http://www.thepunch.com.au/tags/banking/ Politics, political opinion, world news, sports news and the latest news and views updated live, daily on The Punch - Australia's best conversation. en Copyright 2012 The Punch penberthyd@newsltd.com.au penberthyd@newsltd.com.au Thu, 09 Feb 2012 01:45:28 +0000 Thu, 09 Feb 2012 01:45:28 +0000 Politics, opinion, world news, sports news, latest news, views, Barack Obama, Kevin Rudd, Julia Gillard, Nathan Rees, Malcolm Turnbull, Peter Garrett, Barnaby Joyce, Australian, federal politics, opinion polls, election, The Punch, thepunch, punch ExpressionEngine 1.6.7 http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rss 15 http://www.thepunch.com.au/images/punch-logo-rss.png http://www.thepunch.com.au/ 144 70 Politics, political opinion, world news, sports news and the latest news and views updated live, daily on The Punch - Australia's best conversation. Search The Punch keywords http://www.thepunch.com.au/search/ http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/interest-rate-barney-barely-even-rates-as-interest/ Stop all the cheering, cut off the champagne. Prevent the pollies from barking and silence the drums. The piddling interest rate cut didn’t even happen. Today’s widely expected drop of 25 basis points was the catalyst for plenty of chest beating. Treasurer Wayne Swan tried to unleash righteous fury, the banks tried to cry poor, the unions said the banks are squeezing ordinary Australians, and not in a good way. Nothing happened. The Reserve Bank of Australia decided to keep the cash rate steady. But was all the hullabaloo justified in the first place? feedback@thepunch.com.au (Tory Shepherd) Article http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/interest-rate-barney-barely-even-rates-as-interest/#comments http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/interest-rate-barney-barely-even-rates-as-interest/#item7700 Thu, 09 Feb 2012 01:45:28 +0000 Poor old bankers. They keep telling us how tough it is for them with their funding costs expected to go up and how they will need to keep interest rates inflated. And if the crying poor line isn’t enough the banks are quick to tell us that we are “picking on them” if we have a debate about how poorly they behave especially when the RBA changes the official interest rate. Perhaps the “we’re doing it tough” line would carry some weight if the big banks didn’t show record profits year after year and if the banks’ CEOs weren’t getting such big pay packets year after year. http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/time-for-an-inquiry-into-this-bunch-of-bankers/ Poor old bankers. They keep telling us how tough it is for them with their funding costs expected to go up and how they will need to keep interest rates inflated. And if the crying poor line isn’t enough the banks are quick to tell us that we are “picking on them” if we have a debate about how poorly they behave especially when the RBA changes the official interest rate. Perhaps the “we’re doing it tough” line would carry some weight if the big banks didn’t show record profits year after year and if the banks’ CEOs weren’t getting such big pay packets year after year. feedback@thepunch.com.au (Tory Shepherd) Article http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/time-for-an-inquiry-into-this-bunch-of-bankers/#comments http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/time-for-an-inquiry-into-this-bunch-of-bankers/#item7543 Thu, 09 Feb 2012 01:45:28 +0000 Poor old bankers. They keep telling us how tough it is for them with their funding costs expected to go up and how they will need to keep interest rates inflated. And if the crying poor line isn’t enough the banks are quick to tell us that we are “picking on them” if we have a debate about how poorly they behave especially when the RBA changes the official interest rate. Perhaps the “we’re doing it tough” line would carry some weight if the big banks didn’t show record profits year after year and if the banks’ CEOs weren’t getting such big pay packets year after year. http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/The-heroic-banker-crusading-to-employ-the-disabled/ Sue O’Reilly, who has guest written today’s column on The Angry Cripple is a freelance journalist. She co-founded Australians Mad as Hell last year with Fiona Porter to campaign for an NDIS and established a charity called Fighting Chance to help people with disabilities pay for essential therapy services. Bill Moss was one of the highest paid business executives in Australian corporate history when he worked for Macquarie Bank, prior to his retirement in 2007 on health grounds. As head of the bank’s real estate and banking division, Moss built - literally from scratch - an international real estate and funds management business that spanned five continents, created thousands of jobs and made billions for the bank’s investors, shareholders and, through tax payments, federal Treasury coffers. So really, all Australians are pretty fortunate that the slowly degenerative physical disability with which this razor-sharp businessman was born - a form of muscular dystrophy known as FSHD - happened not to become overly evident (to others at least) until Moss was in his early 40s and had already established his credentials. feedback@thepunch.com.au (Tory Shepherd) Article http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/The-heroic-banker-crusading-to-employ-the-disabled/#comments http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/The-heroic-banker-crusading-to-employ-the-disabled/#item7342 Thu, 09 Feb 2012 01:45:28 +0000 Poor old bankers. They keep telling us how tough it is for them with their funding costs expected to go up and how they will need to keep interest rates inflated. And if the crying poor line isn’t enough the banks are quick to tell us that we are “picking on them” if we have a debate about how poorly they behave especially when the RBA changes the official interest rate. Perhaps the “we’re doing it tough” line