BFCSA Blog

Banks set to declare $13.2bn in profits for six months The Australian 12:00am April 20, 2018 Michael Roddan   Despite the doom and gloom of the royal commission, Australia’s biggest banks are poised to sign off on a collective $13.2 billion profit for the past six months. ANZ, Westpac, National Australia Bank will all open their interim accounts early next month, while Macquarie Group will report its full-year profit. Commonwealth Bank, which operates on a different financial calendar, in February posted a half-year cash net profit of $4.74bn. The remaining banks’ financial accounts are expected to show slightly higher regulatory and compliance costs due to the royal commission, but otherwise, revenue growth is expected to be maintained. ANZ, which reports on May 1, is expected to unveil a cash profit of $3.4bn for the most recent six months. The same week, NAB is likely to book a $3.3bn interim profit, while...

Westpac's bad advisers still received bonuses, banking royal commission hears Australian Financial Review Apr 19 2018 7:00 PM James Frost   A Westpac planner who persistently scored the lowest possible score during internal audits was still able to collect his bonuses under the bank's "consequence management system". Andrew Smith, operating under the St George brand, was not subject to consequences during his time at the bank, despite receiving multiple warnings about his conduct, the Hayne royal commission has heard. Counsel assisting Rowena Orr QC took BT's national head of financial advice Michael Wright to task over internal auditing of financial planners that was limited to reviewing a handful of files every year. "I want to put to you squarely that the systems failed because your system was to review four files each year for an adviser, and the advice could receive sub-par results on the majority of those files and still...

Banking royal commission: planners at Commonwealth Bank subsidiary charged dead clients The Australian 10:24am April 19, 2018 Ben Butler   Financial planners at a Commonwealth Bank subsidiary charged fees for ongoing services to clients who had been dead for years, the banking royal commission has heard. One planner’s client had been dead for seven years before the planner contacted his widow, and then took “no action” to fix the continuing charges, a document tendered to the commission this morning shows. Management of Count Financial, the CBA subsidiary responsible for the planner, proposed that the planner be disciplined with a warning, the document, from its internal risk and compliance forum in late 2015, shows. The planner was given a “low” rating and “had not conducted reviews for ongoing service clients”, Count management were told in the document. “Recommend warning letter as a priority due to 4 instances and systemic issues identified,” management...

Criminal penalties, fines boosted amid banking commission outrage Australian Financial Review Apr 19 2018 11:07 PM Phillip Coorey, Andrew Tillett   Penalties for corporate misconduct will be boosted to include fines of more than $200 million,  and the financial regulators granted stronger powers to hire and fire executives, as the Turnbull government responds to shocking revelations of banking behaviour before the Hayne commission. Under growing external and internal criticism for opposing a royal commission for almost two years, the government also relented further on Thursday and said if Commissioner Kenneth Hayne needed more time beyond his 12-month deadline in February next year, he would receive it. Treasurer Scott Morrison and Financial Services Minister Kelly O'Dwyer will announce on Friday new criminal penalties of up to 10 years' jail and maximum fines of $945,000 for individuals breaching the Corporations Act, and fines for corporations of $9.45 million or 10 per cent of...

Former Macquarie exec guilty of money laundering, tax evasion   Sydney Morning Herald 19 April 2018 12:01am Kate McClymont     Former finance professor and Macquarie Bank executive Dr Tony Castagna is behind bars after a Supreme Court jury found him guilty of tax evasion, money laundering and dealing with the proceeds of crime. Castagna, 70, is facing a maximum jail term of 25 years after the jury found that over a nine-year period up until 2008 he deliberately and dishonestly concealed from the Australian Tax Office millions of dollars in fees and bonuses he received while working as a consultant to Macquarie Bank. Also found guilty was Castagna’s cousin Robert Agius, a former accountant in the tax haven of Vanuatu, who conspired with Castagna to conceal the money. Agius, who grew up in the same household as Castagna, is already serving a non-parole period of six years and eight months'...

