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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Reserve relies on the joint study
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15 October 2004 12:00amThe core theme to emerge from the Reserve Bank's reasons is that the central bank, as payments system regulator, relied upon the "joint study" of Australia's cards and ATM systems, undertaken with the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission, as the basis for its decision to "designate" Eftpos. Designation is a formal, but only preliminary step, on the path to deciding on any regulations. » read more »
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Debit cards and credit card treated as substitutes
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15 October 2004 12:00amThe Reserve Bank's reasons conclude that, "On the basis of the available evidence debit cards and credit cards are economic substitutes", though the line of reasoning will have to wait for a later edition of this newsletter. » read more »
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RBA deflects findings of the Competition Tribunal
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15 October 2004 12:00amIn the reasons, the Reserve Bank provides an eight point rebuttal of the key findings of the Australian Competition Tribunal. The ACT decided in May that "We do not agree with the ACCC that the public benefits and detriments of the [bank's proposal] are finely balanced. Any public benefits are clearly outweighed by the detriments." The ACT went on to demolish many bank, and Reserve Bank, arguments in favour of zero Eftpos interchange, and mainly on the basis of hopeless evidence. » read more »
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Barclays and Macquarie lever Coles into Australian Leisure
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14 October 2004 12:00amBarclays Capital will join Macquarie Bank in underwriting the debt on the $1.18 billion cash offer by Coles Myer and Macquarie Bank' to take control of Australian Leisure and Hotels. » read more »
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BankWest plans to keep it simple
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14 October 2004 12:00amAsked to explain the thinking behind the six per cent interest rate on the savings account (which Bank of Western Australia styles as 5.25 per cent plus a bonus rate for 12 months of 0.75 per cent), Chris Whitehead, head of retail said, "We had to make enough of a difference for customers to give us a go. We also believe that out service will be something customers want to stay with as well. » read more »
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Payment margins in steady decline
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14 October 2004 12:00amMost of the value that will be created in payments markets worldwide will be created in east Asia and south Asia, Eastern Europe and Latin America, with margins expected to decline heavily in mature markets over the 10 years to 2011, at least in the view of Boston Consulting Group. » read more »
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Internet bill payment use lower than believed
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14 October 2004 12:00amThis is US data, but of interest in the context of the measurement of internet-based banking transactions. » read more »
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Poland and Argentina top payments prospects
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14 October 2004 12:00amAustralia and New Zealand rank at tenth out of 11 Asian payments markets ranked by growth prospects in the study undertaken by Boston Consulting Group. » read more »
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Stewart muddies the waters on Irish banks sales
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14 October 2004 12:00amNational Australia Bank's chief executive John Stewart didn't clear much up yesterday in a doorstop interview with a handful of journalists at the "opening" of a Melbourne office building that's been open for many months. » read more »
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Wide Bay stretches no loss record on mortgage bonds
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13 October 2004 12:00amEver since the mortgage-backed securities machine emerged about 15 years ago, no investor has lost a single dollar of investor's funds in these pools of consumer receivables, something that is true for both the deeply subordinated tranches of mortgage bonds as it is of the senior tranches that make up the bulk of the securities sold in this market. » read more »
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BNZ takes price lead two-year fixed rate loans
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13 October 2004 12:00amIn a throw back to the kind of spring marketing campaigns that banks used to pitch at prospective home buyers, Bank of New Zealand's begun promoting a two-year, fixed-rate home loan that the bank promises will be "the lowest advertised two-year fixed home loan rate of the big four banks." » read more »
