so until at least the March 2019 quarter.

CORPORATES
UNITED STATES. FEDERAL RESERVE BOARD, RESERVE BANK OF AUSTRALIA, KAPSTREAM CAPITAL PTY LTD, NOMURA AUSTRALIA LIMITED, UBS GLOBAL ASSET MANAGEMENT (AUSTRALIA) LIMITED

RBA in no hurry to follow Fed on interest rates

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Original article by David Rogers
The Australian – Page: 27 : 21-Mar-18

The Reserve Bank of Australia has previously forecast that economic growth would average around three per cent in 2018. However, the minutes of the central bank’s latest monthly board meeting show that it expects economic growth to exceed "potential growth" in 2018. Bill Evans of Westpac notes that the Reserve Bank deems potential growth to be 2.75 per cent. Meanwhile, there seems to be little prospect of a rise in Australia’s cash rate in the near-term, while the Federal Reserve is widely tipped to increase US rates in March.

CORPORATES
RESERVE BANK OF AUSTRALIA, WESTPAC BANKING CORPORATION – ASX WBC, UNITED STATES. FEDERAL RESERVE BOARD, JP MORGAN AUSTRALIA LIMITED, CAPITAL ECONOMICS LIMITED

Fledglings targeted by $162m global fund

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Original article by Paul Smith
The Australian Financial Review – Page: 25 : 20-Mar-18

Venture capital firm Hatcher+ has entered into an partnership with technology start-up accelerator BlueChilli. Under the partnership, which will commence in April, Hatcher+ will co-invest in 240 new technology start-ups chosen by BlueChilli over the next three years, with finance to come from a new $US125 million ($A162 million) fund. BlueChilli founder and CEO Sebastien Eckersley-Maslin says it will need to find 12,000 entrepreneurs in order to choose the best 240, based on its previous processes for selecting start-ups to invest in.

CORPORATES
HATCHER+, BLUECHILLI, DROPSUITE, INZENSTUDIO, ICANDY INTERACTIVE LIMITED – ASX ICI

CBA reels from credit card bungle

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Original article by James Frost
The Australian Financial Review – Page: 1 & 4 : 20-Mar-18

The banking royal commission has been told that the Commonwealth Bank kept back certain information regarding its credit card plus product from the Australian Securities & Investments Commission. ANZ executive William Ranken has also told the royal commission that the bank did not examine the expenses of every prospective mortgage customer, but instead made use of the household expenditure measure benchmark.

CORPORATES
AUSTRALIA. ROYAL COMMISSION INTO MISCONDUCT IN THE BANKING, SUPERANNUATION AND FINANCIAL SERVICES INDUSTRY, COMMONWEALTH BANK OF AUSTRALIA – ASX CBA, AUSTRALIAN SECURITIES AND INVESTMENTS COMMISSION, AUSTRALIA AND NEW ZEALAND BANKING GROUP LIMITED – ASX ANZ, COMMINSURE

Comyn pledges to fix commission problems

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Original article by James Thomson
The Australian Financial Review – Page: 17 : 19-Mar-18

Incoming Commonwealth Bank of Australia CEO Matt Comyn has alerted staff in its retail division that the week beginning 19 March could be uncomfortable for them. He says that submissions made to the banking royal commission during the coming week may include examples of where the CBA treated customers poorly. Cormyn, who will take over from Ian Narev in April, has given a commitment to fix any problems that the royal commission may unearth.

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

Mortgage customer satisfaction higher when deal directly with bank

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Original article by Roy Morgan
Market Research Update – Page: Online : 19-Mar-18

A Roy Morgan Single Source survey, which was carried out in the six months to January 2018, has found that home loan customers’ satisfaction with banks when using a mortgage broker was only 77.3%. This compares to 80.3% when home loans were obtained in person at a branch. Even among more recent home loans (held for under six years) satisfaction with going directly into a branch was 81.7%, compared to 78.7% for mortgage brokers. Home loan customers of Bendigo Bank who obtained their loan in person at a branch had the highest satisfaction with 92.6%, followed by Bankwest (87.3%) and St George (86.8%). The best of the big four was NAB with 82.4%, followed by ANZ (79.7%). All of the largest banks, with the exception of Westpac, had higher satisfaction when going direct rather than using mortgage brokers. Meanwhile, satisfaction when using mortgage brokers was highest for St George with 85.6%, Bankwest (82.1%) and Suncorp Bank (82.0%). Each of the big four were below the market average (77.3%) for home loan customer satisfaction when using a mortgage broker, with the best of them being NAB (76.4%) and Westpac (75.7%).

CORPORATES
ROY MORGAN LIMITED, BENDIGO BANK, BANK OF WESTERN AUSTRALIA LIMITED, ST GEORGE BANK LIMITED, NATIONAL AUSTRALIA BANK LIMITED – ASX NAB, AUSTRALIA AND NEW ZEALAND BANKING GROUP LIMITED – ASX ANZ, WESTPAC BANKING CORPORATION – ASX WBC, SUNCORP BANK

End is nigh for big four: Carnegie

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Original article by Glenda Korporaal
The Australian – Page: 29 : 16-Mar-18

Maile Carnegie, the ANZ Bank’s group executive for digital banking, forecasts that the four major banks will no longer dominate the Australian market within 5-10 years, with banks opting to focus on certain segments of the market. She also forecasts a greater role for technology in delivering banking services, while banks that provide services that customers actually want will be the most successful in future.

CORPORATES
AUSTRALIA AND NEW ZEALAND BANKING GROUP LIMITED – ASX ANZ, GOOGLE AUSTRALIA PTY LTD, AMAZON.COM INCORPORATED, ALIBABA.COM CORPORATION, UBER AUSTRALIA PTY LTD, APPLE INCORPORATED

NAB first up at banking royal commission

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Original article by James Eyers
The Australian Financial Review – Page: 3 : 13-Mar-18

National Australia Bank executive Anthony Waldron is scheduled to be the first banker to appear before the financial services royal commission. He is expected to be quizzed about NAB’s "introducer program" and fraudulent mortgage loan applications. It is understood that he will tell the commission that NAB has now made the eligibility criteria for the program more stringent. Waldron is also expected to rebut claims by the Finance Sector Union that NAB did not discipline senior staff in regard to the fradulent loan applications.

CORPORATES
NATIONAL AUSTRALIA BANK LIMITED – ASX NAB, AUSTRALIA. ROYAL COMMISSION INTO MISCONDUCT IN THE BANKING, SUPERANNUATION AND FINANCIAL SERVICES INDUSTRY, FINANCE SECTOR UNION, WESTPAC BANKING CORPORATION – ASX WBC, COMMONWEALTH BANK OF AUSTRALIA – ASX CBA, AUSSIE HOME LOANS LIMITED, AUSTRALIAN SECURITIES AND INVESTMENTS COMMISSION, AUSTRALIAN PRUDENTIAL REGULATION AUTHORITY, UBS HOLDINGS PTY LTD