18 Jul 2023
Andrew Cornell
|
Past Managing Editor, bluenotes
How do you link a bank’s purpose, strategy and business model together when the landscape is changing so rapidly? Shayne Elliott and Antony Strong explain.
13 Jul 2023
Andrew Cornell
|
Past Managing Editor, bluenotes
This is my final column as managing editor of bluenotes. It has been an enormously fascinating experience and bluenotes will remain a great success, produced by a wonderful team. So keep reading, keep subscribing and thanks.
29 Jun 2023
Andrew Cornell
|
Past Managing Editor, bluenotes
Market wisdom has it banks profit when interest rates rise. Is there more to this story than simply margin inflation?
15 Jun 2023
Andrew Cornell
|
Past Managing Editor, bluenotes
In 2015 fintechs were tolling the doom of dinosaur banks. In 2022 their combined market value had halved. But they’re coming back – on the back of the dinosaurs.
01 Jun 2023
Andrew Cornell
|
Past Managing Editor, bluenotes
We might have reached the summit of bank earnings and the way down is uncertain
18 May 2023
Andrew Cornell
|
Past Managing Editor, bluenotes
Maintaining a vigilant and adaptable regulatory framework is essential as we enter a world where bank runs can be nearly instantaneous and small banks can have big repercussions.
05 May 2023
Andrew Cornell
|
Past Managing Editor, bluenotes
ANZ CFO Farhan Faruqui outlines what drove the financials and how diversification and consistency are now hallmarks of the bank’s performance and focus for the second half of the financial year.
05 May 2023
Andrew Cornell
|
Past Managing Editor, bluenotes
ANZ CEO Shayne Elliott says the “great” interim result is testimony to seven years of work on balancing and de-risking the bank by an experienced team.
19 Apr 2023
Andrew Cornell
|
Past Managing Editor, bluenotes
The storm clouds of the banking crisis are clearing but the forecast is hardly temperate
03 Apr 2023
Andrew Cornell
|
Past Managing Editor, bluenotes
From tech-bros in Silicon Valley to vignerons of the Napa Valley, the great furling of easy cash is claiming surprising victims. Tighter credit conditions, weaker banks and economies are entwined.
27 Mar 2023
Andrew Cornell
|
Past Managing Editor, bluenotes
Global banking turmoil is not new, have we learned the lessons of the past? Andrew Cornell speaks with ANZ Chief Executive Shayne Elliott.
15 Mar 2023
Andrew Cornell
|
Past Managing Editor, bluenotes
16 Feb 2023
Andrew Cornell
|
Past Managing Editor, bluenotes
The world in economic downfall… Fake news?
02 Feb 2023
Andrew Cornell
|
Past Managing Editor, bluenotes
AI, web3, DeFi, Big Tech, fintech, Metaverse, private capital, the forces arrayed against traditional banking continue to mass.
25 Jan 2023
Andrew Cornell
|
Past Managing Editor, bluenotes
Remembering renowned businessman David Hains who showed us a thing or two about investment – after seven decades in business.
19 Jan 2023
Andrew Cornell
|
Past Managing Editor, bluenotes
These are the articles that most engaged you in 2022 on bluenotes and ANZ News.
09 Nov 2022
Andrew Cornell
|
Past Managing Editor, bluenotes
Globalisation is in retreat, the environment is besieged, wealth disparity is growing. It’s not the fault of capitalism but those who promote liberal, open economies must take notice.
27 Oct 2022
Andrew Cornell
|
Past Managing Editor, bluenotes
Strong performances from all divisions deliver FY22 uplift, de-risking and solid provisioning face into FY23.
27 Oct 2022
Andrew Cornell
|
Past Managing Editor, bluenotes
ANZ’s four divisions contributed strong earnings and revenue while the bank remains strongly capitalised and prepared for an uncertain global economic outlook
13 Oct 2022
Andrew Cornell
|
Past Managing Editor, bluenotes
The Innovation brought by new De-Fi technology has regulators on edge. The must balance innovation and crisis.
27 Sep 2022
Andrew Cornell
|
Past Managing Editor, bluenotes
Identity theft is a global online scourge but one of the most promising fields of digital innovation is digital, secure IDs.
27 Sep 2022
Andrew Cornell
|
Past Managing Editor, bluenotes
It is an inflexion point for Australian residential property with the first sustained rising interest rates cycle in nearly two decades. What does it mean for home owners and renters?
24 Aug 2022
Andrew Cornell
|
Past Managing Editor, bluenotes
Maybe with some reluctance but the authorities are moving to bring the emerging world of digital assets and decentralised finance inside the official tent. Better inside maybe …
10 Aug 2022
Andrew Cornell
|
Past Managing Editor, bluenotes
It could be time to move beyond ESG – not because it’s not important but because it’s too complex and too important to lump environmental, social and governance challenges together.
25 Jul 2022
Andrew Cornell
|
Past Managing Editor, bluenotes
Through mergers, crises, economic cycles, governments, with almost half a century at ANZ under his belt, technology and risk expert Rob Molyneux is logging off for good.
18 Jul 2022
Andrew Cornell
|
Past Managing Editor, bluenotes
ANZ CEO says acquisition of Suncorp Bank is an investment in the bank’s Retail and Commercial operations, and the state of Queensland.
12 Jul 2022
Andrew Cornell
|
Past Managing Editor, bluenotes
Bigtech, fintech, DeFi, Neobank, Metabank… if it quacks the regulators will be duck hunting.
29 Jun 2022
Andrew Cornell
|
Past Managing Editor, bluenotes
Buy now, pay later schemes were touted as a payment revolution for the new age. But are they offering anything really that different? And what happens if they don’t succeed?
18 May 2022
Andrew Cornell
|
Past Managing Editor, bluenotes
Rising rate expectations are ultimately behind the destruction of recent weeks in crypto asset markets, especially cryptocurrencies.
04 May 2022
Andrew Cornell
|
Past Managing Editor, bluenotes
ANZ CFO says strong performances from New Zealand and Institutional together with continued focus on capital discipline and cost management bolstered the bank’s half-year result.
