BFCSA Blog

Macquarie Group is barging back into the mortgage business with Mark Bouris' - [credited with opening up the non-bank lending market thru 'Wizard' which sold to GE for $500 million] - Yellow Brick Road as it's 'prop': Following a trading halt yesterday YBR announced a new deal with MacQ that will allow it to distribute $billions in mortgage funding and will see MacQ manufacture the loans, no doubt in a manner  "to make the [home-loan] deal fit"  --a practice known to include widespread falsification of prospective customer "loan application forms"[LAF] --a system engineered by MacQ to "wilfully" steal homes from our fellow Australians. Home loans within the "non-bank" sector, are destined for securitization thru the secondary market{RMBS}, and sold as a purported "clean asset" to the Aust Govt [taxpayers] knowingly purchasing $billions of tainted RMBS thru it's AOFM entity, spuriously labelled as "AAA Rated" by the likes of Standard & Poors [Fitch & Moody's] ratings agenciy, whose...

White House,: Barack Obama used innovative methods of organisation to win big --and emphasised a lot of digital innovation in his own campaign which enabled him to access more followers and donations. Five tech trends employed by Barack Obama’s election campaign:~ 1. Gather the data. Then use it:~  Obama’s team put it to their advantage, coordinating the teams deciphering this data with the people in charge. How using big data to analyse what people actually wanted could influence business decisions. In fact, they were so important campaign spokesman called the data crunchers “our nuclear codes” 2. Put all your databases in one place:~  the campaign spent time creating a single database that could be used by pollsters, fundraisers and other officials.The benefits of this type of system are huge. You get more accurate results, you can spend your money more efficiently, and it results in less waste. 3. Target the most effective customers:~ target your customers better by coordinating databases,...

Australian Banks need to learn to value their frontline staff. Unrealistic expectations, abusive conduct, bullying, intimidation: Bank lending industry must be forced to address their appalling track record of misconduct toward both staff and borrowers. FOFA legislation must apply to lending conduct and products - not just investment conduct and products.   _______________________________________________________________ "It is unconscionable that a bank has a best interests duty to its investors but does not owe the same professional duty to its borrowers." _______________________________________________________________     - 1 -Submission toSenate Economics References CommitteeInquiry into the Post-GFCBanking SectorSubmitter: Geoff Derrick (National Assistant Secretary)Organisation: Finance Sector Union of AustraliaAddress: Level 2, 321 Pitt street Sydney NSW 2000Phone 1300 366 722Fax (02) 9320 0094Email: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. - 2 -ContentsDisclaimer statement 3Introduction 4Scope 5Operation of lending targets 6Best interest duty 7Changes in the lending environment 8Impacts on finance sector workers 10Conclusion 13 - 3 -Disclaimer statementWhilst all due care has been...

  VERIFIED FIRST AMENDED COMPLAINT FOR DAMAGES, INJUNCTIVE RELIEF AND THE APPOINTMENT OF A RECEIVER PRESS RELEASE NEW YORK, NY-- (10/25/12) -- Spire Law Group, LLP’s national home owners’ lawsuit, pending in the venue where the “Banksters” control their $43 trillion racketeering scheme (New York) – known as the largest money laundering and racketeering lawsuit in United States History and identifying $43 trillion ($43,000,000,000,000.00) of laundered money by the “Banksters” and their U.S. racketeering partners and joint venturers  – now pinpoints the identities of the key racketeering partners of the “Banksters” located in the highest offices of government and acting for their own self-interests. In connection with the federal lawsuit now impending in the United States District Court in Brooklyn, New York - involving, among other things, a request that the District Court enjoin all mortgage foreclosures by the Banksters nationwide, unless and until the entire $43 trillion is repaid to...

IMF holds meetings in Europe over S&P court case   [Published 7 Nov 2012]  The impact of the Federal Court's historic ruling against ratings agency Standard & Poor's for misleading and deceptive conduct in its issuing of AAA ratings to high-risk financial products is set to become global, according to a report by The Australian.   IMF Australia chief executive John Walker is reportedly planning to hold discussions with investors from Britain, France, Germany and The Netherlands over the weekend about a possible legal case there against S&P.The European discussions will revolve around more than €800 million ($A980 million) worth of synthetic derivative products. “I am going to speak with people in Germany and France and the UK and The Netherlands about their investments in CPDOs to see whether they are interested in joining together in a claim against what is now called RBS and S&P to recover some compensation,” Mr Walker said, according...

