K: Financial and Insurance Services

Capital raising rush far from over

roymorgansocial Leave a comment

Original article by Joyce Moullakis
The Australian – Page: 13 & 19 : 1-Jul-20

Data from Refinitiv shows that Australian-listed companies raised $US14.9bn ($21.8bn) via the issuance of new shares in the June quarter, as they sought to boost their balance sheets in response to the coronavirus pandemic. This is the highest quarterly total since late 2010, while some $US18.8bn worth of new shares were issued in the first half of calendar 2020. Fund managers generally expect the capital raisings momentum to be maintained in the second half. Meanwhile, the total value of mergers and acquisitions fell to $US24.9bn in the first half of 2020, compared with $US48.2bn for the first half of 2019.

CORPORATES
REFINITIV AUSTRALIA PTY LTD

Greed, fear: ASX wraps worst year since 2012

roymorgansocial Leave a comment

Original article by William McInnes
The Australian Financial Review – Page: 12 & 24 : 1-Jul-20

The Australian sharemarket shed 10.9 per cent during 2019-20, in a turbulent financial year for investors. The local bourse reached a record high in February, before the coronavirus pandemic prompted a savage sell-off. However, a number of stocks performed well during 2019-20, with Afterpay, Fisher & Paykel Healthcare and Mesoblast all gaining more than 100 per cent. Fund managers warn that the August reporting season will be a key test for the sharemarket’s recent rebound.

CORPORATES
STANDARD AND POOR’S ASX 200 INDEX, AFTERPAY LIMITED – ASX APT, FISHER AND PAYKEL HEALTHCARE CORPORATION LIMITED – ASX FPH, MESOBLAST LIMITED – ASX MSB

Cash warns banks to reduce tap and go fees

roymorgansocial Leave a comment

Original article by James Eyers
The Australian Financial Review – Page: 12 : 26-Jun-20

The Minister for Small and Family Business, Michaelia Cash, says retailers have complained that banks are not offering to send ‘tap and go’ payments down the cheapest payment network. Previous research has indicated that retailers could be paying up to $550 million in extra transaction fees a year because banks are sending payments through the more expensive networks operated by Visa and Mastercard than via the cheaper Eftpos network. Cash has called on the banks to offer ‘least cost routing’ to retailers, whereby transactions are automatically processed through the network that charges the lowest fee.

CORPORATES
AUSTRALIA. DEPT OF EMPLOYMENT, SKILLS, SMALL AND FAMILY BUSINESS

Banks get a break on customer obligations

roymorgansocial Leave a comment

Original article by Richard Gluyas
The Australian – Page: 16 : 26-Jun-20

The Banking Code of Practice, which was approved by the Australian Securities & Investments Commission in December, aims to implement recommendations of the Hayne royal commission. However, ASIC has announced that it has given banks a temporary reprieve from some of the code’s provisions. ASIC has stated that the impact of COVID-19 should be taken into account when considering if a bank has met its commitment to engage ethically and fairly with small business clients; ASIC also noted that banks may not always be able to meet timelines in the code for customer communication.

CORPORATES
AUSTRALIAN SECURITIES AND INVESTMENTS COMMISSION

Media Super poised for $62b Cbus link

roymorgansocial Leave a comment

Original article by Joanna Mather, Michael Roddan
The Australian Financial Review – Page: 3 : 25-Jun-20

Media Super chairman Gerard Noonan has confirmed that the industry superannuation fund is in the "very early stages" of talks regarding a merger with Cbus. He stresses that Media Super is likely to retain its own branding if the deal proceeds. The fund short-listed Cbus and AustralianSuper as potential merger candidates following a tender process. Media Super has about 75,000 members and some $6bn worth of assets under management. Data from the Australian Prudential Regulation Authority shows that Media Super has lost an average of six per cent of its members annually over the past three years.

