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Square argues a debit card surcharge ban will play into the hands of the major banks.

Debit surcharge ban unfairly favours major banks, claims Square

The Block subsidiary introduced “blended” card payment fees which include using its software. They have become a flashpoint in the RBA’s payment cost review.

  • Updated
  • James Eyers
ANZ boss Shayne Elliot has taken another hit from angry investors.

Elliott’s bonus hit shows how grumpy ANZ investors really are

Local fund managers are clearly unhappy with the board’s approach to risk management. Shayne Elliott is wearing a lot of their grief. 

  • James Thomson
Treasurer Jim Chalmers with CBA’s Matt Comyn and Angus Sullivan.

How CBA’s $3 fee gambit nearly blew up the bank’s political capital

Bankers inside Commonwealth Bank’s retail division figured a small branch cash withdrawal charge was innocuous. They were wrong.

  • Lucas Baird and James Eyers
Access to housing will be one of the big issues during the federal election campaign next year.

Barrenjoey stokes political debate over APRA’s home-lending policy

The investment bank says a Coalition-led Senate committee report last month – challenging the prudential regulator on first home buyers – “appears logical”.

  • James Eyers
Matt Comyn says business needs to advocate for the “sensible middle”.

CBA’s Comyn warns ‘troubling’ loss of trust will make reform harder

Matt Comyn has warned the economic reform Australia must pursue is only going to become more difficult if polarising attacks on the business community continue.

  • James Thomson and Anthony Macdonald
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Scott Hartley, the CEO of Insignia Financial.

Insignia board weighs $2.7b Bain bid against turnaround

Bain’s cash has Insignia shareholders wondering whether they should cut and run ahead of a complex but credible turnaround strategy.

  • Updated
  • Jonathan Shapiro
KAST co-founders Daniel Bertoli, Raagulan Pathy have banked $US10 million in seed funding.

Mark Carnegie, HongShan back $US100m crypto neobank

HongShan Capital Group and Peak XV Partners have led KAST’s $US10 million seed funding round.

  • Sarah Thompson, Kanika Sood and Emma Rapaport
NAB has sold the final 20pc of MLC Life to Nippon of Japan for $500 million.

NAB offloads rest of MLC to Nippon, new life insurer Acenda created

MLC Life Insurance will merge with the local subsidiary of Resolution Life to create Acenda, after Nippon Life bought Resolution for $US8.2 billion.

  • James Eyers

Fix pay disparity to help end financial abuse

Readers’ letters on the government’s role in curbing financial abuse, super fund governance, radio’s future, the CSIRO’s nuclear report, safeguarding food supplies, and Peter Dutton’s flag comments.

Bank of Queensland is in the middle of a multi-year strategic shift.

Confidential documents outline BoQ’s profit targets

If hit, the bank’s cash profit will be well above what the market expects this year. But analysts have warned it has a poor track record of meeting goals.

  • Lucas Baird
Panthera Finance has purchased more than $5.5 billion in receivables from banks, telcos, utilities and the like.

Brookfield-backed debt collection giant Panthera finds new owner

Privately owned credit agency Francom has emerged as the new owner of the company, which collapsed this year following a dispute between its founders.

  • Kylar Loussikian
People walking past a row of ATMs belonging to the four big banks.

Banks, insurers told to work harder to prevent financial abuse

A committee chaired by Labor senator Deborah O’Neill has tabled 61 recommendations to reduce the insidious practice.

  • James Eyers
Treasurer Jim Chalmers scored a little win on Wednesday.

No one has come out of CBA’s cash blunder looking good

The bank’s fee mess is an uncharacteristic stuff-up. But it’s also a missed opportunity to have proper debate about technology, economic growth and equity.

  • James Thomson
Matt Comyn, CEO of CBA, is one of the AFR Business People of the Year. Supplied

Matt Comyn finds his voice – and delivers for shareholders

The CEO has driven the Commonwealth Bank from strength to strength, propelling him on to the 2024 The Australian Financial Review Business People of the Year list.

  • James Eyers

CBA backs down on withdrawal fee after Chalmers leans on Comyn

Treasurer Jim Chalmers had called the $3 charge for branch withdrawals “unacceptable”. Australia’s largest bank reconsidered.

  • James Eyers and John Kehoe
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AFR

NAB won’t lean on rates in fight for business lending crown

“You have to be competitive on price – that is the ticket to the game – but you don’t have to be the cheapest,” business banking boss Rachel Slade says.

  • Lucas Baird

November

CBA prepares for AI to transform banking, with dozens of uses

The country’s biggest bank is already using AI to resolve 15,000 payment disputes every day. And its chief executive, Matt Comyn, says many more uses are on the way.

  • James Eyers and Lucas Baird
Matt Comyn says AI has changed rapidly in the last 12 months.

CBA’s Matt Comyn on AI: ‘Are you at the table or on the menu?’

The pace of change in the world of AI in the past year has been stunning, the CBA boss says. But there are big strategic questions for the bank to work through.

  • James Thomson
Private credit is gaining traction in places where Australia’s banks won’t compete. One is coal.

Private credit will lick its lips over Peabody’s $3.2b bridge loan

We’ve seen this movie elsewhere in Australian coal: a miner buys mines, and funds the deal with a short-term loan. Enter private credit.

  • Anthony Macdonald
Mr Lonsdale said the buffer was a “contingency” against any loss of income.

Home loan stress rises to $23b, doubling since 2016

John Lonsdale used the situation to push back on calls to reduce borrower stress-testing standards.

  • Updated
  • Lucas Baird and James Eyers

Original URL: https://www.afr.com/topic/banking-products-hvm