What is the interest rate on your savings account? If you don’t know, you can easily find out. Banks advertise their rates prominently. They want you to know what they’re offering. After all, the interest…
The ongoing global financial crisis (because we’re not out of it yet, are we?) is often characterised as a crisis of trust. Distrust of the banks was a major theme – but distrust extended also to credit…
“It takes me about two hours to assemble a team of financial geeks and lawyers to devise a product or a transaction that would bypass any regulation coming our way,” a senior French banker said to me in…
The global crash of 2008 kicked off a furious debate in the UK about whether or not the City of London is a real asset to the economy. There was huge anger about the multi-billion bail-out of failed banks…
Australian banks are much more heavily exposed to mortgage lending than banks in most parts of the world, which is why the latest publication of APRA data on home lending has set the hares running. The…
UK banking giant Barclays has revealed plans to lay off 1700 branch staff and shrink its branch network as customers embrace online and mobile banking. The street faces of banks are changing quickly. Where…
Like most companies, banks report their profits twice a year. Each time the majors report we see headlines about the size of the profits and implicit or explicit criticism of the amount – this time about…
Reporting season has delivered another round of record bank profits. Yet, in itself, this is no bad thing. Former Reserve Bank governor, the late Sir Harold Knight, used to quip that profitable banks don’t…
ANZ Bank has delivered another record profit, promising shareholders a bigger dividend than expected on the back of cash earnings of A$6.49 billion. But despite the bank’s continued Australian and international…
Two recent incidents have shown that you no longer need to risk life and limb to rob a bank. In September, an attempted cyber-robbery at a London branch of Santander was stopped in its tracks and shortly…
Earlier this month, Australia’s Big Four banks copped a serve over their support of the coal and gas extraction industries, focusing attention on the ways large banks’ investment decisions can put the…
The UK could be about to make a multi-billion pound mistake. Plans to sell-off the 82% share of the Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) and the 39% share of Lloyds owned by the taxpayer are gaining favour in…
Australia Post have every reason to be pleased with their role in the online shopping revolution. They are central to the process by providing a means of converting the virtual into the real, by delivering…
Kevin Davis, Australian Centre for Financial Studies
There is a growing chorus of support for introduction of a fee for the protection provided to bank deposits (up to the $250,000 cap) by the Financial Claims Scheme (or deposit insurance as it would be…
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…
The suit lodged against Standard Chartered in Manhattan by the New York State Department of Financial Services has served its first purpose: capturing the headlines and putting the banking industry once…
“Events over the past couple of years have raised profound questions about the ways in which banks and businesses contribute to society. For both to play their full part, they must restore trust and become…
The role of Barclays bank in manipulating the London Interbank Offered Rate (LIBOR) continues to dominate international financial media. The bank has already attracted fines from regulators in the UK and…
Amid the tumultuous economic climate in the US and Europe - not to mention the tumbling fortunes of our sharemarket - the Reserve Bank of Australia has followed market sentiment and cut the official cash…