K: Financial and Insurance Services

Westpac cuts 200 teller jobs for digital

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Original article by David Ross
The Australian – Page: 15 : 24-Sep-25

Westpac is set to retrench 200 of its bank tellers as part of its latest restructuring program. The Finance Sector Union’s national secretary Julia Angrisano says it is "callous and short sighted" for Westpac to get staff to migrate customers to its digital services and then sack them. She adds that the FSU will hold Westpac to account "every step of the way", arguing that workers whose roles are cut must be re-skilled and redeployed, rather than discarded. Angrisano adds that Westpac only agreed to establish a $5m development fund for displaced staff due to pressure from the FSU, and that there has been no clarity as to how this fund will work and whether it will genuinely protect jobs.

CORPORATES
WESTPAC BANKING CORPORATION – ASX WBC, FINANCE SECTOR UNION

Buybacks boom but investors see a downside

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Original article by Cecile Lefort
The Australian Financial Review – Page: 27 : 24-Sep-25

Recent data from MST Marquee showed that a record 47 companies in the benchmark S&P/ASX 200 have announced plans for share buybacks this year; this compares with just 10 in 2020. However, analysis shows that there has been a decline in the share prices of seven out of 12 companies that undertook buybacks in late 2024. Luke McMillan from Ophir Asset Management says buybacks can be a better option than dividends for returning excess cash to shareholders, given that they expect dividends to increase each year.

CORPORATES
MST MARQUEE, STANDARD AND POOR’S ASX 200 INDEX, OPHIR ASSET MANAGEMENT PTY LTD

Investors back Matos to clean up the ANZ mess

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Original article by James Eyers
The Australian Financial Review – Page: 17 : 17-Sep-25

The ANZ Bank’s share price fell by just 0.6 per cent on Tuesday, despite growing scrutiny over the lender in the wake of a recorded $240m financial penalty for misconduct. Montgomery Investment Management’s chairman Roger Montgomery says investors are betting that the strategy of ANZ’s relatively new CEO Nuno Matos will succeed in closing the valuation gap with its peers. Jon Mott from Barrenjoey in turn says Matos has a clear mandate to implement his turnaround strategy.

CORPORATES
AUSTRALIA AND NEW ZEALAND BANKING GROUP LIMITED – ASX ANZ, MONTGOMERY INVESTMENT MANAGEMENT PTY LTD, BARRENJOEY CAPITAL PARTNERS PTY LTD

ASX stocks to fire as Fed kicks off cuts

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Original article by Gus McCubbing
The Australian Financial Review – Page: 27 : 17-Sep-25

Bond traders have fully priced in a 25 basis point interest rate cut at the US Federal Reserve’s monetary policy meeting this week. They are expect at least another four rate cuts over the next year, although David Bassanese from BetaShares and Sebastian Mullins from Schroders contend that the central bank will be less aggressive in reducing monetary policy. Meanwhile, Australian stocks are widely tipped to rally if the Federal Reserve does reduce the cast rate; Jun Bei Liu from Ten Cap says James Hardie Industries stands to benefit the most, given its exposure to the US housing market.

CORPORATES
UNITED STATES. FEDERAL RESERVE BOARD, BETASHARES CAPITAL LIMITED, SCHRODER INVESTMENT MANAGEMENT AUSTRALIA LIMITED, JAMES HARDIE INDUSTRIES PLC – ASX JHX, TEN CAP INVESTMENT MANAGEMENT PTY LTD

ANZ faces record $240m penalty for ripping off customers and government

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Original article by Michael Janda, Emilia Terzon
abc.net.au – Page: Online : 16-Sep-25

The ANZ Bank has agreed to a total financial penalty of $240m to settle a case brought by the Australian Securities & Investments Commission. The record fine includes an $85m penalty for the bank’s management of a $14bn government bond issuance in April 2023, and a $40m fine for overstating its bond trading turnover over a period of nearly two years. ANZ has also been fined $115m for widespread misconduct in its retail banking division; this includes failing to respond to hundreds of customer hardship notices, failing to refund fees to thousands of deceased customers, and making false and misleading statements regardings its savings interest rates. The penalty must be approved by the Federal Court.