04 May 2022
Andrew Cornell
|
Past Managing Editor, bluenotes
ANZ CEO says the bank is well placed to support customers’ financial wellbeing through a period of economic uncertainty.
27 Apr 2022
Andrew Cornell
|
Past Managing Editor, bluenotes
The worlds next super-cycle is inevitable. And it will require an innovation and funding super-cycle as fuel.
05 Apr 2022
Andrew Cornell
|
Past Managing Editor, bluenotes
Decentralised finance has become big enough for central banks to take notice. Will subsequent rules and regulations help DeFi grow or will the bubble burst?
23 Mar 2022
Andrew Cornell
|
Past Managing Editor, bluenotes
ANZ’s new retail banking proposition ANZ Plus is the beginning of a multi-year plan to deliver improved service to customers.
23 Mar 2022
Andrew Cornell
|
Past Managing Editor, bluenotes
ANZ’s new retail banking platform ANZ Plus will provide both new and existing customers with future-ready services to improve their financial wellbeing.
01 Mar 2022
Andrew Cornell
|
Past Managing Editor, bluenotes
Newly announced ANZ Group Executive Australia Retail Maile Carnegie says the time is right to bring two major portfolios back together.
01 Mar 2022
Andrew Cornell
|
Past Managing Editor, bluenotes
ANZ CEO says organisational change will create greater opportunity for both Retail and Commercial banking with a strategic focus on financial wellbeing.
23 Feb 2022
Andrew Cornell
|
Past Managing Editor, bluenotes
Incumbent banks are not standing still in the face of the ongoing challenge from increasingly well funded fintechs. Instead they are assimilating the tech, innovations and entrepreneurial spirit of challengers.
09 Feb 2022
Andrew Cornell
|
Past Managing Editor, bluenotes
Trillions of dollars will be needed to even rein in carbon emissions – and that’s more an opportunity than a cost.
27 Jan 2022
Andrew Cornell
|
Past Managing Editor, bluenotes
The orbit of cryptocurrencies is increasingly eccentric yet central banks want to enter the system.
12 Jan 2022
Andrew Cornell
|
Past Managing Editor, bluenotes
Well, 2021 was different to 2020… Different variants, different challenges, different attitudes. But also different stories of resilience, of innovation, of breakthroughs, of optimism.
16 Dec 2021
Andrew Cornell
|
Past Managing Editor, bluenotes
ANZ Chairman Paul O’Sullivan outlines key focuses and challenges for the bank and its board in 2022 and beyond.
08 Dec 2021
Andrew Cornell
|
Past Managing Editor, bluenotes
Even ignoring the pandemic, 2022 will be a turning point for banks with a focus on digitalisation and sustainability non-negotiable.
24 Nov 2021
Andrew Cornell
|
Past Managing Editor, bluenotes
It’s not capitalism that is driving global warming and growing inequality, it’s the humans making the rules behind it. And they can change them.
10 Nov 2021
Andrew Cornell
|
Past Managing Editor, bluenotes
Currency, payments and centralised finance are entering a very weird period of change globally.
28 Oct 2021
Andrew Cornell
|
Past Managing Editor, bluenotes
ANZ’s new CFO says the bank has the right capital balance and risk settings to lean into the reopening of the global economy in 2022.
28 Oct 2021
Andrew Cornell
|
Past Managing Editor, bluenotes
ANZ CEO says the bank had a strong performance despite some ongoing uncertainty and is now preparing to take advantage of future opportunities.
13 Oct 2021
Andrew Cornell
|
Past Managing Editor, bluenotes
The much heralded invasion of banking by giant technology companies hasn’t panned out exactly as first thought.
29 Sep 2021
Andrew Cornell
|
Past Managing Editor, bluenotes
The global financial system is facing the next phase of the digital revolution – decentralised finance.
15 Sep 2021
Andrew Cornell
|
Past Managing Editor, bluenotes
Companies which find the right mix of financial growth and social good will ultimately succeed in the long-term.
01 Sep 2021
Andrew Cornell
|
Past Managing Editor, bluenotes
Australia’s payments system is large, diverse and very complex. And globally interlinked. So has regulation kept up with the pace of innovation?
31 Aug 2021
Andrew Cornell
|
Past Managing Editor, bluenotes
Customer confidence is up and so are house prices, creating a strong environment for home lending growth according to ANZ’s Mark Hand.
18 Aug 2021
Andrew Cornell
|
Past Managing Editor, bluenotes
Banking may have looked somewhat similar 500 years ago. But it will almost certainly look entirely different in another five years.
11 Aug 2021
Andrew Cornell
|
Past Managing Editor, bluenotes
Newly appointed CFO Farhan Faruqui will bring a depth of knowledge and understanding to role, says ANZ CEO Shayne Elliott.
04 Aug 2021
Andrew Cornell
|
Past Managing Editor, bluenotes
With the Kiwis officially killing off cheques, will Australia be the next economy to formally move on from the paper-based payment?
21 Jul 2021
Andrew Cornell
|
Past Managing Editor, bluenotes
After three foundation years within the enterprise, ANZ’s investment and innovation business is “leaving the mothership” to further accelerate scale and growth.
23 Jun 2021
Andrew Cornell
|
Past Managing Editor, bluenotes
Stock valuations are up and interest rates are down. So is the fintech market going to stay this frothy forever? Or is it frothy at all?
21 Jun 2021
Andrew Cornell
|
Past Managing Editor, bluenotes
Although no longer at the reins, renowned businessman David Hains still knows a thing or two about investment – after four decades in business.
09 Jun 2021
Andrew Cornell
|
Past Managing Editor, bluenotes
As global economies turn to digital solutions, organisations and industries must focus on building and maintaining trust to win big.
26 May 2021
Andrew Cornell
|
Past Managing Editor, bluenotes
As the value of cryptocurrencies continue to spike and reverse, central banks have started mulling its usefulness.
05 May 2021
Andrew Cornell
|
Past Managing Editor, bluenotes
ANZ CEO says the bank delivered a very strong result after a challenging year but not all geographies are at the same stage of recovery.
