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1 April, 2016Euromoney, April 2016
It used to seem that the Australian banking industry was immune from the afflictions that have blighted the rest of the world’s financial sector. Bolstered and wisely restricted by the Australian Prudential Regulatory Authority, and buoyed by a resource-led economy that largely ducked the global financial crisis, it emerged from 2008 and its fallout in better shape than any other developed country.
But there’s a growing feeling that time is catching up with Australia.
It started with the mis-selling scandals in the financial planning arms of Commonwealth Bank of Australia, Macquarie and National Australia Bank last year. This year, the industry has had to weather a growing storm of concern that it is over-exposed to investment property mortgages, and therefore to the property price crash that commentators in Australia seem to have been predicting for at least the last 20 years.
Then, related to this, came an orchestrated campaign against them by hedge funds so devoted to driving the price down that it has drawn comparisons with the film The Big Short.
Next, ANZ’s internal culture came under fire, when a A$30 million ($22.4 million) unfair dismissal claim by trader Etienne Alexiou alleged a toxic culture of cocaine, sex, booze, bonuses and offensive language, much of it through Bloomberg messages.
Full article: http://www.euromoney.com/Article/3543401/BackIssue/95861/Regulation-Bankings-dark-side-reaches-Australia