CORPORATES
MEDIA SUPER LIMITED, CONSTRUCTION AND BUILDING UNIONS’ SUPERANNUATION FUND, AUSTRALIANSUPER PTY LTD, AUSTRALIAN PRUDENTIAL REGULATION AUTHORITY

APRA probes super fund pain

roymorgansocial Leave a comment

Original article by Gerard Cockburn
The Australian – Page: 16 : 25-Jun-20

The Australian Prudential Regulation Authority will increase its oversight of the nation’s superannuation funds in response to the coronavirus pandemic. APRA will require super funds to provide it with a range of data on both a monthly and quarterly basis for the duration of the health crisis. Amongst other things, APRA is concerned about the impact of the federal government’s early access scheme is having on super funds, with almost $16bn having been withdrawn to date.

CORPORATES
AUSTRALIAN PRUDENTIAL REGULATION AUTHORITY

CBA leads small business banking satisfaction during COVID-19 shutdowns

roymorgansocial Leave a comment

Original article by Roy Morgan
Market Research Update – Page: Online : 24-Jun-20

New research from Roy Morgan shows that small business owner banking satisfaction for the four major banks was at 71% in the 12 months to April, an increase of 0.9% points from the year to March as shutdowns were enforced across the Australian economy. Satisfaction increased for all four major banks and was highest in the year to April for the Commonwealth Bank at 74.6%, up 0.9% points on the corresponding figure for March. However, the biggest increase was for ANZ which increased 1.1% points to 64.2% while there were also increases in satisfaction for both Westpac and NAB. These are the latest findings from interviews with 2,359 small businesses owners as part of the Roy Morgan Business Owner Satisfaction Monitor regarding their level of satisfaction with the financial institution they deal with.

CORPORATES
ROY MORGAN LIMITED, COMMONWEALTH BANK OF AUSTRALIA – ASX CBA, AUSTRALIA AND NEW ZEALAND BANKING GROUP LIMITED – ASX ANZ, WESTPAC BANKING CORPORATION – ASX WBC, NATIONAL AUSTRALIA BANK LIMITED – ASX NAB

CBA bid to avoid cliff for economy

roymorgansocial Leave a comment

Original article by Joyce Moullakis
The Australian – Page: 13 & 14 : 22-Jun-20

The Commonwealth Bank of Australia estimates that about 127,000 of its customers with mortgage loans have deferred their repayments due to the coronavirus pandemic. Angus Sullivan, the head of CBA’s retail banking division, says that 15-20 of these customers are still making some repayments, while some customers have asked to resume making repayments. He adds that CBA has begun contacting all customers who have deferred their repayments to discuss their options ahead of the deferral arrangement ending in September.

CORPORATES
COMMONWEALTH BANK OF AUSTRALIA – ASX CBA

Fed takes a keen interest in RBA’s bond buying

roymorgansocial Leave a comment

Original article by Sarah Turner
The Australian Financial Review – Page: 27 : 18-Jun-20

The yield on three-year Australian government bonds has traded within a narrow range of 0.21 per cent to 0.28 per cent since March, when the Reserve Bank commenced a targeted bond-buying program aimed at keeping the yield at around 0.25 per cent. The success of yield curve control in Australia has prompted the US Federal Reserve to assess the strategy, although Stephen Halmarick from the Commonwealth Bank says it is unlikely to adopt this in the near-term. The Federal Reserve’s focus has been on buying a certain amount of bonds each month.

CORPORATES
RESERVE BANK OF AUSTRALIA, UNITED STATES. FEDERAL RESERVE BOARD, COMMONWEALTH BANK OF AUSTRALIA – ASX CBA

Early access super requests near $15bn

roymorgansocial Leave a comment

Original article by Gerard Cockburn
The Australian – Page: 15 : 16-Jun-20

Data from the Australian Prudential Regulation Authority shows that 2.12 million people have applied to withdraw money from their superannuation fund via the federal government’s early access scheme. Some $14.8bn has been paid out to 1.98 million fund members; AustralianSuper heads the list, having paid out $1.98bn to 264,404 members. The early access scheme has been criticised by the ACTU in a submission to a Senate committee hearing into the federal government’s response to the coronavirus pandemic.

CORPORATES
AUSTRALIAN PRUDENTIAL REGULATION AUTHORITY, AUSTRALIANSUPER PTY LTD, ACTU