30 Apr 2021
Andrew Cornell
|
Past Managing Editor, bluenotes
The pandemic has created an opportunity for businesses to partner with medical professionals to create a health-conscious workplace.
21 Apr 2021
Andrew Cornell
|
Past Managing Editor, bluenotes
Not all banking platforms are created equal. And banks may not even be the right company to offer the service.
07 Apr 2021
Andrew Cornell
|
Past Managing Editor, bluenotes
All companies – including banks – must move away from selling particular products and think about the total consumer experience.
24 Mar 2021
Andrew Cornell
|
Past Managing Editor, bluenotes
The crypto bonanza continues. Tweets are now non-fungible works of art. But one piece of the digital landscape is more than hype: blockchain.
12 Mar 2021
Andrew Cornell
|
Past Managing Editor, bluenotes
ANZ CEO says further government support for small- to medium-sized businesses will provide a critical boost to the economy.
11 Mar 2021
Andrew Cornell
|
Past Managing Editor, bluenotes
Traditional banks have existed for thousands of years with one constant – change.
24 Feb 2021
Andrew Cornell
|
Past Managing Editor, bluenotes
With the US government back on board with addressing climate change risks, businesses and regulators are getting on with the job.
18 Feb 2021
Andrew Cornell
|
Past Managing Editor, bluenotes
ANZ CEO says the strength of the bank’s position came to the fore amid ongoing global and economic uncertainty.
10 Feb 2021
Andrew Cornell
|
Past Managing Editor, bluenotes
The past year has seen upheaval in the financial services industry. But – so far - it hasn’t been the traditional banks bearing the brunt.
27 Jan 2021
Andrew Cornell
|
Past Managing Editor, bluenotes
After a tumultuous year, one certainty is digital transformation will accelerate.
16 Dec 2020
Andrew Cornell
|
Past Managing Editor, bluenotes
New ANZ Chairman Paul O’Sullivan says boards must take a long-term view when making crucial business decisions and keep the community in mind.
09 Dec 2020
Andrew Cornell
|
Past Managing Editor, bluenotes
In a year like no other, ANZ’s content team continued to deliver insights, analysis and a look into the human experience of the COVID-19 pandemic.
02 Dec 2020
Andrew Cornell
|
Past Managing Editor, bluenotes
Long-time venture capitalist Sanford Robertson has decades of experience in Silicon Valley. And he has no plans to slow down.
25 Nov 2020
Andrew Cornell
|
Past Managing Editor, bluenotes
Even if the COVID-19 crisis abates across the globe, a climate storm is gathering for the financial services industry.
11 Nov 2020
Andrew Cornell
|
Past Managing Editor, bluenotes
In the aftermath of the US election, it’s time for major economies to think about how they approach – and measure – growth in a capitalist society.
29 Oct 2020
Andrew Cornell
|
Past Managing Editor, bluenotes
ANZ risk management robust, anticipates ongoing uncertainty while customer support drives recovery.
29 Oct 2020
Andrew Cornell
|
Past Managing Editor, bluenotes
Efficient management of capital, risk and costs allowed the bank to maintain a strong balance sheet through the crisis, says ANZ CFO.
29 Oct 2020
Andrew Cornell
|
Past Managing Editor, bluenotes
CEO says the bank has been well protected through COVID-19 and is now looking to future investment opportunities.
21 Oct 2020
Andrew Cornell
|
Past Managing Editor, bluenotes
Are measures designed to support business through the crisis sandbagging the credit cycle?
29 Sep 2020
Andrew Cornell
|
Past Managing Editor, bluenotes
As global interest rates crater and COVID-19 recessions metastasise, central banks are being forced to re-evaluate their role in currency and money creation.
16 Sep 2020
Andrew Cornell
|
Past Managing Editor, bluenotes
Even before the COVID-19 pandemic, some corporate businesses were barely alive but not quite dead.
28 Aug 2020
Andrew Cornell
|
Past Managing Editor, bluenotes
Outgoing ANZ Chairman David Gonski opens up about his time on the bank’s board and the challenges of the times in this discussion with bluenotes.
19 Aug 2020
Andrew Cornell
|
Past Managing Editor, bluenotes
ANZ CEO Shayne Elliott says the bank is focusing on its purpose to guide customers, community and shareholders through this stressful period.
18 Aug 2020
Andrew Cornell
|
Past Managing Editor, bluenotes
Look back at the career of former ANZ CEO Will Bailey, who helped usher the bank into a new era of technology and more.
05 Aug 2020
Andrew Cornell
|
Past Managing Editor, bluenotes
Banks have been deemed essential in the pandemic. But are they really the only institution able to provide banking services?
22 Jul 2020
Andrew Cornell
|
Past Managing Editor, bluenotes
The link between the two most worrying crises of our times – COVID-19 and climate change – must be examined to successfully combat both.
13 Jul 2020
Andrew Cornell
|
Past Managing Editor, bluenotes
ANZ’s head of Australian banking outlines continuing support to customers through Christmas and beyond the COVID-19 pandemic.
08 Jul 2020
Andrew Cornell
|
Past Managing Editor, bluenotes
Digital banking is no longer a strategy for the near term, it’s a strategy for the now term
24 Jun 2020
Andrew Cornell
|
Past Managing Editor, bluenotes
COVID-19 has inflicted revolutionary change at a pace and scale to rival the political upheavals of the 20th century.
09 Jun 2020
Andrew Cornell
|
Past Managing Editor, bluenotes
Jane Halton reflects on her involvement in the response to the COVID-19 pandemic and her understanding of the economic consequences.
04 Jun 2020
Andrew Cornell
|
Past Managing Editor, bluenotes
ANZ’s Aus banking head details how the bank is helping customers now while preparing them for once the pandemic has passed.
27 May 2020
Andrew Cornell
|
Past Managing Editor, bluenotes
As the re-opening of some societies begins, balancing the value of human life vs cost to the economy has come to a head.
13 May 2020
Andrew Cornell
|
Past Managing Editor, bluenotes
Many lessons will be born out of the COVID-19 pandemic. Which will endure in the long-term?