would carry some weight if the big banks didn’t show record profits year after year and if the banks’ CEOs weren’t getting such big pay packets year after year. http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/The-itch-to-switch-is-still-not-easily-scratched/ Here we go again - another bank switching package from Wayne Swan. Has Swan got it right this time? Well, yes and no. There’s no doubt that Wayne Swan’s recent announcement that bank customers will be allowed to sign a single form to switch banks is well overdue. In reality, Swan could and should have pursued the “one form” approach back in 2008 as we all suspected that bank switching can be as simple as filling in just one form. Should we be excited about Swan’s latest bank switching package? Well, not just yet. Any excitement needs to be tempered by doubts as to whether the latest reforms are to be extended to small business customers. feedback@thepunch.com.au (Tory Shepherd) Article http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/The-itch-to-switch-is-still-not-easily-scratched/#comments http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/The-itch-to-switch-is-still-not-easily-scratched/#item6606 Thu, 09 Feb 2012 01:45:28 +0000 Poor old bankers. They keep telling us how tough it is for them with their funding costs expected to go up and how they will need to keep interest rates inflated. And if the crying poor line isn’t enough the banks are quick to tell us that we are “picking on them” if we have a debate about how poorly they behave especially when the RBA changes the official interest rate. Perhaps the “we’re doing it tough” line would carry some weight if the big banks didn’t show record profits year after year and if the banks’ CEOs weren’t getting such big pay packets year after year. http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/norris-retirement-a-roundhouse-kick-in-the-guts/ Holy crap, Ralph Norris has resigned. Well, I guess if you were Ralph Norris with all that pressure and all that money, you’d be looking for some R & R too. Still. The world will never be the same. According to the legend of Ralph Norris, for a while there they called him ‘Chuck’, which is a sissy kind of name for a dude who grew a beard in utero and burns it off with a withering gaze each morning. And then every five minutes. The Commonwealth Bank chairman David Turner described him as “outstanding and fearless”. That doesn’t even scratch the surface of Ralph Norris. feedback@thepunch.com.au (Tory Shepherd) Article http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/norris-retirement-a-roundhouse-kick-in-the-guts/#comments http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/norris-retirement-a-roundhouse-kick-in-the-guts/#item6351 Thu, 09 Feb 2012 01:45:28 +0000 Poor old bankers. They keep telling us how tough it is for them with their funding costs expected to go up and how they will need to keep interest rates inflated. And if the crying poor line isn’t enough the banks are quick to tell us that we are “picking on them” if we have a debate about how poorly they behave especially when the RBA changes the official interest rate. Perhaps the “we’re doing it tough” line would carry some weight if the big banks didn’t show record profits year after year and if the banks’ CEOs weren’t getting such big pay packets year after year. http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/punch-q-a-what-is-this-islamic-banking-caper/ A News Ltd survey of Australian imams unearthed a renewed call for the recognition of sharia banking in Australia. At The Punch we weren’t really sure what that meant, so we asked expert in Islamic banking Dr Hussain Rammal, a lecturer in International Business at UniSA, to talk us through the basics. What are the main differences between Islamic banking and Western banking? The main difference is in the way the two systems deal with money. Under the Islamic economic system money is seen as a medium of exchange and has no intrinsic value. Therefore charging a higher rate of return (interest) on lend money does not sit well under the Islamic system. Islamic financial institutions use an asset-backed system where they purchase the assets on behalf of their customers and then use various financing agreements to on-sell the asset to their clients. These include profit-and-loss sharing, leasing and hire-purchase, and mark-up based agreements. feedback@thepunch.com.au (Tory Shepherd) Article http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/punch-q-a-what-is-this-islamic-banking-caper/#comments http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/punch-q-a-what-is-this-islamic-banking-caper/#item6272 Thu, 09 Feb 2012 01:45:28 +0000 Poor old bankers. They keep telling us how tough it is for them with their funding costs expected to go up and how they will need to keep interest rates inflated. And if the crying poor line isn’t enough the banks are quick to tell us that we are “picking on them” if we have a debate about how poorly they behave especially when the RBA changes the official interest rate. Perhaps the “we’re doing it tough” line would carry some weight if the big banks didn’t show record profits year after year and if the banks’ CEOs weren’t getting such big pay packets year after year. http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/When-banks-rob-people-at-ten-bucks-a-hit/ ATM fees have long been a sticky topic. For many people, paying an ATM transaction fee is an unwelcome but accepted fact of life. For Indigenous Australians in remote communities however, ATM fees can have a significant impact on their life, swiftly eroding their humble bank balance. This is the finding of a report released late last year by the feisty Australian Financial Counselling and Credit Reform Association (AFCCRA), titled “ATM Fees in Indigenous Communities”, which focussed on excessive ATM fees in remote communities. feedback@thepunch.com.au (Tory Shepherd) Article http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/When-banks-rob-people-at-ten-bucks-a-hit/#comments