Latest news and insights on banking and finance in Australia and New Zealand, as delivered in the daily 7am Banking Day email news service (subscribe or take out a free trial).
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CBA open to calls but closed to questions
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12 July 2005 12:00amOpening a bank's customer call centre 24 hours a day must be a pretty rare thing, since Commonwealth Bank, via public relations firm Hill & Knowlton, considered it worth the trouble to publicise. » read more »
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Australasian banks' credit strength confirmed
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12 July 2005 12:00amThere were no surprises for the Australian and New Zealand banks rated under Standard & Poor's new Bank Fundamental Strength Ratings, which were launched yesterday. » read more »
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ANZ looks to the unbanked for growth
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11 July 2005 12:00amANZ Bank's "most successful" and "fastest growing" business is not in Australia or New Zealand but is instead in Fiji. » read more »
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Fiji recovery favours ANZ and Westpac
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11 July 2005 12:00amBank investment in Fiji, like most investment in the country, was more a legacy of Australia's colonial era in the early twentieth century rather than any passionate pursuit of profits. » read more »
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UN Development Fund aids rural banking expansion
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11 July 2005 12:00amANZ is sufficiently optimistic about its growth plans for Fiji that the bank attributes the funding for the rural banking expansion to central group account rather than to the Pacific business unit. » read more »
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ANZ consolidates Fiji returns
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11 July 2005 12:00amANZ recorded a 10 per cent increase in its pre-tax profit in Fiji in 2004, to F$34.6 million, up from F$31.5 million in 2003. » read more »
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Westpac targets SME sector in Fiji
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11 July 2005 12:00amWestpac, while increasing its investment spend in the south-west Pacific, takes a different approach to that of its nearest rival. » read more »
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Westpac profits ease in Fiji
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11 July 2005 12:00amWestpac recorded a slight decline in its pre-tax profit in Fiji in 2004, to F$36.8 million, down from F$37.0 million in 2003. » read more »
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ANZ and Westpac lock onto 80 per cent of Fiji bank profits
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11 July 2005 12:00amColonial National Bank a subsidiary of Commonwealth Bank trebled pre-tax profit in Fiji in 2004, to F$4.6 million, up from F$1.5 million in 2003. Loans increased by 20 per cent to F$254 million and assets increased by 20 per cent. » read more »
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Pacific profit margins worry aid donors
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11 July 2005 12:00amProfit margins in Fiji are unusually favourable for ANZ and Westpac, and these are really a fact of life in Pacific banking. » read more »
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World Bank cautious on Fiji's prospects
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11 July 2005 12:00amThe World Bank, in its Regional Engagement Framework for the Pacific Islands (published in May 2005) wrote that "in the case of Fiji, a lower-middle income client (and IBRD-eligible borrower), the objectives of the World Bank's assistance program will be to assist the government in improving the country's growth prospects that had begun to recover a little in the aftermath of the 2000 coup. » read more »