FRAN KELLY: Well you’ve been protecting them from the royal commission saying we need to protect the financial stability of the banks. PRIME MINISTER: Well, no, Fran what I have done, or what we have done in this budget, what Scott’s done in the budget is set out reforms to the banking sector in terms of making Anna Bligh’s executives of those banks accountable. Making sure that they’re registered. If they do the wrong thing, they can’t work in the industry, establishing a one stop shop, a financial complaint authority that will deal promptly and efficiently with customers and consumers and small businesses claims against the banks. What we’ve done, if you look at what we’ve put in that bank reform package in the budget and you ask yourself- let’s say you had a Royal Commission, let’s say you spent half a billion dollars and went on for three years and...

Macquarie faces investor revolt over MIC share price collapse The Australian 12:00am April 19, 2018 Andrew White   Macquarie Group’s lucrative fee-generating infrastructure manager is facing calls for a shareholder revolt and the cutting of ties to the mother ship, with long-term holder Moab Partners accusing management of “mat­erial misrepresentations” ahead of a collapse in the share price. Shares of Macquarie Infrastructure Corporation sank 40 per cent on February 22 after the company used a quarterly results briefing to sharply downgrade its cash-flow guidance, cut its dividend and said it would internally fund growth projects. But Moab, which owns under 1 per cent of the New York Stock Exchange-listed MIC, claimed in a letter on Tuesday that executives made “material misrepresentations” before the announce-ment that led to an overpayment to Macquarie Infrastructure Management (USA), a unit of the Australian investment bank. The alleged misstatements had damaged the credibility of the external...

Banking royal commission: here comes the shake-out The Australian 12:00am April 19, 2018 James Kirby   Here comes the shake-out. With the reputation of the financial advice sector now officially hitting rock bottom at the bank inquiry, there are going to be huge changes. The headline-making changes will be banks moving as fast as they can to distance themselves from the executives who led this era. One way to do that quickly would be for banks to sell off their “wealth” divisions. It is no surprise then we find out that Commonwealth Bank is planning to sell its Colonial First State operations just hours before an executive at that same subsidiary, Linda Elkins, agrees under questioning at the royal commission that CBA is a “gold medallist” in fees for no service. It turns out that, in common with AMP, CBA failed to provide annual reviews to financial advice customers but charged...

Warning sounded over federal budget's growing reliance on individual income tax Australian Financial Review Apr 18 2018 8:00 PM Tom McIlroy   New analysis has warned the federal budget is becoming increasingly reliant on revenue from individual income taxes, with government failing to effectively respond to the changing make-up of Australia's labour market and its relationship with the tax system. A report by Perth-based workplace expert and risk adviser Conrad Liveris has found the contribution income tax makes to the budget has grown from 39.7 per cent a decade ago to 47.2 per cent this financial year. Growing in dollar terms from $126.7 billion to $209.6 billion in the period, the change represents a 65.4 per cent increase. Company and resource rent taxes – the second largest revenue source for government – remained relatively stable in the period, growing from a $76.4 billion contribution to the budget in 2008-09 to $80.4...

Australia risks wasting seat on UN human rights council Australian Financial Review Apr 17 2018 11:00 PM Lisa Murray   Australia should be less passive on human rights abuses by countries in the region, more transparent about its defence exports to Saudi Arabia and drop controversial encryption legislation that would leave people vulnerable to hackers. These are the key messages Human Rights Watch executive director Kenneth Roth will deliver to senior government officials in a series of meetings this week. Australia, which took up its seat on the powerful United Nations human rights council in January, has failed to lead on important regional issues such as President Rodrigo Duterte's deadly war on drugs in the Philippines or the "ethnic cleansing" of Rohingya Muslims in Myanmar, according to Mr Roth. While Australia ultimately tends to vote the right way, he said "it is not yet playing a leadership role on any current...