30 Apr 2020
Andrew Cornell
|
Past Managing Editor, bluenotes
More forward-looking accounting standards impacted half-year credit loss provision charge, says ANZ Chief Risk Officer.
30 Apr 2020
Andrew Cornell
|
Past Managing Editor, bluenotes
Strong capital and liquidity will help customers and shareholders through the crisis, says ANZ CFO.
30 Apr 2020
Andrew Cornell
|
Past Managing Editor, bluenotes
CEO says bank’s work coming into the crisis and past experience holds it in good stead to help customers and economy through the pandemic.
22 Apr 2020
Andrew Cornell
|
Past Managing Editor, bluenotes
People are turning to contactless payments to avoid touching cash or payments terminals. This trend might exist in a post-COVID-19 world.
19 Apr 2020
Andrew Cornell
|
Past Managing Editor, bluenotes
ANZ Chairman says the board is balancing the needs of all stakeholders – including shareholders – in responding to COVID-19.
08 Apr 2020
Andrew Cornell
|
Past Managing Editor, bluenotes
Business growth expert Dr Jana Matthews talks through what is needed for SMEs to survive COVID-19 and thrive on the other side.
30 Mar 2020
Andrew Cornell
|
Past Managing Editor, bluenotes
ANZ CEO talks through the challenges facing the economy while balancing an acute response to the COVID-19 crisis with longer term rebuilding.
17 Mar 2020
Andrew Cornell
|
Past Managing Editor, bluenotes
ANZ CEO says bank is in good shape to support customers and staff through the pandemic with long term shareholder interests in mind.
04 Mar 2020
Andrew Cornell
|
Past Managing Editor, bluenotes
As the world reacts to - and prepares against - a global pandemic, what do we know of the lifecycles of previous disasters?
19 Feb 2020
Andrew Cornell
|
Past Managing Editor, bluenotes
Environmental, social and governance (ESG) has moved beyond nice to have to shareholder priority.
05 Feb 2020
Andrew Cornell
|
Past Managing Editor, bluenotes
Incumbent banks and new players keep coming up with even more ways to pay – but is it musical chairs or deckchairs on the Titanic?
03 Feb 2020
Andrew Cornell
|
Past Managing Editor, bluenotes
ANZ Deputy CEO says the bank will work with partner companies to offer high quality wealth solutions to customers.
22 Jan 2020
Andrew Cornell
|
Past Managing Editor, bluenotes
What has capitalism done for us? A lot more than socialism…
11 Dec 2019
Andrew Cornell
|
Past Managing Editor, bluenotes
Will 2019 be the year we all look back at and see a tipping point for upheaval in financial services?
02 Dec 2019
Andrew Cornell
|
Past Managing Editor, bluenotes
Graeme Liebelt believes the financial services have a lot to learn from manufacturing. And it’s time to get back to basics.
27 Nov 2019
Andrew Cornell
|
Past Managing Editor, bluenotes
The fintech revolution is entering the negotiated truce phase - but bigtech looms on a new front.
13 Nov 2019
Andrew Cornell
|
Past Managing Editor, bluenotes
The major Australian banks have reported their full-year results. The outcomes were grim, the future a challenge.
01 Nov 2019
Andrew Cornell
|
Past Managing Editor, bluenotes
Paula Dwyer discusses challenges in a post-Royal Commission environment and the need for more women in corporate Australia.
31 Oct 2019
Andrew Cornell
|
Past Managing Editor, bluenotes
Regulatory and compliance investments will make the bank better for customers, says ANZ CFO.
31 Oct 2019
Andrew Cornell
|
Past Managing Editor, bluenotes
CEO says strong performances in Institutional banking and New Zealand offset a weaker result in Australia.
16 Oct 2019
Andrew Cornell
|
Past Managing Editor, bluenotes
Whatever the position on climate science, change is coming and customers and regulators are calling for it.
11 Oct 2019
Andrew Cornell
|
Past Managing Editor, bluenotes
Ilana Atlas says this era of financial services – and corporate life – demands pace and flexibility.
02 Oct 2019
Andrew Cornell
|
Past Managing Editor, bluenotes
The Bank of the Future would do well to look into the past as well as the fintech forecast.
18 Sep 2019
Andrew Cornell
|
Past Managing Editor, bluenotes
As interest rates continue to drop, global economies must prepare for a new era of monetary policy and business risk.
10 Sep 2019
Andrew Cornell
|
Past Managing Editor, bluenotes
John Macfarlane has run banks, farms, shopping centres – what’s the link?
04 Sep 2019
Andrew Cornell
|
Past Managing Editor, bluenotes
The idea unprecedented negative interest rates will spur the economy isn’t coming to fruition, so what are they doing?
29 Aug 2019
Andrew Cornell
|
Past Managing Editor, bluenotes
ANZ is cutting its own carbon emissions but more significantly is supporting customers to lower emissions more broadly.
21 Aug 2019
Andrew Cornell
|
Past Managing Editor, bluenotes
Although bank profits might not be a crowd favourite, they’re necessary - and good - for the economy. So say the regulators.
16 Aug 2019
Andrew Cornell
|
Past Managing Editor, bluenotes
Better clarity and faster processing of mortgage approvals improving outcomes, risk settings maintained, Australia head says.
07 Aug 2019
Andrew Cornell
|
Past Managing Editor, bluenotes
Competition and innovation need to be weighted carefully in the aftermath, and forefront, of a crisis.
24 Jul 2019
Andrew Cornell
|
Past Managing Editor, bluenotes
As companies’ defence against cybercrime become more sophisticated, so too does the perpetrators of the crime.
10 Jul 2019
Andrew Cornell
|
Past Managing Editor, bluenotes
Central banks have been in watch-and-wait mode on cryptocurrencies for a while but now they are beginning to move.
26 Jun 2019
Andrew Cornell
|
Past Managing Editor, bluenotes
Facebook has launched its own currency - Libra - we foretell doubters and challenging times ahead.
