K: Financial and Insurance Services

Investors pump billions into new companies as listings soar

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Original article by Richard Henderson
The Australian Financial Review – Page: 28 : 12-Oct-21

Data from Refinitiv shows that 121 companies have listed on the Australian sharemarket so far in 2021, compared with just 84 new listings in 2020. It is the highest level of listing activity since 2007, when 136 companies debuted on the local bourse. Some $6.7bn has been raised via IPOs during 2021, while the proposed floats of Judo Bank and GQG Partners would boost this by around $2bn. IPO activity was subdued earlier in the year, following the fallout from the ill-fated float of Nuix in late 2020.

CORPORATES
REFINITIV AUSTRALIA PTY LTD, JUDO BANK PTY LTD, GQG PARTNERS INCORPORATED – ASX GQG, NUIX LIMITED – ASX NXL

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

Aussie BNPL usage the best in the West

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Original article by Lachlan Moffet Gray
The Australian – Page: 19 : 17-Sep-21

Sixty per cent of Australians have used a buy now pay later (BNPL) platform, compared to 47 per cent of US or UK respondents. This is according to a survey by card issuing and payment solutions company Marqeta, with a third of survey respondents stating that they had started using BNPL platforms within the last 18 months. Marqeta country manager for Australia and New Zealand Duncan Currie says the high adoption of BNPL in Australia could in part be due to it being the home country of leading BNPL companies Zip and Afterpay.

CORPORATES
MARQETA, ZIP CO LIMITED – ASX Z1P, AFTERPAY LIMITED – ASX APT

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

Swan as new Cbus chairman an ‘insult to workers’: CFMEU

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Original article by David Marin-Guzman
The Australian Financial Review – Page: 2 : 8-Sep-21

The Construction, Forestry, Maritime, Mining & Energy Union has described the appointment of former Labor minister Wayne Swan as chairman of industry superannuation fund Cbus as the "height of hypocrisy". The CFMMEU says the appointment is an "insult to construction workers", given Swan’s role in maintaining the building industry watchdog during his tenure as federal treasurer and deputy prime minister. The union has also suggested that there is a conflict of interests due to Swan’s role as Labor’s national president.

CORPORATES
CONSTRUCTION, FORESTRY, MARITIME, MINING AND ENERGY UNION OF AUSTRALIA, CONSTRUCTION AND BUILDING UNIONS’ SUPERANNUATION FUND

Net zero pledges soar after earnings season

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Original article by Richard Henderson
The Australian Financial Review – Page: 26 : 7-Sep-21

Macquarie Group data indicates that 34 companies in the S&P/ASX 300 have made a commitment to net zero emissions in the first eight months of 2021, compared to 38 for the whole of 2020. Companies that have made net zero emission pledges so far in 2021 include Boral, Ampol and JB Hi-Fi. Their commitments follow a recent report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change which concluded that temperatures could exceed the 1.5 degree increase above pre-industrialised levels within 10 years.

CORPORATES
JB HI-FI LIMITED – ASX JBH, BORAL LIMITED – ASX BLD, AMPOL LIMITED – ALD, MACQUARIE GROUP LIMITED – ASX MQG, INTERGOVERNMENTAL PANEL ON CLIMATE CHANGE

Fess-up time: top-performing super funds put duds to shame

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Original article by Cliona O’Dowd
The Australian – Page: 17 : 2-Sep-21

The superannuation performance test data shows that Active Super was the best default MySuper fund over a seven-year period, with an average return of 9.46 per cent. It is followed by AustralianSuper (9.44 per cent) and Hostplus (9.33 per cent return). The lowest average return for the 10 best performing funds was 8.75 per cent. In contrast, EISS had the lowest average return among the 10 worst-performing funds, at just six per cent.

CORPORATES
ACTIVE SUPER, AUSTRALIANSUPER PTY LTD, HOST-PLUS, EISS SUPER

Investors rewarded with bumper dividends, buybacks

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Original article by John Collett
Brisbane Times – Page: Online : 1-Sep-21

CommSec’s chief economist Craig James is cautious about the outlook for the Australian sharemarket in the wake of the August reporting season. He notes that the recent strong performance of many listed companies has already been priced into sharemarket valuations. Capital management was a key feature of the reporting season, with listed companies announcing some $20bn worth of share buybacks, while investors will receive more than $34bn worth of dividend payments. Peter Warnes of Morningstar says investors should expect lower dividend payouts in 2022.

CORPORATES
COMMONWEALTH SECURITIES LIMITED, MORNINGSTAR PTY LTD

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