ANZ quizzed over Malaysia’s controversial AmBank

All aboard for wild global scandal

Does the tenure of ANZ boss Shayne Elliott and other bank bigwigs on the board of Malaysia’s scandal-ridden AmBank raise any questions about whether they’re “fit and proper” people to run one of Australia’s big four banks?

It probably wasn’t the question ANZ deputy chief exec Graham Hodges expected when he fronted a Senate inquiry into loan impairment yesterday.

Questions about the valuation methods used on WA business clients, yes — ones going to a regional political storm in which Malaysian PM Najib Razak is fending off allegations he trousered more than $US1 billion from the country’s sovereign wealth fund, 1MDB, not so much.

Labor NSW senator Deborah O’Neill put Hodges on the spot, asking whether there were any implications for ANZ people who’d served on the AmBank board under the “fit and proper person” test imposed by Wayne Byers’ APRA, given the scandal had cast “a pall across the bank”.

“I don’t believe that to be the case at all,” Hodges said.

He pointed out that AmBank is a “separate listed company with its own management”.

O’Neill was keen to say she wasn’t casting aspersions on any person who’d served on the AmBank board “because I’m not across the detail”.

Just as well, given the audience. “I’m about to go on that board,” Hodges admitted.

All bets are on

The odds may be shortening again on a merger between wagering giants Tatts Group and Tabcorp after rich-lister and Tatts director Kevin Seymour was spied in the Tabcorp marquee at Sydney’s Royal Randwick on Saturday.

Seymour, Queensland’s biggest harness racing owner, was at day one of the championships with his daughter Leigh, who last week sold her Brisbane CBD car park to Star Entertainment for $45 million, and grandson Trent.

The $3.6bn Tabcorp and $5.5bn Tatts have tested the waters for a tie-up, on and off, for the past 10 years.

Day two of the championships is on this Saturday and all eyes will be on the marquees.

The bare-bottom line

Margin Call has always suspected the chartered accountancy industry was the nation’s centre of debauchery. An article in the Daily Telegraph told of a political rival to Russian President Vladimir Putin caught in a good old-fashioned “sex romp sting” with a British activist. All caught on tape, and shown on Russian TV.

When readers clicked on the related video on the Tele website the clip “Caught in the Act” warned it was about to show graphic content. Then up popped an ad for Chartered Accountants Australia-New Zealand.

Viewers had to first sit through a rather sober ad, with a voice-over telling of what a chartered accountant could do for your business. Sexy.

It then cut straight to the promised feature: a woman in a shower and then two people in the back of a car doing what accountants would probably call taking some receivables.

A return to the story later in the afternoon had a different advert linked to the video, this time from bed mattress retailer Snooze.

No comment.

Stoking the flames

The Rio Olympics does not seemed to have generated the excitement that the London Games did four years ago.

But one of the people most looking forward to Rio is Seven’s executive chairman Kerry Stokes, whose network won back the Olympic TV rights so rudely snatched by Nine and Foxtel before the London Games.

A long time Olympic tragic, Stokes’ interest goes back to the 1956 Olympics in Melbourne.

He loves sport and was sitting in the stands at the National Athletics Championships over the weekend in Sydney.

Insiders say Stokes has attended several athletics events and is happy watching the events on his own.

In the Athletics Australia VIP box on the weekend was James Packer executive Mark Arbib, who took up the reins as president of Athletics Australia last November.

Arbib, a keen follower of soccer, was federal sports minister four years ago but suddenly stepped down for a career in the corporate world.

Spanning just over two weeks, the Olympic broadcast rights are always an expensive ask for a television network.

But Stokes’ and Seven’s passion for the Games has included backing the fundraising for Australian athletes hoping for a berth at the Paralympics.

Additional reporting: Eli Greenblat