http://www.thesheet.com/index.php The Sheet - better business journalism en-au Copyright The Sheet 2008 hourly 1 1970-01-01T00:00+00:00 http://www.thesheet.com/RDF/manage_head1.gif http://www.thesheet.com/ The Sheet - better business journalism http://www.thesheet.com/nl05_news_selected.php?act=2&selkey=6596 If the 2005 business plan of National Australia Bank is any kind of yardstick, some time this year is the time when the management of the bank is supposed to deliver. The Sheet - Australian Banking and Finance News 2008-05-12T07:03:26+10:00 http://www.thesheet.com/nl05_news_selected.php?act=2&selkey=6595 A central claim in NAB’s profit for the March 2008 half year, published on Friday, is that an operating expense discipline prevails in the business. The Sheet - Australian Banking and Finance News 2008-05-12T07:03:08+10:00 http://www.thesheet.com/nl05_news_selected.php?act=2&selkey=6594 National Australia Bank chief executive John Stewart said the bank had adopted a conservative approach to dealing with conditions he had never encountered before in 30 years of banking and he warned that the bank would most likely maintain this stance for some time. The Sheet - Australian Banking and Finance News 2008-05-12T07:02:46+10:00 http://www.thesheet.com/nl05_news_selected.php?act=2&selkey=6593 One detail exposed in NAB’s March 2008 financial report is the presence of $360 million in sub-prime loans in the US market funded through one or more of the conduits or special investment vehicles managed (and now more than half funded) by the bank. The Sheet - Australian Banking and Finance News 2008-05-12T07:00:11+10:00 http://www.thesheet.com/nl05_news_selected.php?act=2&selkey=6592 It was all bad news for loan brokers and aggregators last week as banks talked about the need to adjust broker commissions and said they were being more cautious about distribution through the broker channel. The Sheet - Australian Banking and Finance News 2008-05-12T06:59:51+10:00 http://www.thesheet.com/nl05_news_selected.php?act=2&selkey=6591 The March half is one the banks will want to forget. On most measures they fell below expectations. The standout was ANZ but for all the wrong reasons; its return on equity, earnings per share and interest margin all fell heavily, while its expenses and bad debt write-offs rose sharply. The Sheet - Australian Banking and Finance News 2008-05-12T06:59:29+10:00 http://www.thesheet.com/nl05_news_selected.php?act=2&selkey=6590 Margin calls during the January and February bear attack on some of the most speculative stocks were only half as common as in the corresponding share market declines of 2001 and 2002. The Sheet - Australian Banking and Finance News 2008-05-12T06:58:58+10:00 http://www.thesheet.com/nl05_news_selected.php?act=2&selkey=6589 Banks have extended the average term of repurchase agreements with the Reserve Bank of Australia to around 50 days as of late last year from around 25 days prior to the beginning of the dislocation of credit markets that kicked off in mid 2007. The Sheet - Australian Banking and Finance News 2008-05-12T06:58:38+10:00 http://www.thesheet.com/nl05_news_selected.php?act=2&selkey=6588 National Australia Bank is setting up a shared services entity to service the group’s regional banking business in Australia, New Zealand, Britain and Asia, the Herald Sun reported. The Sheet - Australian Banking and Finance News 2008-05-09T06:58:32+10:00 http://www.thesheet.com/nl05_news_selected.php?act=2&selkey=6587 There is some blunt commentary over the quality and adequacy of the modelling of home loan risks in the Financial Stability Review published this week by the Reserve Bank of New Zealand. The Sheet - Australian Banking and Finance News 2008-05-09T06:57:31+10:00 http://www.thesheet.com/nl05_news_selected.php?act=2&selkey=6586 Commonwealth Bank – rather than the previously demonised WestLB – has copped plenty of apparently informed, and pointed, commentary yesterday and this morning over its role in the drawn out negotiations over extending terms (and extending some additional loans to) the Centro Properties Group. The Sheet - Australian Banking and Finance News 2008-05-09T06:57:06+10:00 http://www.thesheet.com/nl05_news_selected.php?act=2&selkey=6585 Commonwealth Bank chief executive Ralph Norris told a Macquarie Bank conference yesterday that the bank’s capital position was “very strong”, said that it was “at the upper end of the target range” and said the bank was “well-placed compared to the bank’s peer group”. The Sheet - Australian Banking and Finance News 2008-05-09T06:52:04+10:00 http://www.thesheet.com/nl05_news_selected.php?act=2&selkey=6584 Ask a banker what is the average LVR of the bank’s mortgage book and he will say it is about 60 per cent. The Sheet - Australian Banking and Finance News 2008-05-09T06:51:11+10:00 http://www.thesheet.com/nl05_news_selected.php?act=2&selkey=6583 National Australia Bank’s investment banking division, nabCapital, has completed the first transaction of its new asset backed commercial paper conduit MiraStar. The Sheet - Australian Banking and Finance News 2008-05-09T06:50:34+10:00 http://www.thesheet.com/nl05_news_selected.php?act=2&selkey=6582 Mortgage