Banking royal commission: AMP under attack Australian Financial Review Apr 16 2018 7:40 PM James Frost   AMP copped the full force of the Hayne royal commission's probe into the provision of financial advice with the company exposed for a policy of charging customers for services it never intended to provide and then making a series of false statements to regulators about the practice. The financial services giant was also skewered for its submissions to the banking royal commission where it admitted to "possible breaches" of the law in contrast with an AMP executive's apology for what appeared to actual breaches in a supplementary witness statement. The developments occurred on the first day of the second round of the Hayne royal commission's public hearings into the provision of financial advice, with the big four banks and AMP lambasted for misconduct and multiple incidents of receiving or paying commissions made illegal by...

Banks agree with Ian McPhee, call for more transparency Australian Financial Review Apr 17 2018 12:15 AM James Eyers   The banks have agreed to improve transparency by publishing performance indicators and commentary on how they are progressing with industry reforms designed to build trust and confidence in the sector. With the banking royal commission under way again in Melbourne, the independent governance expert appointed by the Australian Banking Association to oversee an industry plan to lift standards – initially designed to fend off the royal commission – called on bank chief executives to lead delivery of the ongoing improvement program. Ian McPhee, the former commonwealth auditor-general, said in a report to be released on Tuesday that "I see particular benefit in ongoing attention being given by the industry to providing the public with measures of success in building trust and confidence at the individual bank level". It is two years...

Nine out of 10 SMSF advisers failing to consider best interests of clients: ASIC The Australian 12:16pm April 16, 2018 Ben Butler   Financial advisers giving advice about self-managed super funds failed to consider the best interests of their clients in an astounding nine out of 10 cases, according to new Australian Securities and Investments Commission data revealed at the Financial Services Royal Commission this morning. ASIC deputy chairman Peter Kell said the failure to comply with a key requirement of the law, revealed in a survey of 137 financial services licensees, was “obviously very disappointing, to say the least”. He said a smaller percentage of cases, which he did not provide, resulted in financial detriment to the consumer. “But what we have found across large and small licensees in our reviews of recent times is that the industry as a whole is struggling to get to get to grips with...

Regulators turned a blind eye to 'inherent conflict' for two decades Australian Financial ReviewApr 16 2018 11:00 PM Karen Maley   In the late 1990s, it was impossible to talk to the chief executives of the big four banks without hearing of their lofty dreams to transform their institutions into financial supermarkets – a one-stop shop for all the banking, insurance and superannuation products their customers could possibly desire. And the bosses of the big four were prepared to dig deep to achieve their "allfinanz" ambitions. David Murray, then head of Commonwealth Bank, set the ball rolling when he forked out more than $9 billion in March 2000 to pick up Colonial, which boasted a very successful funds management business. The following month, National Australia Bank followed suit, with a $4.6 billion cash deal to acquire another highly regarded funds manager – MLC – from Lend Lease. Westpac was somewhat slower...

CBA's Colonial First State GAM selldown tipped to be above 70pc Australian Financial Review Apr 18 2018 12:13 PM Joyce Moullakis   Commonwealth Bank of Australia may look to sell down 70 per cent or more in an ASX listing of its $4 billion global asset management arm. Sources told The Australian Financial Review the bank was open to a large initial public offering for Colonial First State Global Asset Management, depending on investor demand and broader equity market conditions. A divestment of 70 per cent to up to 100 per cent is not out of the question, sources said. It's understood the current thinking is a non-deal roadshow for the transaction may occur in June or July, allowing CBA to get the transaction away ahead of calendar year end. CBA told the market on Tuesday it would push ahead with a float of CFSGAM, which has $219 billion under management....