29 May 2019
Andrew Cornell
|
Past Managing Editor, bluenotes
Although bitcoin is on a bull run back into the mainstream, questions of legitimacy still remain.
15 May 2019
Andrew Cornell
|
Past Managing Editor, bluenotes
Environmental, social and governance reporting may extend beyond the normal reporting criteria but it is highly important.
01 May 2019
Andrew Cornell
|
Past Managing Editor, bluenotes
Driving a better outcome for shareholders is key to capital allocation, says ANZ’s CFO.
01 May 2019
Andrew Cornell
|
Past Managing Editor, bluenotes
CEO says ANZ is managing well through transformation and a tricky environment.
30 Apr 2019
Andrew Cornell
|
Past Managing Editor, bluenotes
As more and more competitors enter the arena, will traditional banks step up or do they – wrongly – fear competition?
17 Apr 2019
Andrew Cornell
|
Past Managing Editor, bluenotes
Since launching five years ago, bluenotes – and our audience – has changed. We’re still striving to adapt and deliver engaging content.
02 Apr 2019
Andrew Cornell
|
Past Managing Editor, bluenotes
Tech companies are developing their own credit cards, payments platforms and wallets to store them in – but what do consumers want?
20 Mar 2019
Andrew Cornell
|
Past Managing Editor, bluenotes
There are a multitude of reasons why momentum is shifting towards more rules and regulations.
27 Feb 2019
Andrew Cornell
|
Past Managing Editor, bluenotes
As challenger banks promise to be better than the banks, can they avoid becoming banks themselves?
21 Feb 2019
Andrew Cornell
|
Past Managing Editor, bluenotes
ANZ CEO Shayne Elliott discusses the outlook for credit quality and customer commitments post-Royal Commission.
13 Feb 2019
Andrew Cornell
|
Past Managing Editor, bluenotes
Paying for goods and services has never been so complicated with hundreds of payments options.
30 Jan 2019
Andrew Cornell
|
Past Managing Editor, bluenotes
Successful organisations must do more than just make money – and they need to do it if they want to keep making money.
16 Jan 2019
Andrew Cornell
|
Past Managing Editor, bluenotes
What’s to come in 2019 for the banking and financial services sector?
12 Dec 2018
Andrew Cornell
|
Past Managing Editor, bluenotes
In the first of our new series, ANZ chairman David Gonski speaks on video about the future challenges for financial services.
28 Nov 2018
Andrew Cornell
|
Past Managing Editor, bluenotes
ESM Goh Chok Tong chats about Trump, the kind of China the world wants to see and Singapore’s next PM.
31 Oct 2018
Andrew Cornell
|
Past Managing Editor, bluenotes
Simplification drives improved capital flexibility, credit quality and continued lower costs in full year, CFO says.
31 Oct 2018
Andrew Cornell
|
Past Managing Editor, bluenotes
ANZ CEO says bank is in the right shape for growth in an environment of change after small dip in cash profit.
24 Oct 2018
Andrew Cornell
|
Past Managing Editor, bluenotes
Ethical businesses can create a premium return-on-investment, say two expert stock pickers.
17 Oct 2018
Andrew Cornell
|
Past Managing Editor, bluenotes
For innovation we need more women, more internationalists and more internationalist women.
03 Oct 2018
Andrew Cornell
|
Past Managing Editor, bluenotes
Investments susceptible to climate risk will struggle as the world shifts to a lower-carbon reality.
26 Sep 2018
Andrew Cornell
|
Past Managing Editor, bluenotes
Investor forecasts on climate change are more certain than the weather.
19 Sep 2018
Andrew Cornell
|
Past Managing Editor, bluenotes
The global economy survived a crisis, Australia dodged a recession, Wall St bankers were bailed out. Not everyone was happy with the response but what else should have been done?
13 Sep 2018
Andrew Cornell
|
Past Managing Editor, bluenotes
AI is already shifting human life. Where are we going now? Five experts give their view.
12 Sep 2018
Andrew Cornell
|
Past Managing Editor, bluenotes
The Australian financial system endured the GFC as well as any in the world. What happened?
05 Sep 2018
Andrew Cornell
|
Past Managing Editor, bluenotes
The search is on for the appropriate trade-off between growth and stability in Asia.
31 Aug 2018
Andrew Cornell
|
Past Managing Editor, bluenotes
Bank seeks to balance the social and economic impacts of its decisions.
29 Aug 2018
Andrew Cornell
|
Past Managing Editor, bluenotes
Disruption is on the horizon and banks can’t avoid it but that doesn’t mean they’re doomed.
15 Aug 2018
Andrew Cornell
|
Past Managing Editor, bluenotes
Banking is essential; banks are not. What will the bank of the future even be?
09 Aug 2018
Andrew Cornell
|
Past Managing Editor, bluenotes
ANZ’s Mark Hand discusses newly announced relief measures for Australian farmers.
08 Aug 2018
Andrew Cornell
|
Past Managing Editor, bluenotes
The fintech revolution will be televised - by the major networks. Ideas with a true value will either partner with, or be enveloped by, the establishment. But not necessarily banks…
01 Aug 2018
Andrew Cornell
|
Past Managing Editor, bluenotes
Digital has brought a seismic shift in the economics of financial services. An expert describes on podcast what lies ahead.
25 Jul 2018
Andrew Cornell
|
Past Managing Editor, bluenotes
Surely banks which want to be truly digital really can’t be banks at all?
18 Jul 2018
Andrew Cornell
|
Past Managing Editor, bluenotes
Fintech is trying to reach the summit but will face the same issues as the incumbents once (or even if) it gets there.
12 Jul 2018
Andrew Cornell
|
Past Managing Editor, bluenotes
We chat to a panel of experts about the future slate for renewable energy in Australia.
11 Jul 2018
Andrew Cornell
|
Past Managing Editor, bluenotes
In some markets there is a sound economic argument for dominant institutions.
04 Jul 2018
Andrew Cornell
|
Past Managing Editor, bluenotes
A data-enriched experience is something many fintechs see as an advantage in the fight against banks.
