31 August 2012 7:22am

A soiree at the Playboy Mansion in Los Angeles this week for gun brokers affiliated to the Australian Finance Group has become a talking point in the industry. The event also serves to highlight the tension fostered by "sponsorship" by the banks of one of their most important stakeholder groups over and above commissions paid for loans.

Brett McKeon, managing director of AFG, wrote in an email that the tour to LA was for "AFG's top performing members and staff" and that it was the fifteenth year the firm had hosted the event (which is held in different places each...