insurer Genworth Financial reported yesterday that cases of financial hardship are on the rise, although levels are not abnormal. The Sheet - Australian Banking and Finance News 2008-05-09T06:50:14+10:00 http://www.thesheet.com/nl05_news_selected.php?act=2&selkey=6581 The Reserve Bank of New Zealand yesterday raised fresh concerns over the structure and duration of the funding of banks generally. The Sheet - Australian Banking and Finance News 2008-05-08T07:06:55+10:00 http://www.thesheet.com/nl05_news_selected.php?act=2&selkey=6580 The Reserve Bank of New Zealand yesterday announced revised criteria under which banks can sell securities to the bank, on a short-term basis and at an interest rate penalty. The Sheet - Australian Banking and Finance News 2008-05-08T07:06:39+10:00 http://www.thesheet.com/nl05_news_selected.php?act=2&selkey=6579 Suncorp chief executive John Mulcahy yesterday provided fresh insight into the finance and insurance group’s funding strategy in recent months, including some details on the bank’s reliance on private placements to raise wholesale funding. The Sheet - Australian Banking and Finance News 2008-05-08T07:06:22+10:00 http://www.thesheet.com/nl05_news_selected.php?act=2&selkey=6578 The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission has received more than 200 submissions opposing eBay Australia’s proposal to force its buyers and sellers to use PayPal. The Sheet - Australian Banking and Finance News 2008-05-08T07:06:07+10:00 http://www.thesheet.com/nl05_news_selected.php?act=2&selkey=6577 Paymate has told the ACCC that the eBay proposal will result in PayPal dominating all online commerce in Australia and discouraging new entrants. The Sheet - Australian Banking and Finance News 2008-05-08T07:05:45+10:00 http://www.thesheet.com/nl05_news_selected.php?act=2&selkey=6576 Adelaide Equity Finance, formerly Goldman Sachs JBWere Finance, launched action in the Brisbane Supreme Court to recover more than $4 million over an unpaid margin loan from former MFS chiefs Michael King and Phil Adams, the Herald Sun reported. The Sheet - Australian Banking and Finance News 2008-05-08T07:05:03+10:00 http://www.thesheet.com/nl05_news_selected.php?act=2&selkey=6575 BankWest chief executive retail Ian Corfield, speaking at a Retail Financial Services lunch in Melbourne organised by the Charlton Group, predicted margins would increase in the coming months. The Sheet - Australian Banking and Finance News 2008-05-08T07:03:31+10:00 http://www.thesheet.com/nl05_news_selected.php?act=2&selkey=6574 Cutbacks in the reverse mortgage market continue with the news that Macquarie Bank has suspended origination of its Silver Living product. The Sheet - Australian Banking and Finance News 2008-05-08T07:01:14+10:00 http://www.thesheet.com/nl05_news_selected.php?act=2&selkey=6572 Bluestone Group will stop distributing reverse mortgages through brokers and financial planners and will focus its activities on distribution through alliance partners. The Sheet - Australian Banking and Finance News 2008-05-07T04:35:58+10:00 http://www.thesheet.com/nl05_news_selected.php?act=2&selkey=6571 St George Bank chief executive Paul Fegan argued yesterday that the market should focus on what he called the bank’s underlying earnings of $626 million for the six months to March 2008. On that number earnings were up a respectable 8.8 per cent on the previous corresponding period. The Sheet - Australian Banking and Finance News 2008-05-07T04:35:48+10:00 http://www.thesheet.com/nl05_news_selected.php?act=2&selkey=6570 Margin lending portfolios grew by about 40 per cent a year in 2006 and 2007, as the long Australian equity bull market climbed towards its peak. Now that the market has turned the money is pouring out of margin loan accounts almost as fast as it went in. The Sheet - Australian Banking and Finance News 2008-05-07T04:35:37+10:00 http://www.thesheet.com/nl05_news_selected.php?act=2&selkey=6569 St George Bank began life as a building society selling home loans and it still likes to play on that heritage in its marketing. The Sheet - Australian Banking and Finance News 2008-05-07T04:35:27+10:00 http://www.thesheet.com/nl05_news_selected.php?act=2&selkey=6568 St George Bank has been pursuing a strategy of expanding outside its home base of New South Wales. This push has been going on for some time but accelerated during the past couple of years as the bank sought to avoid being caught in the state’s economic doldrums. The Sheet - Australian Banking and Finance News 2008-05-07T04:35:16+10:00 http://www.thesheet.com/nl05_news_selected.php?act=2&selkey=6567 A single, dodgy loan to some directors of Octaviar is the only real blemish on the credit quality of St George as the credit crunch approaches its first anniversary. The Sheet - Australian Banking and Finance News 2008-05-07T04:35:02+10:00 http://www.thesheet.com/nl05_news_selected.php?act=2&selkey=6566 BankWest may be developing brand recognition in the eastern states but it is losing  traction in the deposit market of late, as savings pushed out of the stock market flow into the big banks rather than to challengers. The Sheet - Australian Banking and Finance News 2008-05-07T04:34:42+10:00