27 Jun 2018
Andrew Cornell
|
Past Managing Editor, bluenotes
The BIS has delivered its result on crypto – as if the market was still waiting for advice - and it sounds like coinmania flew too close to the sun.
20 Jun 2018
Andrew Cornell
|
Past Managing Editor, bluenotes
We chat to an expert panel about AI, the future of work and why we might not have to fight the robots after all.
14 Jun 2018
Andrew Cornell
|
Past Managing Editor, bluenotes
Who do you trust with your personal data if you can’t trust Facebook?
04 Jun 2018
Andrew Cornell
|
Past Managing Editor, bluenotes
BoM’s Dr Karl Braganza says Australian financial services currently lag Europe in understanding, application of sustainability.
30 May 2018
Andrew Cornell
|
Past Managing Editor, bluenotes
Two theories against board diversity arose in the wake of recent corporate scandals. Both are wrong.
23 May 2018
Andrew Cornell
|
Past Managing Editor, bluenotes
Growth in Japan has dried up. Is this the end of Abenomics?
18 May 2018
Andrew Cornell
|
Past Managing Editor, bluenotes
Society is on high alert when it comes to personal data use, so how can organisations better play by the rules?
16 May 2018
Andrew Cornell
|
Past Managing Editor, bluenotes
Results were solid – but stepping back from the headlines, the outlook for the sector is tough.
09 May 2018
Andrew Cornell
|
Past Managing Editor, bluenotes
Bank’s head of wealth to take “really valuable” role in addition to current responsibilities. Mark Hand joins executive committee.
07 May 2018
Andrew Cornell
|
Past Managing Editor, bluenotes
ANZ unveils suit of initiatives aimed at improving customer trust in financial advice.
01 May 2018
Andrew Cornell
|
Past Managing Editor, bluenotes
CFO says bank’s commitment to simplification has helped lower costs, drive profit.
01 May 2018
Andrew Cornell
|
Past Managing Editor, bluenotes
CEO cites continued simplification, rising share of home loans as drivers of growth.
25 Apr 2018
Andrew Cornell
|
Past Managing Editor, bluenotes
Eminent Singaporean George Yeo shares his insights and comparatively dovish view on China’s rise.
25 Apr 2018
Andrew Cornell
|
Past Managing Editor, bluenotes
George Yeo sits down with bluenotes to Chat about the geopolitical disruption of China.
18 Apr 2018
Andrew Cornell
|
Past Managing Editor, bluenotes
Recent stability in funding costs for banks has been jolted - and no one’s completely sure why.
11 Apr 2018
Andrew Cornell
|
Past Managing Editor, bluenotes
Open banking is coming. What are the implications – not just for banks but everyone? Two experts debate the outlook.
11 Apr 2018
Andrew Cornell
|
Past Managing Editor, bluenotes
There are dangers in governments entering the private sector on the promise of a better deal.
05 Apr 2018
Andrew Cornell
|
Past Managing Editor, bluenotes
Global banks increased lending for “extreme” fossil fuels last year but will such finances be increasingly climate constrained?
28 Mar 2018
Andrew Cornell
|
Past Managing Editor, bluenotes
Banks are caught in a new kind of race - who can become more efficient, more quickly?
21 Mar 2018
Andrew Cornell
|
Past Managing Editor, bluenotes
We sit down with Chris Boncimino, Visa’s head of innovation, to chat about cryptocurrncies, QR codes, plastic cards, cash and all the other ways to pay.
23 Feb 2018
Andrew Cornell
|
Past Managing Editor, bluenotes
Restaurateur says there’s not always a guide book for operating a business.
21 Feb 2018
Andrew Cornell
|
Past Managing Editor, bluenotes
There is an indisputable body of evidence demonstrating organisations which strive for equality perform better than those who don’t.
14 Feb 2018
Andrew Cornell
|
Past Managing Editor, bluenotes
The challenge for policymakers is to ensure disruption benefits the economy and doesn’t break it.
07 Feb 2018
Andrew Cornell
|
Past Managing Editor, bluenotes
Well-intentioned but comprehensive credit reporting comes with risks for everyone. How do we handle it with care?
31 Jan 2018
Andrew Cornell
|
Past Managing Editor, bluenotes
Is the ideal model for financial services in the future a bionic bank?
17 Jan 2018
Andrew Cornell
|
Past Managing Editor, bluenotes
The level of interest in bitcoin is equalled perhaps only by the dollars pouring into it – and anything remotely associated.
10 Jan 2018
Andrew Cornell
|
Past Managing Editor, bluenotes
Once upon a time, fintech meant revolution – but it’s now part of the financial mainstream.
12 Dec 2017
Andrew Cornell
|
Past Managing Editor, bluenotes
Speaking on video, ANZ CEO says more-focussed bank helps its customers and shareholders.
06 Dec 2017
Andrew Cornell
|
Past Managing Editor, bluenotes
Japan may not be the highest-profile fintech market in the world but it is a particularly interesting one.
22 Nov 2017
Andrew Cornell
|
Past Managing Editor, bluenotes
The opportunity for corporate Australia and Japan to cooperate in third countries is large.
15 Nov 2017
Andrew Cornell
|
Past Managing Editor, bluenotes
There’s always talk of failures in China, but the data suggest its appetite for foreign business will only grow – and quickly.
08 Nov 2017
Andrew Cornell
|
Past Managing Editor, bluenotes
The underlying current of simplification in banking is easy to overlook and underestimate.
01 Nov 2017
Andrew Cornell
|
Past Managing Editor, bluenotes
Big investors back diversity and sustainability – and they’re right to, results suggest.
26 Oct 2017
Andrew Cornell
|
Past Managing Editor, bluenotes
CEO says better-focussed bank has delivered higher returns while reducing costs and growing capital after announcing full-year profit growth.
26 Oct 2017
Andrew Cornell
|
Past Managing Editor, bluenotes
ANZ CFO says bank has capital flexibility, is focussed on better returns for risk and continues to reshape its business.
25 Oct 2017
Andrew Cornell
|
Past Managing Editor, bluenotes
If the financial services market is so competitive, why don’t consumers move around?