RBA could already be selling $A overseas: UBS   [Published: 7 Nov 2012] -- Investment bank UBS believes the Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) could already be printing Australian dollars and selling them to foreign central banks in a bid to minimise buying pressure on the currency, The Australian Financial Review reports. Such a move is said to be an exact adherence to suggestions made by former RBA board member Warwick McKibbin to the newspaper in August. According to the AFR, UBS analysts Gareth Berry and Andrew Lilley have raised concerns over what they deem to be a sudden accumulation of foreign exchange on the central bank's balance sheet during the months of August and September. The accumulation has been labelled a form of “passive intervention” and reportedly been matched by a lift in deposits of overseas institutions held at the RBA. In the week ending October 31, $2.1 billion is reported to have been deposited, which...

If the Australian government is willing to learn from the mistakes of others this interview with Nigel Farage contains some timely lessons in history and the capacity of human beings everywhere to repeat their own mistakes in the belief that this is progress. There is a better way and that way is true democracy, strong oversight on the corruption of referenda and other voting opportunities and drawing on the inherent strengths of each country independently interacting with other independent nations. Bureaucracy breeds more bureaucracy and inevitably that creates more waste, the need for more debt and serves few amongst those who actually pay for the "service" out of their own pockets. Source: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LmROimOLWBo&feature=related    ...

  Bara Kristinsdottir for The New York Times   Updated: July 9, 2012 Iceland is a small but rugged country far from anywhere that suffered from financial wreckage as severely as any in the developed world after its overstretched banks failed in 2008. In a matter of weeks after the banks’ collapse, the unemployment rate jumped to 10 percent, house prices fell, the currency plunged and inflation surged. During the boom years, Iceland became a nation obsessed with banking. The success of the nation’s banks, however, was deceptive. The economy was fueled almost entirely by foreign money. Then, as the global financial infrastructure teetered on the verge of collapse, the bonds came due, and Iceland’s banks couldn’t repay them. Depositors in other countries raced to pull their money out of Icelandic banks. The government didn’t have the resources for a bailout; the banks failed. The government did guarantee that Icelanders would...

  Standard & Poors [cohorts] until this weeks Australian court decision sat comfortably behind the [purported] protected free speech under the first amendment to the US constitution, spuriously asserting that investors could not rely on the credit ratings issued by the 'agencies' as they were only "opinions" and not "financial advice" and there was no contract between the investor and the credit agency. But this is not the Americas and any abused first amendment "shield" is not a US product import 'down-under', otherwise granting impunity to credit agency's misdeeds operating within strained US jurisdiction.   Events must now compel the AOFM to immediately "REVIEW" all RMBS purchases completed under the umbrella of the credit agency's imprimatur, purporting AAA status, as their "stamp of approval" is not worth the paper it's written on, the RMBS related 'paper', bought site unseen relying on contrived 'face values', ongoing since 2008 on behalf of Australian Taxpayers (inc) --as they must be deemed 'unsafe' securities. The...

    Come in Spinner!  TRUST ME:  We give you no copies of documents and we never ring you to ask what your income is.  The loan is extremely expensive and WHEN your loan goes pear-shape we will steal your home and say ITS YOUR FAULT! We will also blame the Broker.  We rejig the Service Calculator oops, but that's a secret weapon we use against YOU. As an added bonus (I love big fat bonuses) if you last ten years on struggling to pay us, then you will delightfully discover your initial debt is still the same..... AND although its against the law, we will actually give you (shhhh) buffer monies so you can pay us with our own money.   We also help you with the fraudulent parts. Try our Low Docs today: Load yourselves up with a lifetime of DEBT and become a slave to our Bank......we are the best at this caper....

ABA - Advocating the Divine Right of Banks to return us all to the Dark Ages & debtors dungeons? In response to the ABA submission to ASIC EDR review, March 2012. BTW I noticed it took from 2009 to 2012 for ASIC to do undertake this review lol! And that this unenlightened effort to distort and corrupt the Australian justice system was pieced together prior to the wake up call given to the ABA and some Banks during the Senate Inquiry into post-GFC Banking. Not to mention the ongoing "bath" given to ASIC. I wonder if anything has changed now in the ASIC - ABA - Bank relationship and if this has changed the way in which FOS and COSL are managing borrower complaints? "The ABA understands that it is a natural response by a customer to the possibility of losing his or her residence to want to ward off...

I’m extremely worried ...the dodgy spruiker is back, in fine form, and investors, many with memories too short to recall the bad old days of rip-offs and questionable deals, are just begging for their money to be taken, and I am seeing more people being taken advantage of, and a return to a situation we saw in the early 90s. How can you tell if a deal is dodgy? You can’t, but here are some clues to protect yourself with the following guidelines:: ~ 1) Become educated [then] you will know how to spot a dodgy deal at 10 paces: ~ 2) Beware of property being marketed by a seminar or telemarketer as these people are paid big commissions: ~ 3) Never sign a deal on the day you see it ['caveat emptor', "buyer beware"]: ~ 4) Always confirm the value of a property through recent sales to determine actual value ['comparative sales']:...

