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SENATE ECONOMICS REFERENCES COMMITTEE Inquiry into the post-GFC banking sector QUESTIONS ON NOTICE Commonwealth Bank of Australia 9 August 2012 Senator Williams asked: a) After the Commonwealth Bank appoints a receiver, what happens to any monies that the owner of the business had set aside to fulfil the business’s GST obligations or which were otherwise necessary to meet the business’ GST obligations? b) After a business has been placed in receivership, has the Commonwealth Bank received any monies that had been set aside to fulfil the business’s GST obligations or which were otherwise necessary to meet the business’ GST obligations? c) If so, were these monies forwarded to the Australian Taxation Office? d) Does the CBA have any internal policies in place regarding businesses placed in receivership and their GST obligations? CBA response: a) On the appointment of a Receiver, control of the company and its assets (including any monies held...

  SENATE ECONOMICS REFERENCES COMMITTEE Inquiry into the post-GFC banking sector   QUESTIONS ON NOTICE http://www.aph.gov.au/Parliamentary_Business/Committees/Senate_Committees?url=economics_ctte/post_gfc_banking/submissions.htm Replies have been received from Bank West RBA Westpac Commonwealth Bank Treasury   Bankwest 10 August 2012   Question 1 (Hansard Ref: p. 57)   Senator WILLIAMS: Why has Bankwest registered the websites unhappybanking.com and unhappybanking.com.au?   The domain names in question were registered by Bankwest before the launch of the unhappybanking.net.au site. It is not unusual for an organisation to take steps to protect its brand through registering domain names that may have a likeness to the name or other aspects of the brand.       Question 2 (Hansard Ref: p. 64)   Senator WILLIAMS: You have given us the percentage of your customers who are impaired et cetera—a very good percentage. Do you know what percentage of your customers who were developers on the east coast became impaired?   Mr De Luca:...

        I'm wondering how many of our political representatives, people in regulatory organisations, key personnel in industry representative groups and superannuation funds have invested in Residential Mortgage Backed Securities? Or banks?  How would most people know where their money was invested when they give it to a fund manager, MIS or superfund scheme?  It would stand to reason that people in powerful positions could be influenced by their investments and self-interest.  Is it possible that any of them received RMSB investments as 'gifts' from the banks? Is it possible that any of them have no idea, forgot to look or failed to declare their or their company's, family's, trust's investments in RMBS?   I understand there is a register of the assets and investments held by our parliamentarians. Does anyone know where to find it? Is this open for public viewing?  How does this essential area of transparency and...

29 August, 2012 BankWest customers tell the Senate shocking stories of fraudulent foreclosures while Australia’s financial journalists are out to lunch — dining on the Commonwealth’s Bank’s record profits. Associate Professor Evan Jones reports. ON THURSDAY 16 August, the Sydney Morning Herald reported the Commonwealth Bank’s approximately $7.1 billion profit, up $700 million from 2010-11. The Herald’s financial journalists fell over themselves in adulation. Here was a true national champion. The previous week, a different story was being played out. The Senate Inquiry into the ‘post-GFC banking sector’ held hearings in Canberra (8th) and Sydney (9th & 10th). A couple of dozen spectators attended the Sydney hearings; it appears that the Herald was not amongst them. It was a spectacle. Transcripts of the hearings are available here. The Senate Economics Committee instigated its banking inquiry in March, following pressure from myriad former customers of CBA-owned BankWest who claim that their...

By Philip Soos  Tuesday, 21 August 2012 The level of sub-prime mortgages in Australia may be far in advance of what was previously assumed and provided for by banks. The story was broken on the ABC, and covered elsewhere. The revelations centred around two personalities: Kate Thompson and Denise Brailey. Kate Thompson was a licensed mortgage broker at Mortgage Miracles in Western Australia. A highly regarded and award-winning broker, Thompson disbursed a veritable torrent of credit from bank and non-banking lenders to clients wanting funds to buy property, making around $5 million a year from upfront and trailing commissions. She is now facing fraud charges for what amounts to predatory lending: providing credit to people with little to no expectation they will be able to repay the entirety of the loan. This fraud was achieved by fudging the income and assets of clients, making them appear much wealthier on paper than was...

I've just received a letter from ASIC. They have had my complaint about a possibly fraudulent investment involving deceptive and misleading conduct by the fund manager, lack of fiduciary duty and breach of contract issues since October 2011. On learning that my investment had been "lost" after everything I'd done to get it back, I put in another related complaint recently and that has prompted a reply. What I did this time was ask them to let me know asap or within 28 days what breaches of law etc they could find in my complaint. I also sent an email to one of the addresses that came back on the read receipt requesting copies of the two letters I received from their officer, who I named from memory. She was the last person to contact me in December 2011. She was also the person who got me an answer after all...

Senate Economics References CommitteePublic HearingInquiry into the post-GFC banking sector Friday 10 August 2012 Jubilee Room, NSW Parliament HouseSYDNEY PROGRAM 8.30 am – 9.15 am Mr Paul French and Mr Geoffrey Reiher (submission 104) 9.15 am – 10.00 am Mr James Neale (submission 54, 54A) 10.00 am – 10.45 am Mr Geoffrey Shannon (submission 118) 10.45 am – 11.00 am Break 11.00 am – 11.45 amING DIRECT (submission 103)Mr Vaughn Richtor, Chief Executive OfficerMr Glenn Baker, Chief Financial OfficerMr Bart Hellemans, Chief Risk Officer 11.45 pm – 12.30 pm Mr Guy Goldrick (submission 56) 12.30 pm – 1.30 pm Lunch break 1.30 pm – 3.00 pmBankwest (submission 80)Mr Rob De Luca, Managing DirectorMr Ian Corfield, Chief Executive, Bankwest BusinessMs Sue Tindal, Chief Executive, Strategy & Reputation 3.00 pm – 4.00 pmNational Australia Bank (submission 79)Mr Mark Joiner, Executive Director and Chief Financial OfficerMr Bruce Munro, Chief Risk Officer 4.00 pm Adjournment...

by: Richard Gluyas From: The Australian August 06, 2012 12:00AM IAN Narev, Commonwealth Bank chief executive, could be called before a Senate banking inquiry to answer suggestions that Commonwealth and its subsidiary Bankwest went into "panic mode" and called in performing loans during the global crisis. National Party senator John Williams, who helped move the motion to establish the inquiry into banking since the global financial crisis, said he was "disappointed" that Mr Narev would not appear when public hearings kicked off this week. "But we have the power to summons Mr Narev, like with (his predecessor) Ralph Norris when there was the same kind of problem over the Storm Financial collapse," Senator Williams said. "We sent Mr Norris another letter and he soon turned up." A Commonwealth spokesman said no other bank chief executive was attending, and the four Commonwealth executives who would appear had the necessary "detailed expertise"...

Firstly, let me introduce myself. My name is Lindie Mehan & my submission to this inquiry was published at # 69. It may only be a light-weight 4 pages long however, there is a 6 year (almost 7) history behind that backing up my submission. That timeframe has seen me visit some very deep dark places & now there is only ice cold anger at the processes I have been subjected to - very un-Australian processes from quite a few different directions.   Today I watched the Senate Inquiry via live streaming on my computer. Denise Brailey has her finger on the pulse which is far more than the other entities presented had. She disclosed how the banks & ASIC would try to blame the brokers well ahead of this inquiry. Please check her blogs on the website: www.bfcsa.com.au/index.php/easyblog Denise has been spelling out quite clearly what is not working, what is fraudulent, what is...