CORPORATES
AUSTRALIA AND NEW ZEALAND BANKING GROUP LIMITED – ASX ANZ, AUSTRALIAN SECURITIES AND INVESTMENTS COMMISSION, FEDERAL COURT OF AUSTRALIA

4500 jobs cuts at ANZ not about profits

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Original article by David Ross
The Australian – Page: 13 & 19 : 10-Sep-25

The ANZ Bank has advised that its 2025-26 financial accounts will include a restructuring charge of $560m as part of its plan to shed about 10 per cent of its workforce. ANZ will retrench about 3,500 employees and 1,000 contractors as recently-appointed CEO Nuno Matos continues to reshape the ‘big four’ bank. Matos contends that the job cuts difficult but necessary in order to eliminate duplicated roles and simplify ANZ’s complex structure. He adds that the job cuts are "about getting things right" rather than profits. The Finance Sector Union’s president Wendy Streets says ANZ is discarding workers so its executives can feed an "out-of-control profit machine".

CORPORATES
AUSTRALIA AND NEW ZEALAND BANKING GROUP LIMITED – ASX ANZ, FINANCE SECTOR UNION

CBA can win big from Klarna float

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Original article by Joyce Moullakis
The Australian Financial Review – Page: 15 & 19 : 3-Sep-25

Global digital bank and ‘buy now, pay later’ provider Klarna recently filed documents with the Securities & Exchange Commission for an IPO in the US. Klarna is currently believed to be valued at between $US13bn ($19.9bn) and $US14bn. The Commonwealth Bank’s latest annual report values its stake in Klarna at $956m, compared with a peak of nearly $3bn at the height of the BNPL boom. Analysts expect the Commonwealth Bank to sell down its Klarna stake, either via the IPO or on the open market; Hamish Carlisle from Merlon Capital Partners says Klarna has been "strategically peripheral" for the big four bank.

CORPORATES
COMMONWEALTH BANK OF AUSTRALIA – ASX CBA, KLARNA, UNITED STATES. SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE COMMISSION, MERLON CAPITAL PARTNERS PTY LTD

Investors calm as government debt nears $1trn

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Original article by Cecile Lefort
The Australian Financial Review – Page: 25 : 3-Sep-25

Official data shows that the federal government’s debt currently stands at $961bn, while its monthly interest bill is about $2bn. Meanwhile, gross debt has risen from just five per cent of GDP to 37 per cent in the last 15 years, although this compares favourably with the US (124 per cent) and Japan (216 per cent). Robert Thompson from RBC Capital Markets expects federal government debt to top $1bn in early 2026. However, Oliver Levingston from Bank of America says Australia has low debt and low deficits compared with the majority of advanced countries. He adds that Australian government bond yields are highly attractive at present.

CORPORATES
RBC CAPITAL MARKETS, BANK OF AMERICA CORPORATION

Extreme mortgage stress eases nationally year-on-year, but surges in lowest socio-economic quintiles

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Original article by Roy Morgan
Market Research Update – Page: Online : 27-Aug-25

New research from Roy Morgan shows that an estimated 27.8% of mortgage holders were ‘At Risk’ of ‘mortgage stress’ in the year to June 2025, down from 30.3% in the previous 12 months. The proportion of Australians who are estimated to be ‘Extremely at Risk’ of mortgage stress has in turn fallen to 18.5%, down from 19.7 per cent in the year to June 2024. However, the decline in the proportion of mortgage holders at ‘Extreme Risk’ of mortgage stress was only evident among those in the top three socio-economic quintiles. Among those in the lowest two quintiles, the proportion of mortgage holders ‘at extreme risk’ of mortgage stress increased – by 5% among those in the E Quintile, and by 5.2% among those in the FG quintile. Meanwhile, mortgage holders with annual household incomes of under $100,000 are more likely to be ‘Extremely at Risk’ of mortgage stress. Only mortgage holders in households with annual incomes of $100,000 or more have seen a decline in mortgage stress. These latest findings come from the Roy Morgan Single Source survey, derived from in-depth interviews with over 60,000 Australians each year.

CORPORATES
ROY MORGAN LIMITED

Commonwealth Bank defends giving problem gambler $13k in personal loans

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Original article by Pat McGrath
abc.net.au – Page: Online : 26-Aug-25

An unnamed problem gambler has taken the Commonwealth Bank to the Australian Financial Complaints Authority, alleging that it breached its responsible lending obligations. It comes after the CBA gave the male problem gambler around $13,000 in personal loans, despite the fact that he spent over half his take-home income on online betting during the 90-day period prior to it advancing him the first of what were two loans. In its defence, the CBA stated the loans did not breach its internal policies, which block borrowers who have spent more than $10,000 on gambling in the 90 days before making a loan application.

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