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=7045 The Financial Review reports that Commonwealth Bank is considering the purchase of a stake of between 30 per cent and 40 per cent in Aussie Home Loans. The purchase may value Aussie, which is primarily a mortgage broker, at more than $200 million according to the newspaper. The Sheet - Australian Banking and Finance News 2008-08-20T06:43:13+10:00 http://www.thesheet.com/nl05_news_selected.php?act=2&selkey=7044 An insider may replace Phil Green as chief executive of infrastructure financier and investment bank Babcock & Brown. The Sheet - Australian Banking and Finance News 2008-08-20T06:42:37+10:00 http://www.thesheet.com/nl05_news_selected.php?act=2&selkey=7043 According to RBA Board minutes members were conscious that financial conditions were clearly quite tight, and effectively getting tighter as a result of ongoing pressure on lenders’ cost of funds in the market. Given there had been a significant change in borrowing behaviour, confidence was weaker, asset prices had declined and slower overall growth was in prospect. The Sheet - Australian Banking and Finance News 2008-08-20T06:42:07+10:00 http://www.thesheet.com/nl05_news_selected.php?act=2&selkey=7042 Australia’s government will bring regulation of consumer credit under the jurisdiction of state governments in a couple of phases, the minister for superannuation and corporate law, Nick Sherry, said yesterday. The Sheet - Australian Banking and Finance News 2008-08-20T06:39:47+10:00 http://www.thesheet.com/nl05_news_selected.php?act=2&selkey=7041 The general manager finance and tax at Wesfarmers, Luigi Mottolini, spent a good part of May and June leading a roadshow to meet with local credit investors. The aim of the meetings was to repair relations with bond portfolio managers and analysts who had been very critical of the way Wesfarmers handled the issue of some outstanding bonds during its takeover of retailer Coles Group last year. The Sheet - Australian Banking and Finance News 2008-08-20T06:39:19+10:00 http://www.thesheet.com/nl05_news_selected.php?act=2&selkey=7040 Citigroup will give a type of “regional” management structure a go, at least for its businesses in Asia and the Pacific. The Sheet - Australian Banking and Finance News 2008-08-19T06:56:24+10:00 http://www.thesheet.com/nl05_news_selected.php?act=2&selkey=7039 A second round of shareholder agitation may be in the wind at The Rock Building Society. The Sheet - Australian Banking and Finance News 2008-08-19T06:55:55+10:00 http://www.thesheet.com/nl05_news_selected.php?act=2&selkey=7038 Australian Central Credit Union increased revenue for the 2008 financial year by14 per cent to $240 million, but tighter margins caused net profit for the year to remain flat at $12 million. The Sheet - Australian Banking and Finance News 2008-08-19T06:55:17+10:00 http://www.thesheet.com/nl05_news_selected.php?act=2&selkey=7037 Victorian Teachers Credit Union have clarified that they have not ever invested in collateralised debt obligation style investment products, and that Saturday’s report in the Sydney Morning Herald (and also in The Age), abstracted here in part yesterday, is totally incorrect. The Sheet - Australian Banking and Finance News 2008-08-19T06:54:56+10:00 http://www.thesheet.com/nl05_news_selected.php?act=2&selkey=7036 ThinkSmart yesterday announced a $2.2 million interim profit for the six months to June 2008, with the doubtful and bad debt expense up 600 per cent. The Sheet - Australian Banking and Finance News 2008-08-19T06:54:28+10:00 http://www.thesheet.com/nl05_news_selected.php?act=2&selkey=7035 A week after announcing that it would close 18 of its 48 branches and “substantially reduce” head office overheads, the loss-making lender Amazing Loans has issued a statement to the Australian Securities Exchange saying a group company, IEG Holdings, was applying for a US banking licence. The Sheet - Australian Banking and Finance News 2008-08-19T06:54:08+10:00 http://www.thesheet.com/nl05_news_selected.php?act=2&selkey=7034 Moves by two of Australia’s big four banks to renew their core banking systems will open up opportunities for specialist financial services software and systems developers. The switch to new banking platforms will give the banks the ability to bring products and service to market faster and enhance their competitiveness – and third party suppliers have a role to play. The Sheet - Australian Banking and Finance News 2008-08-18T06:55:36+10:00 http://www.thesheet.com/nl05_news_selected.php?act=2&selkey=7033 Australians have a number of favourite sporting past-times and bank bashing is one of them. The pollies were at it as usual last week but unusually, they were stirred into action by comments from the Reserve Bank. The RBA made it very clear that it is going to cut the official cash rate by 25 bps in September and it expects the banks to quickly pass the cut onto their mortgage borrowers. The Sheet - Australian Banking and Finance News 2008-08-18T06:55:20+10:00 http://www.thesheet.com/nl05_news_selected.php?act=2&selkey=7032 While NAB is unlikely to have pushed the cost of offshore borrowing higher for all the banks, it has pushed its own cost of debt higher. The cost of a negative outlook on its ‘AA’ credit rating from Standard & Poor’s appears to be at least 2 bps for two-year funds in the domestic market. The Sheet - Australian Banking and Finance News 2008-08-18T06:54:55+10:00 http://www.thesheet.com/nl05_news_selected.php?act=2&selkey=7031 NAB was busy offshore last week, particularly in the Uridashi market and raising Japanese yen. NAB raised $120 million with a two year maturity, NZ$100 million with an 18 month term to maturity and in the Euromarket raised ¥26.5 billion (approx $280 million) for three years. NAB also added €100 million to its March 2011 line, to take outstandings to €1.1 billion. NAB seems to have covered its funding shortfall of a couple of weeks back. The Sheet - Australian Banking and Finance News 2008-08-18T06:54:24+10:00 http://www.thesheet.com/nl05_news_selected.php?act=2&selkey=7030 