K: Financial and Insurance Services

Aviva tips weaker dollar, eyes global recession

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Original article by Adam Creighton
The Australian – Page: 17 & 18 : 2-Sep-19

Aviva Investors’ chief economist Michael Grady is bearish about the Australian dollar, saying that it could fall to the low $US0.60s level by the end of 2019. He stresses that the potential slump in the currency’s value is not solely due to the outlook for the Chinese economy, noting amongst other things that the link between the dollar and the terms of trade has broken down. Grady adds that the trade war with the US could reduce China’s economic growth by a further 1-1.25 per cent, while he says there is an even chance of a global recession before the end of 2019.

CORPORATES
AVIVA INVESTORS

Self-managed funds defy the big industry players

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Original article by Robert Gottliebsen
The Australian – Page: 26 : 30-Aug-19

Australia has around 590,000 self-managed superannuation funds, with assets under management totalling $747 billion. This puts the SMSF sector ahead of both industry super funds ($718 billion) and retail super funds ($625 billion) in terms of size. Despite both industry and retail funds having forecast the demise of the SMSF sector for some time, figures released by the SMSF Association show that almost 30 per cent of new SMSFs have trustees (members) between the ages of 35 and 44. Given the revelations of the Hayne royal commission, it is not surprising that many SMSF members do not trust the big super funds.

CORPORATES
SMSF ASSOCIATION, AMP LIMITED – ASX AMP

Wary APRA orders more stress-tests for banks

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Original article by Richard Gluyas
The Australian – Page: 17 & 21 : 30-Aug-19

The Australian Prudential Regulation Authority currently undertakes "stress-testing" of the nation’s banks every three years. However, growing concern about the outlook for the domestic and global economies is believed to have prompted APRA to conduct annual stress tests. APRA’s latest corporate also shows that the performance of superannuation funds will also be a focus for the prudential regulator over the next few years; this will include ranking super funds based on a range of metrics.

CORPORATES
AUSTRALIAN PRUDENTIAL REGULATION AUTHORITY

Macquarie’s $1.6bn capital raise

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Original article by Joyce Moullakis
The Australian – Page: 17 & 21 : 29-Aug-19

Macquarie Group has advised that its profit for the six months to 30 September will be about 10 per cent higher than the $1.3bn result for the same period in 2018. Macquarie posted a record profit of $2.98bn for the year to 31 March, and Jonathan Mott of UBS has forecast a profit of $3.04bn for fiscal 2020. Meanwhile, Macquarie is seeking to raise $1bn from institutional investors and up to $600m from retail investors via a share purchase plan. Most of the proceeds will be invested in assets such renewable energy, technology and infrastructure.

CORPORATES
MACQUARIE GROUP LIMITED – ASX MQG, UBS HOLDINGS PTY LTD, CADENCE CAPITAL LIMITED – ASX CDT, MOODY’S INVESTORS SERVICE INCORPORATED, CITIGROUP PTY LTD

S&P gives AMP thumbs down over bad news

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Original article by James Frost
The Australian Financial Review – Page: 19 : 28-Aug-19

The credit rating of wealth manager AMP has been downgraded from ‘A-‘ to ‘BBB+’ by S&P Global Ratings. The long-term issuer credit rating of AMP Bank and AMP Life have also been downgraded by one notch apiece. S&P has indicated that the ratings downgrade was primarily due to the recent deal to sell AMP Life to Resolution Life, which will have an impact on AMP’s group credit profile. S&P also said it may review AMP’s credit rating if the deal does not proceed, although this may not result in an upgrade.

CORPORATES
AMP LIMITED – ASX AMP, AMP LIFE LIMITED, AMP BANK LIMITED, S&P GLOBAL RATINGS, RESOLUTION LIFE GROUP LIMITED

NPS of banks (and big four banks) continues to improve after Finance Royal Commission

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Original article by Roy Morgan
Market Research Update – Page: Online : 28-Aug-19