17 Oct 2017
Andrew Cornell
|
Past Managing Editor, bluenotes
ANZ sells OnePath to IOOF in deal which will separate super and insurance arms.
10 Oct 2017
Andrew Cornell
|
Past Managing Editor, bluenotes
Cryptocurrencies are copping flak but nobody is calling foul on blockchain – and the reasons are numerous.
04 Oct 2017
Andrew Cornell
|
Past Managing Editor, bluenotes
Culture’s hard to create – and maintain – but shouldn’t be written off as unmanagable.
03 Oct 2017
Andrew Cornell
|
Past Managing Editor, bluenotes
ANZ has acquired property pricing startup REALas – we speak to the founder on podcast and video.
27 Sep 2017
Andrew Cornell
|
Past Managing Editor, bluenotes
Does the ATM – once considered the ultimate banking innovation – even have a future?
19 Sep 2017
Andrew Cornell
|
Past Managing Editor, bluenotes
There is another front - beyond politics and risk - for would-be financiers in the energy debate.
19 Sep 2017
Andrew Cornell
|
Past Managing Editor, bluenotes
ANZ’s Colin Neave recalls his time at Toyota where a shift to a new way of work saw the company top the marketplace.
05 Sep 2017
Andrew Cornell
|
Past Managing Editor, bluenotes
For financial services, those who own the customer will have the highest margins.
05 Sep 2017
Andrew Cornell
|
Past Managing Editor, bluenotes
Companies need to realise the scope of the change presented by analytics quickly – and for some it’s already too late.
29 Aug 2017
Andrew Cornell
|
Past Managing Editor, bluenotes
ANZ’s Kath Bray explains on video how ANZ’s new agile method of working will actually work.
24 Aug 2017
Andrew Cornell
|
Past Managing Editor, bluenotes
The role of modern leadership is creating an environment of trust and empowerment, Dr Alicia Fortinberry says.
23 Aug 2017
Andrew Cornell
|
Past Managing Editor, bluenotes
Banks face challenges in communication and culture – and earnings - which come simply from being too big and complex.
22 Aug 2017
Andrew Cornell
|
Past Managing Editor, bluenotes
How businesses actually use their data – rather than accrue it – will determine their success in the modern marketplace.
22 Aug 2017
Andrew Cornell
|
Past Managing Editor, bluenotes
ANZ CEO explains rationale behind new way to interact with customers.
16 Aug 2017
Andrew Cornell
|
Past Managing Editor, bluenotes
Banks need to be digital, on that all agree. But what does that actually mean? Robots, AI, branches in phones?
15 Aug 2017
Andrew Cornell
|
Past Managing Editor, bluenotes
CEO pleased with cost performance; operational changes; growth in loan book; lower RWAs.
14 Aug 2017
Andrew Cornell
|
Past Managing Editor, bluenotes
ANZ tech GE says on video businesses must align with modern customer expectations.
09 Aug 2017
Andrew Cornell
|
Past Managing Editor, bluenotes
RBA assistant governor chats to bluenotes about the bank’s latest survey and its implication for the payments sector.
02 Aug 2017
Andrew Cornell
|
Past Managing Editor, bluenotes
For some, the fintech boom never subsided - but it’s clear its momentum and nature have shifted.
01 Aug 2017
Andrew Cornell
|
Past Managing Editor, bluenotes
CEO says bank’s strategy is about intense focus and delivery in segments it can win.
26 Jul 2017
Andrew Cornell
|
Past Managing Editor, bluenotes
The debate around credit card surcharges has raised its head again in the wake of a ruling in Britain.
19 Jul 2017
Andrew Cornell
|
Past Managing Editor, bluenotes
Hordes of fake identities are being created for the purpose of illegally obtaining credit.
12 Jul 2017
Andrew Cornell
|
Past Managing Editor, bluenotes
Rarely has there been a greater business focus on the need to fundamentally transform – and banks are at the epicentre.
11 Jul 2017
Andrew Cornell
|
Past Managing Editor, bluenotes
Ex-MYOB exec says agile leading involves giving up on old ideas of control.
05 Jul 2017
Andrew Cornell
|
Past Managing Editor, bluenotes
A decade after the financial crisis, have we learned anything? It’s a crisis which keeps on taking.
21 Jun 2017
Andrew Cornell
|
Past Managing Editor, bluenotes
The Australia China relationship is rarely out of the headlines – for better or worse. Both countries need each other.
19 Jun 2017
Andrew Cornell
|
Past Managing Editor, bluenotes
Working agile requires business leaders to be much clearer about objectives, ANZ digital exec says.
14 Jun 2017
Andrew Cornell
|
Past Managing Editor, bluenotes
Banking is essential to a modern economy but banks are not. Can FANGs fill the role?
07 Jun 2017
Andrew Cornell
|
Past Managing Editor, bluenotes
It’s lonely at the top. Banks need to learn from their mistakes.
05 Jun 2017
Andrew Cornell
|
Past Managing Editor, bluenotes
ANZ CEO acknowledges companies must do more and help communities to thrive.
31 May 2017
Andrew Cornell
|
Past Managing Editor, bluenotes
Newly appointed ANZ advisory panel member says there’s no difference in the agile approach at a tech or financial services company.
30 May 2017
Andrew Cornell
|
Past Managing Editor, bluenotes
Fintech isn’t breaking banks – but it’s big enough for regulators to start paying attention.
24 May 2017
Andrew Cornell
|
Past Managing Editor, bluenotes
In Australia pessimism about the outlook prevails. It’s a different story in NZ. Why?
23 May 2017
Andrew Cornell
|
Past Managing Editor, bluenotes
ANZ technology GE Gerard Florian speaks to bluenotes about the agile working experience.
16 May 2017
Andrew Cornell
|
Past Managing Editor, bluenotes
Launching her new book with bluenotes, Catherine Fox explains why women don’t need to be fixed – but the system does.
10 May 2017
Andrew Cornell
|
Past Managing Editor, bluenotes
ANZ has a responsibility to be transparent about its impacts, CEO says.
