insto - Australian financial markets

Can banks evolve with their customers? By Pascal Gautheron, managing director of Accenture’s banking practice in Asia Pacific.

In June 2010 Mallesons Stephen Jaques hosted a roundtable on opportunities for the Australian funds management industry in Asia. Here is an edited transcript of the discussion.

After a robust start, debt markets virtually ground to a halt in Q2 2010. Eric Meijer looks at the year to date – a half of contrasting quarters.

THE EARLY part of 2010 was looking like the year of the kangaroo, not as a new departure in Chinese astrology, but a time for international borrowers to issue large amounts of debt in Australia’s domestic market.

The Bank of New Zealand’s NZ$3 billion covered bonds program has once again caused local banks and investors to ponder why this instrument can’t be used in Australia.

The Rudd Government’s Resources Super Profit Tax is now the Gillard Government’s Minerals Resource Rent Tax. So how will that impact on investment and valuations in the resources industry? By Mark Story.

The investors have been to the ballot to have their say on the state of Australian research. Jeremy Chunn reports.

Multiple lawsuits are underway around the world as investors play the blame game in the aftermath of the financial crisis. Eric Meijer reports.

The Reserve Bank of Australia publishes the minutes of its August 3 meeting tomorrow, and later in the day Governor Glenn Stevens speaks in Perth. 

NAB posted a $1.1 billion June quarter result, up 22 percent year on year but slightly below market expectations. A main focus in the result was the situation in the UK, where subsidiary Yorkshire Bank has reported Q2 2010 profits of 700 million pounds as the bank’s NAB's operations perform well in a difficult trading environment. The Yorkshire Bank result also includes results for NAB subsidiary Clydesdale Bank.