insto - Australian financial markets

As part of our 2009 review, Insto caught up with Tony Cripps, Head of Global Banking and Markets, HSBC Bank Australia.

How has investment banking in Australia changed during 2009

As part of our 2009 review, Insto caught up with Craig Drummond, Chief executive, Australia, Bank of America-Merrill Lynch.

How has investment banking in Australia changed during 2009

RBA has increased the cash rate by 25 basis points as expected from 3.75pct to 4pct after its monthly board meeting today. This is a further modest step in RBA’s planned tightening cycle this year.

Insto editor Bernard Kellerman spoke to Paulo Maia, HSBC Australia's new CEO about his bank’s performance and, as an ex-debt capital markets expert, his views on where the domestic deals are heading.

Insto: Who do you see as your main competitors?

The treasurer has announced an extension to the Government's investment in Australian residential mortgage-backed securities. The Government will direct the Australian Office of Financial Management to provide up to a further $8 billion of support to new issuances of high-quality RMBS, depending on market conditions. This decision follows the near completion of the Government's $8 billion investment in RMBS announced in 2008.

Corporate Australia's balance sheets are now showing virtually no vestige of the credit crunch, but they are by no means home and hosed.

The "Big Four" banks now hold 73.8 per cent of outstanding mortgages in Australia, up from 56.8 per cent two years ago in August 2007, for Australians the effective dawn of the global financial crisis.
They still would have been winners – although much less successful in seizing market share, had the two mergers approved in 2008 - the Westpac takeover of St George and the Commonwealth Bank takeover of Bankwest - not proceeded. In that hypothetical world, the market share of the big four would currently stand at 62.9 per cent.

Analysts at RFI polled 500 of the country’s wealthiest individuals to gauge their investment risk appetites and ratings of private banks in Australia, reports Alan Shields*.

Over the last two years, RFI and the Australian Private Banking Council have been measuring the perceptions of high net worth (HNW) clients in the Australian private banking market. This research has involved a regular survey of individuals with more than $1m in investible assets, outside of property and superannuation.

Earlier this week, Insto got in touch with one of Europe’s leading analysts, Gary Jenkins, head of fixed income research at Evolution Securities.

Policymakers were well aware of the risks that led to the global financial crisis, but were not sufficiently prepared to respond to them in time, says the head of the Australian Prudential Regulation Authority (APRA).

Central banks around the world were warning of the underpricing of risk and the build-up of leverage in the lead-up to the crisis, said John Laker in a speech to the Australian Economic Forum in Sydney on Wednesday 19 August.