  CBA's systems 'so hopeless', banking royal commission hears Australian Financial Review Apr 18 2018 6:34 PM Fiona Buffini   Commonwealth Bank took over two years to tell the regulator it had been charging clients fees for no services because its systems were "so hopeless", its witness has agreed before the banking royal commission. CBA has refunded $118 million to financial planning clients who were charged fees and never received any advice, a "gold medallist" performance the commission heard on Wednesday, and more than any other bank in the country. Counsel assisting the commission Michael Hodge, QC, accused the bank's witness Marianne Perkovic of "dissembling" and commissioner Kenneth Hayne was forced to intervene five times, warning the executive director of Commonwealth Private it would be "safer for you" if she just answered the question she was asked. Towards the end of a gruelling afternoon, Mr Hodge asked Ms Perkovic about a...

AMP executives may face jail over royal commission evidence: Scott Morrison Australian Financial Review Apr 18 2018 12:32 PM Andrew Tillett   Treasurer Scott Morrison has warned AMP executives could face stiff penalties including jail time, saying the financial service's giant admission it had charged customers for services it did not provide and lied repeatedly to the regulator were "deeply disturbing". [Because it’s not a bank? –RJB] Reacting to the damaging revelations aired at the banking royal commission, Mr Morrison said ASIC had been investigating the financial services giant for some time and was pursuing compensation for victims. Commissioner Kenneth Hayne heard on Monday and Tuesday that AMP had charged customers for financial advice it did not provide, made as many as 20 false statements to ASIC over the nature and extent of its overcharging and its outgoing chief executive Craig Meller and chairman Catherine Brenner had interfered with a report...

Banking royal commission: AMP orders whitewash report for ASIC Australian Financial Review Apr 17 2018 10:01 PM James Frost   The Hayne royal commission has put AMP's board and executive team on notice after a bruising day when it was heard AMP's outgoing CEO Craig Meller and chairman Catherine Brenner interfered with a report that was presented to ASIC as independent. The heavily compromised report into AMP's practice of charging customers for services it did not deliver went through 25 drafts and was the subject of more than 700 emails between AMP and the law firm commissioned to deliver the report, Clayton Utz. The name of AMP's CEO Mr Meller was deleted from the report at his request during the drafting process. At the end of the day's proceedings Commissioner Kenneth Hayne underlined the seriousness of the allegations by inviting AMP to submit further material that may shed more light on...

'Stamp out this behaviour' - banks should not offer advice says Fels Sydney Morning Herald 18 April 2018 6:16pm Jessica Irvine, Clancy Yeates, Sarah Danckert & Fergus Hunter   EXCLUSIVE  Forcing the big banks to sell off their financial planning businesses should be under serious consideration, according to Australia's former competition tsar, in the wake of explosive evidence at the Hayne Royal Commission. As executives from AMP and Commonwealth Bank endured a grueling day in the witness box on Wednesday, former Australian Competition and Consumer Commission chairman Allan Fels told Fairfax Media it was clear the inherent conflicts of interest within bank-owned financial advice networks were unmanageable, resulting in poor customer outcomes. “I believe the Royal Commission needs to look at structural separation as a possible remedy. This is usually far more effective than trying to regulate the behaviour of banks," he said. Mr Fels said any forced separation today would...

Australian banksters up there with world’s worst By Houses and Holes in Australian banks at 6:50 am on April 17, 2018 | 60 comments https://www.macrobusiness.com.au/2018/04/australian-banksters-worlds-worst/   Let’s recall the revelations of the Banking Royal Commission so far, via UBS: Fraud and Bribery Counsel Assisting, Ms Rowena Orr, QC: “I want to put to you is that NAB knows, & you know, that there were unsuitable loans, there was false documentation, there was dishonest application of customers’ signatures on consent forms & there was the misstatement of some loans in loan documentation. The whistleblower is recorded as saying: ‘One customer recently said at a particular branch, they told him he could borrow $800,000, but the valuation was only $450,000. The whistleblower said the money exchanges hands in cash, in envelopes, white envelopes usually over the counter. Money is deposited at CBA, so NAB can’t detect the deposits’. Now, this is the information...