Standard & Poor’s, Moody’s Investors Service and Fitch Ratings responded quickly to QBE Insurance’s move on PMI Mortgage Insurance, a move that QBE says will give it a 40 per cent share of the Australian LMI market. All affirmed their ‘A-/A3/A’ ratings on QBE noting that the funding for the transaction would not materially increase QBE’s leverage, should generate good returns for QBE and should require minimal capital support. The Sheet - Australian Banking and Finance News 2008-08-18T06:53:45+10:00 http://www.thesheet.com/nl05_news_selected.php?act=2&selkey=7029 Offshore, S&P affirmed the ‘AA’ financial strength rating assigned to the monoline insurers, Ambac Assurance Corp and MBIA Insurance Corp, and removed the ratings from CreditWatch Negative. The outlook on the ratings is negative reflecting S&P’s view that their franchises have been damaged by exposure to subprime mortgages and related CDOs of ABS. As a result, both are likely to face diminished new business flow. The Sheet - Australian Banking and Finance News 2008-08-18T06:53:17+10:00 http://www.thesheet.com/nl05_news_selected.php?act=2&selkey=7028 Term deposit rates at many financial institutions have been cut in recent weeks as money market rates have fallen across the curve. The Sheet - Australian Banking and Finance News 2008-08-18T06:52:11+10:00 http://www.thesheet.com/nl05_news_selected.php?act=2&selkey=7027 City Pacific on Friday said it will suspend dividend payments to investors in its First Mortgage Fund for two months, the latest in a string of deferrals of liabilities to investors in the fund and in the company over the course of this year. The Sheet - Australian Banking and Finance News 2008-08-18T06:51:48+10:00 http://www.thesheet.com/nl05_news_selected.php?act=2&selkey=7026 A handful of credit unions and finance companies are among a list of 140 clients of Grange Securities with funds in various trusts that were heavily invested in collateralised debt obligations and the like. Lehman Brothers took ownership of Grange 18 months ago. The Sheet - Australian Banking and Finance News 2008-08-18T06:51:28+10:00 http://www.thesheet.com/nl05_news_selected.php?act=2&selkey=7025 QBE Insurance Group will buy PMI Australia for a little less than net assets, the buyer and vendor announced yesterday. PMI had net assets of $1.03 billion at 30 June 2008. The Sheet - Australian Banking and Finance News 2008-08-15T06:44:07+10:00 http://www.thesheet.com/nl05_news_selected.php?act=2&selkey=7024 QBE plans to adopt a more aggressive financial structure for PMI. The announcement to the market published late yesterday said the insurer would fund the initial cash payment with $522 million in excess capital and $300 million of debt. The Sheet - Australian Banking and Finance News 2008-08-15T06:43:08+10:00 http://www.thesheet.com/nl05_news_selected.php?act=2&selkey=7023 The chronic underperformance of debt collector Credit Corp Group during the 2008 financial year appears to be subsiding. The Sheet - Australian Banking and Finance News 2008-08-15T06:41:55+10:00 http://www.thesheet.com/nl05_news_selected.php?act=2&selkey=7022 Woolworths and HSBC, which have been working on the development of a new Woolworths credit card since early this year, yesterday announced they will launch the card in the market on August 26. The Sheet - Australian Banking and Finance News 2008-08-15T06:41:27+10:00 http://www.thesheet.com/nl05_news_selected.php?act=2&selkey=7021 Adelaide Bank has extended its mortgage funding capacity with a new warehouse facility. The initial funding is for $101.9 million but the deal has been structured as a revolving facility and additional assets can be added. The Sheet - Australian Banking and Finance News 2008-08-15T06:40:45+10:00 http://www.thesheet.com/nl05_news_selected.php?act=2&selkey=7020 The Australian government’s two key economic agencies yesterday reiterated their view that the market for mortgage-backed securities would recover, and that there was no case for any form of government sponsored mortgage funding agency. The Sheet - Australian Banking and Finance News 2008-08-15T06:40:07+10:00 http://www.thesheet.com/nl05_news_selected.php?act=2&selkey=6954 State of Play: the Australian mortgage industryIn the August 2008 edition:- banks are taking market share from non-banks; some-non banks are also doing well; securitisation as a funding option is not dead; the household debt burden looks excessive; first home buyers make up 62 per cent of those in housing stress.Contact Stephen Anderson at InfoChoice for a sub.Subs start from $2995, plus gst.steven.anderson@infochoice.com.auMob. 0400 328 067Ph.  02 9247 6788 The Sheet - Australian Banking and Finance News 2008-08-14T07:10:00+10:00 http://www.thesheet.com/nl05_news_selected.php?act=2&selkey=7019 Westpac is one step closer to completing its merger with St George Bank after the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission issued a statement yesterday saying it would not oppose the merger as it was unlikely to substantially lessen competition. The Sheet - Australian Banking and Finance News 2008-08-14T06:55:14+10:00 http://www.thesheet.com/nl05_news_selected.php?act=2&selkey=7018 St George Bank set the bar for bank earnings on Tuesday when it said it was on track to report earnings growth of eight to 10 per cent for the year to September. And last week Westpac’s Gail Kelly told analysts her bank would report cash earnings growth of six to eight per cent for the full year. The Sheet - Australian Banking and Finance News 2008-08-14T06:54:45+10:00 http://www.thesheet.com/nl05_news_selected.php?act=2&selkey=7017 Commonwealth Bank chief executive Ralph Norris said one of the reasons the bank withdrew from negotiations to buy the local business of the investment bank ABN Amro was that the write-downs announced by ANZ and National Australia Bank had had such a negative impact in international funding markets that the bank thought it was prudent not to go ahead. The Sheet - Australian Banking and Finance News 2008-08-14T06:54:15+10:00