Perhaps we should be careful not to put the baby out with the bathwater!
“Our vision is to build the digital financial infrastructure for the future. We are moving forward with that overarching and audacious strategy and can clearly see how this will roll out.” Caroline Bowler CEO, BTC Markets
Go to the Walk The World Universe at https://walktheworld.com.au/
We (Dale Webster and I) have written to the Senate Standing Committee on Regional and Rural Affairs and Transport about the economic fallout from the removal of in person banking services across Australia. Today I discuss this with Robbie Barwick from The Australian Citizens Party and the need to lobby Senate members on this important issue.
If you care about the economic future of our regional towns and suburbs, then please contact your local Senators and tell them that they should support the initiative, ideally over the next few days, so as to create maximum impact in the final sitting weeks of the year.
AUSTRALIA’S banking regulator APRA is picking and choosing which banks it is allowing to get away with breaking the law by misreporting whether their sites offer cash service provided by a teller according to an important article in The Regional. Kudos once again to Dale Webster for highlighting this important issue.
Errors in hundreds of minor and foreign bank sites included in the Australian Prudential Regulation Authority’s points of presence data for years, even decades, have been corrected over the past 17 months after being exposed by The Regional in May 2021.
An important discussion about the games banks are playing in relation to the setting of deposit interest rates, in the context of the RBA rate hikes. Steve Mickenbecker from Canstar and I explore the elements which are driving returns lower than they should be, and what we can do about it. Another case of the apathy tax at work!
Steve Mickenbecker is in Canstar’s Group Executive Team, bringing more than 30 years of experience in the Australian financial services industry. As a financial commentator for Canstar, Steve enjoys sharing his expertise across topics such as home loans, superannuation, insurance, mortgages, banking, credit cards, investment, budgeting, money management and more.
Go to the Walk The World Universe at https://walktheworld.com.au/
Digital Finance Analytics (DFA) Blog
The Deposit Rate Plot Thickens: With Steve Mickenbecker [Podcast]
I discuss the creation of Kiwi Bank, a National Bank In New Zealand with one of its architects Hon Matt Robson.
Matt Robson’s commercial experience began in the Netherlands thirty years ago, working in the oil industry. This introduced him to the rigours of international commerce, budgets, deadlines, understanding complex commercial operations and structures, it also gave him management experience and familiarity of working with a multicultural, multilingual workforce, where reading and writing in foreign languages was a necessity. As a result he is fluent in speaking reading and writing Dutch, speaking and writing French and German and competent in reading Spanish.
In the 1970’s Matt qualified with a Diploma in Teaching and taught through the 1980’s in a number of secondary schools in New Zealand the majority in the South Auckland area.
In the 1980’s-1990’s Matt became engaged in party politics. As deputy leader of both the Alliance and Progressive Parties he acted as spokesperson and policy developer across a wide spectrum of policy issues in areas as diverse as economic development, social matters and international affairs.
Matt was a Cabinet Minister in the Labour-Alliance Coalition Government (1999-2002) and was allocated the following portfolios: Minister of Corrections , Minister for Land Information, Associate-Minister of Foreign Affairs (responsible for official Overseas Development Aid [ODA]), Minister for Disarmament and Arms Control.
He was also a significant driver in achieving justice for Algerian asylum seeker Ahmed Zaoui, both while as a Member of Parliament and as an independent barrister/solicitor.
He continues to practice law in Auckland and specialises in immigration law and migrant advocacy. Matt remains active in advocating global peace and justice and is a regular speaker at disarmament and anti-nuclear conferences around the world.
Go to the Walk The World Universe at https://walktheworld.com.au/
I am joined by Robbie Barwick from the Australian Citizens Party to discuss a critical policy area, ahead of the new Parliament sitting next week. We want to make sure the politicians are aware of the benefits of a National Postal Bank, and how you can help to raise that awareness.
JPMorgan Chase & Co. Chief Executive Officer Jamie Dimon and his Morgan Stanley counterpart, James Gorman, both said Thursday that they aren’t steering their firms toward shelter even as they see a confluence of global events denting the economy in the months ahead.
“The consumer right now is in great shape,” Dimon said on a conference call discussing his company’s second-quarter results. “So even if we go into a recession, they’re entering that recession with less leverage and in far better shape than they did in ’08 and ’09.”
Gorman, on his bank’s earnings call, said a deep or dramatic recession in the US is unlikely, and Morgan Stanley is “long the US” in most of its businesses. “The US is a great region to be in the world.”
Those verdicts come even as second-quarter results at both JPMorgan and Morgan Stanley were hurt by a slowdown from the pandemic-era bonanza that gave them record revenue and profits.
Risks abound, with soaring inflation spurring central banks around the world to dial back the easy-money policies that had pushed markets to all-time highs. Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, along with worries about food and energy security as well as political instability across regions, are also keeping investors on edge.
“If I had to use one word to describe it, it would be ‘complicated,’” Gorman said on the challenges facing the global economy. He said that “Europe is fighting the hardest,” with the dual threat of the war in Ukraine and pressure on gas prices that’s been particularly problematic for countries such as Germany.
Go to the Walk The World Universe at https://walktheworld.com.au/
Digital Finance Analytics (DFA) Blog
Tight Credit Markets Hits Banking's Big Beasts... [Podcast]
APRA released their Macro-prudential Framework for consultation. We look at their approach, and consider the implications. Spiced wet lettuce comes to mind!
I caught up with Steve Mickenbecker from Canstar to talk about APRA’s changes to mortgage buffer rates, how lenders have tweaked their mortgage rates, credit card usage and the apathy tax. So many moving parts in the financial landscape.
Steve Mickenbecker is in Canstar’s Group Executive Team, bringing more than 30 years of experience in the Australian financial services industry. As a financial commentator for Canstar, Steve enjoys sharing his expertise across topics such as home loans, superannuation, insurance, mortgages, banking, credit cards, investment, budgeting, money management and more.
The latest edition of our finance and property news digest with a distinctively Australian flavour. Today we look at Wells Fargo’s jettison of personal lines of credit, and UK banks stopping customers transferring funds to crypto exchanges. It is an over reach – or is something else going on?
Go to the Walk The World Universe at https://walktheworld.com.au/
Digital Finance Analytics (DFA) Blog
Banks Behaving Badly - Or Something More? [Podcast]