"A banker is a fellow who lends you his umbrella when the sun is shining, but wants it back the minute it begins to rain." Mark Twain (1835 - 1910): “It is well enough that people of the nation do not understand our banking and money system, for if they did, I believe there would be a revolution before tomorrow morning.” Henry Ford "This country, with its institutions, belongs to the people who inhabit it. Whenever they shall grow weary of the existing government, they can exercise their Constitutional right of amending it or their revolutionary right to dismember it or overthrow it." Abraham Lincoln: “Let me issue and control a nation’s money and I care not who writes the laws.” Mayer Amschel Rothschild (1744-1812), founder of the House of Rothschild.             "The modern theory of the perpetuation of debt has drenched the earth with blood, and crushed its inhabitants under burdens...

Greece: The list, includes politicians, businessmen, shipping magnates, doctors, lawyers – a far cry from those who have borne the brunt of relentless austerity measures on the margins of society. "Journalism is printing what someone else does not want printed; everything else is public relations" said Greek editor Kostas Vaxevanis, citing George Orwell. “My job is simply to tell the news and tell it straight. My job is to tell the truth -- before observers packed into the crammed courtroom broke into applause -- as such it was my duty to reveal this list. It is quite clear the political system did everything not to publish this list. If you look at the names, or the offshore companies linked to certain individuals, you see that these are all friends of those in power. Phoney lists had also begun to circulate. It was time for the truth," he told the Guardian during a recess. "We live...

Be prepared for a NEW PAGE on our website for all the Bankwest Customers who have been badly done by over the CBA purchase of Bankwest.  Family businesses have been ripped apart by downgrading of Valuations to force all such loans into default!  In most of these cases, the payment commitment had been made on time, yet suddenly the fine print in the contracts suggested if the property is devalued, the LVR rises upward, causing the loan facility to be "deemed" in default.  And why did this phenomena occur at a very specific point in time?  CBA wanted to pay less for the bank and therefore some creative accounting has allegedly come into play.   We have had a number of people contact us regarding this disgraceful chapter in the history of the CBA, Bankwest and HBSC. We are working through a number of options and will refer to these people as being part of...

An article produced by an "independent" legal expert which stated that not one lawyer has ever lodged a professional misconduct complaint against a fellow lawyer --lest they be ostracised: Whistleblocked! Whistleblowing lawyer faces lifetime ban for exposing legal, judicial and government corruption...prominent Australian journalist, lawyer and political activist Mr James Johnson will be sentenced on two charges of “professional misconduct” and faces being banned from practising law for at least 5 years (possibly for life) as payback for blowing the whistle on widespread corruption and misconduct in Australia’s legal system.     Earlier this month, the Victorian government (in its Victorian Civil Administrative Tribunal) ruled that despite a distinguished two decade career amongst the elite of the legal profession, Mr Johnson’s crime? Making comprehensive whistleblower complaints about corruption and misconduct by a number of Australian barristers, solicitors and judges – complaints that, despite their seriousness and the weight of evidence behind them,...

  12-97MR ASIC chief elected chair of IOSCO board Thursday 17 May 2012 ASIC chairman Greg Medcraft was today elected chairman of the board of the International Organization of Securities Commissions (IOSCO), following a vote of board members at IOSCO’s annual conference in Beijing. Mr Medcraft’s IOSCO term will begin when the current chairman, Masamichi Kono, steps down in March 2013 and will continue to September 2014. The IOSCO role will be held concurrently with Mr Medcraft’s ASIC responsibilities. ‘I am honoured to be elected chairman of IOSCO. This is an organisation that does important work, and as we face ongoing economic uncertainty in the Eurozone, that work is even more crucial,’ Mr Medcraft said. ‘My vision is for IOSCO to be seen by regulators and policy makers globally as effective, pro-active and forward looking. I want to make IOSCO the key global reference body for securities regulation, in much the...

Greg Medcraft gets his better ideas from the BFCSA site and all the letters that BFCSA, Storm, Westpoint and other "victims" of ASIC's blatant neglect, extended incompetency and reluctance to act. But the whole world knows now that ASIC will "protect" CBA and other banks in preference to doing their jobs. How do we know? Because Mr Turner, Chairman of the Board of the Commonwealth Bank of Australia announced that at the AGM. Unless I misread what he was talking about .... ASIC of course is supposed to be the impartial corporate regulator. ASIC seem to have missed the concept of impartial - Corporate regulations apply equally to banks and microbusinesses. ASIC also had the conflicting role of consumer protection and complaints against corporations. That, clearly, wasn't going to work. So ASIC opted for sticking with the strength e.g. banks of whom there were fewer and much easier to cope with...