http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/When-banks-rob-people-at-ten-bucks-a-hit/#item5357 Thu, 09 Feb 2012 01:45:28 +0000 Poor old bankers. They keep telling us how tough it is for them with their funding costs expected to go up and how they will need to keep interest rates inflated. And if the crying poor line isn’t enough the banks are quick to tell us that we are “picking on them” if we have a debate about how poorly they behave especially when the RBA changes the official interest rate. Perhaps the “we’re doing it tough” line would carry some weight if the big banks didn’t show record profits year after year and if the banks’ CEOs weren’t getting such big pay packets year after year. http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/owning-an-atm-is-money-in-the-bank/ Each and every day millions of Australians pay financial institutions to access their own money. Some pay more while others pay less, depending on the way they do it. Sometimes, as with EFTPOS transactions, the price consumers pay for their own money is largely invisible, being factored into the prices of goods and services. In other cases, the cost of using your own money is embedded in bank fees, or else in forgone interest from transaction accounts with negligible rates of interest. One of the most expensive ways for Australians to access their own money is by using a third-party automatic teller machine - that is, an ATM not provided by their own bank. In most cases, third-party ATMs charge $2 for every transaction, including checking one’s account balance. In other words, $2 is the price consumers pay every time they are disloyal to their bank. feedback@thepunch.com.au (Tory Shepherd) Article http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/owning-an-atm-is-money-in-the-bank/#comments http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/owning-an-atm-is-money-in-the-bank/#item5159 Thu, 09 Feb 2012 01:45:28 +0000 Poor old bankers. They keep telling us how tough it is for them with their funding costs expected to go up and how they will need to keep interest rates inflated. And if the crying poor line isn’t enough the banks are quick to tell us that we are “picking on them” if we have a debate about how poorly they behave especially when the RBA changes the official interest rate. Perhaps the “we’re doing it tough” line would carry some weight if the big banks didn’t show record profits year after year and if the banks’ CEOs weren’t getting such big pay packets year after year. http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/swans-bank-package-is-a-fizzer/ Have you had a close look at Wayne Swan’s December 2010 bank package? Don’t worry if you haven’t yet as you haven’t missed much. For those who have, it’s clear that it’s so light handed and minimalist that the big banks aren’t bothered by it. In fact, the big banks have even told the Senate banking inquiry that they actually like aspects of the package. So much for Swan’s tough talk regarding the big banks. Given how much of a fizzer the package will be, one has to wonder if Swan’s announcement was more about being seen to be “doing something” in response to the public anger towards the big banks. feedback@thepunch.com.au (Tory Shepherd) Article http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/swans-bank-package-is-a-fizzer/#comments http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/swans-bank-package-is-a-fizzer/#item5022 Thu, 09 Feb 2012 01:45:28 +0000 Poor old bankers. They keep telling us how tough it is for them with their funding costs expected to go up and how they will need to keep interest rates inflated. And if the crying poor line isn’t enough the banks are quick to tell us that we are “picking on them” if we have a debate about how poorly they behave especially when the RBA changes the official interest rate. Perhaps the “we’re doing it tough” line would carry some weight if the big banks didn’t show record profits year after year and if the banks’ CEOs weren’t getting such big pay packets year after year. http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/theres-not-really-a-lot-wayne-swan-can-do-about-banks/ Wayne Swan is aggrieved. The hard-working treasurer is disappointed at the way his long-heralded bank reform package has gone over. But should he be surprised really? Let’s face it, bank packages, especially over-hyped ones, always underwhelm. Knowing this, it is curious that the Government has again managed expectations so ham-fistedly, taking weeks to reveal an unremarkable hand. Perhaps, like many things, it depends on where you stand. After toiling away behind the scenes, the Government feels it has offered up serious reform. This may or may not turn out to be true if things like genuine portability of account numbers come to pass. Ditto with allowing banks to tap into the one trillion dollar national superannuation nest-egg, which may help storm-proof the finance sector against future global credit crunches. But neither of these reforms, nor many other aspects of the package, will do much for home-owners right now. feedback@thepunch.com.au (Tory Shepherd) Article http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/theres-not-really-a-lot-wayne-swan-can-do-about-banks/#comments http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/theres-not-really-a-lot-wayne-swan-can-do-about-banks/#item4689 Thu, 09 Feb 2012 01:45:28 +0000 Poor old bankers. They keep telling us how tough it is for them with their funding costs expected to go up and how they will need to keep interest rates inflated. And if the crying poor line isn’t enough the banks are quick to tell us that we are “picking on them” if we have a debate about how poorly they behave especially when the RBA changes the official interest rate. Perhaps the “we’re doing it tough” line would carry some weight if the big banks didn’t show record profits year after year and if the banks’ CEOs weren’t getting such big pay packets year after year.