New results from Roy Morgan show that the Net Promoter Score levels of Australia’s banks, including the big four banks, have increased significantly since the final report of the Finance Royal Commission was handed down in February 2019. The NPS of the big four banks was 2.1 in July, up 3.7pts since February, and the NPS of banks as a whole was 8.5, up 3.2pts over the last five months. The improvement in NPS scores has returned the measure to a level comparable to that at the time the Finance Royal Commission was established in late 2017. All of the big four banks have improved their NPS since February. The leading big four bank by NPS is the CBA (now on 7.2, up 3.3pts since February). The other three, although improved, were still in negative territory. Teachers Mutual Bank now has the highest NPS of 52.6, up 13.5pts since February. Meanwhile, satisfaction with the big four banks reached 76.1% in July, up by 0.8% points since February, led by increases for the CBA (+1% point), ANZ (+0.9% points) and Westpac (+2.3% points). These are some of the latest findings from Roy Morgan’s ‘Customer Satisfaction report on Consumer Banking in Australia’ and the ‘Financial Institutions Advocacy Report’. These reports are based on in-depth interviews conducted face-to-face with over 50,000 consumers per annum in their homes.

CORPORATES
ROY MORGAN LIMITED, COMMONWEALTH BANK OF AUSTRALIA – ASX CBA, NATIONAL AUSTRALIA BANK LIMITED – ASX NAB, AUSTRALIA AND NEW ZEALAND BANKING GROUP LIMITED – ASX ANZ, WESTPAC BANKING CORPORATION – ASX WBC, BENDIGO BANK, ING BANK (AUSTRALIA) LIMITED, AUSTRALIA. ROYAL COMMISSION INTO MISCONDUCT IN THE BANKING, SUPERANNUATION AND FINANCIAL SERVICES INDUSTRY

Reserve Bank flags QE to lift stagnant economy

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Original article by David Rogers
The Australian – Page: 24 : 28-Aug-19

The Reserve Bank of Australia’s deputy governor Guy Debelle says the nation has been a major beneficiary of the rules-based global trading system, and he has warned that the current threats to this system present a major risk to both the Australian and global economies. Debelle has also used an Economic Society speech to indicate that the RBA could be open to quantitative easing if the cash rate falls to 0.5 per cent. However, David Plank of the ANZ Bank says the RBA is unlikely to pursue such a course of action unless the cash rate falls to 0.25 per cent or lower.

CORPORATES
RESERVE BANK OF AUSTRALIA, ECONOMICS SOCIETY OF AUSTRALIA, AUSTRALIA AND NEW ZEALAND BANKING GROUP LIMITED – ASX ANZ

Financial advisers too expensive and can’t be trusted: report

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Original article by Duncan Hughes
The Australian Financial Review – Page: 2 : 27-Aug-19

The Australian Securities & Investments Commission has released the findings of a survey on consumers’ attitudes toward the financial advice sector. It shows that there is a high level of distrust regarding the sector; amongst other things, about 50 per cent of respondents believe that financial advisers are more concerned about making themselves rich than helping clients, while almost 30 per cent prefer to obtain financial advice from family members, friends or colleagues. The ASIC report is based on interviews with almost 2,500 investors.

CORPORATES
AUSTRALIAN SECURITIES AND INVESTMENTS COMMISSION, AMP LIMITED – ASX AMP

Funds brace for more volatility

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Original article by William McInnes
The Australian Financial Review – Page: 13 & 27 : 27-Aug-19

Federation Asset Management chairman Greg Bundy says financial markets will keep falling, as he does not expect the US-China trade war to be resolved for some time. Matt Sherwood of Perpetual agrees that there is unlikely to be a quick resolution to the trade dispute. Bearish sentiment slashed the value of Australian stocks by around $26bn on 26 August, while the yield on 10-year Australian government bonds fell to 0.88 per cent. Shares in gold producers also rallied as investors sought out ‘safe-haven’ assets.

CORPORATES
FEDERATION ASSET MANAGEMENT, PERPETUAL LIMITED – ASX PPT, STANDARD AND POOR’S ASX 200 INDEX, UNITED STATES. EXECUTIVE OFFICE OF THE PRESIDENT

Savers at risk in bank, credit union data hack

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Original article by Joyce Moullakis
The Australian – Page: 19 : 26-Aug-19

The security of the New Payments Platform is under scrutiny in the wake of revelations that the system has been subject to a second data breach. Cuscal has indicated that only about three per cent of bank and credit union customers who have registered for a PayID have been affected by the breach, which equates to less than 92,000 customers. Westpac customers who use the real-time NPP system were affected by a data breach in June.

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