10 May 2017
Andrew Cornell
|
Past Managing Editor, bluenotes
The artificial brain is growing but no matter how smart it becomes its power will depend on mere mortals and market forces.
02 May 2017
Andrew Cornell
|
Past Managing Editor, bluenotes
ANZ’s portfolio rebalancing, improved productivity and lower provisions all contributed to a strong improvement in return-on-equity for the bank in the first half, ANZ chief financial officer Michelle Jablko says.
02 May 2017
Andrew Cornell
|
Past Managing Editor, bluenotes
ANZ is shaking up its management style in a move CEO Shayne Elliott hopes will improve the way the bank responds to customer needs, empower staff and improve productivity.
02 May 2017
Andrew Cornell
|
Past Managing Editor, bluenotes
ANZ has delivered a strong half-year result which demonstrates consistency in execution, ANZ CEO Shayne Elliott says, adding he is optimistic for the full-year result.
26 Apr 2017
Andrew Cornell
|
Past Managing Editor, bluenotes
From one of Port Vila’s ritziest streets, the address of consulates, local rich-listers and senior multi-national executives, the views out over the stunning blue Erakor Lagoon are spectacular. But the road to get to these residences is spectacular for all the wrong reasons: its potholes are so huge, ubiquitous and unavoidable anything less than a 4WD would be foolhardy.
20 Apr 2017
Andrew Cornell
|
Past Managing Editor, bluenotes
Judging by the headlines of McKinsey & Co’s latest Asia-Pacific Banking Review, it’s becoming less attractive to bank in the region as an era when this part of the world was the most fertile for growth loses vigour.
20 Apr 2017
Andrew Cornell
|
Past Managing Editor, bluenotes
If you’re trying to work out the source of a problem in your business – no matter what the size – it’s worth taking a closer look at your people, ANZ CEO Shayne Elliott says.
12 Apr 2017
Andrew Cornell
|
Past Managing Editor, bluenotes
For a central banker, Andy Haldane is a Shakespearean fool – not that he’s foolish, in fact exactly the opposite. Under the guise of speeches with titles like The Dog and the Frisbee he cuts through the pomp of the regulatory court with incisive and often irreverent – and sometimes perplexing – wit.
11 Apr 2017
Andrew Cornell
|
Past Managing Editor, bluenotes
Does business exist just to make money or is there a role for enlightened self-interest and helping communities work?
05 Apr 2017
Andrew Cornell
|
Past Managing Editor, bluenotes
Australians love talking about property – how expensive it is but also how desirable. At the same time as affordability is at cyclical lows and household debt at highs, both major Australian media organisations have launched huge, glossy inserted marketing magazines wallowing in the allure of luxury property.
04 Apr 2017
Andrew Cornell
|
Past Managing Editor, bluenotes
ANZ chief executive Shayne Elliott says the bank is seeking a partner and exploring models for its wealth business but insists the industry remains critical to the bank’s customer proposition.
04 Apr 2017
Andrew Cornell
|
Past Managing Editor, bluenotes
Fostering the right culture, nurturing talent inside the organisation and investing in employee engagement are fundamental to the success of modern organisations, ANZ’s newly-appointed Group Executive, Talent & Culture says.
29 Mar 2017
Andrew Cornell
|
Past Managing Editor, bluenotes
The idea everyone can be a leader is a myth, ANZ director Paula Dwyer says, but that doesn’t mean leadership can’t be found at every level of an organisation.
28 Mar 2017
Andrew Cornell
|
Past Managing Editor, bluenotes
Goh Chok Tong has had a long, distinguished career in politics and public policy in Asia, including a crucial period as the Prime Minister of Singapore, succeeding founding PM Lee Kuan Yew.
22 Mar 2017
Andrew Cornell
|
Past Managing Editor, bluenotes
The role of senior business leaders in broader Australian society is changing as the community demands more of them according to ANZ director Paula Dwyer.
21 Mar 2017
Andrew Cornell
|
Past Managing Editor, bluenotes
Goh Chok Tong has had a long, distinguished career in politics and public policy in Asia, including a crucial period as the Prime Minister of Singapore, succeeding founding PM Lee Kuan Yew. Now, as the global trading landscape faces its biggest shakeup in decades, what does he expect will happen next?
21 Mar 2017
Andrew Cornell
|
Past Managing Editor, bluenotes
There’s been polarised reaction in some quarters of Australia to a letter signed by 30 major business figures in support of marriage equality.
14 Mar 2017
Andrew Cornell
|
Past Managing Editor, bluenotes
The US Federal Reserve has raised interest rates as expected but all eyes are on the future as a slightly disappointed market reflects on what happens next.
01 Mar 2017
Andrew Cornell
|
Past Managing Editor, bluenotes
ANZ's Incoming Group Executive Digital Banking Maile Carnegie says the bank needs to look to solutions from the tech sector to succeed in an increasingly digital market - but adds digital "transplants" don't work.
28 Feb 2017
Andrew Cornell
|
Past Managing Editor, bluenotes
Trust is the word of the moment in banking: can customers trust banks? Can society? But banking has always been fundamentally a trust business: when neither borrowers nor lenders know one another well enough, they trust a bank to act as an intermediary.
22 Feb 2017
Andrew Cornell
|
Past Managing Editor, bluenotes
The Australia government has flagged an expansion of the mandate of its so-called ‘green bank’ to allow investment in clean-coal technologies – at the same time as the banking regulator delivered its most detailed comments to date on how banks should think about climate change.
17 Feb 2017
Andrew Cornell
|
Past Managing Editor, bluenotes
ANZ continues to grow but remains cautious of the economic environment despite posting a solid increase in cash profit for the first quarter.
14 Feb 2017
Andrew Cornell
|
Past Managing Editor, bluenotes
A new ‘C’ has been added to the suite in banking: the Chief Security Information Officer. BlueNotes has a video interview this week with ANZ’s new CISO, Lynwen Connick, who comes from an eminent career in the Australian public service.
13 Feb 2017
Andrew Cornell
|
Past Managing Editor, bluenotes
Banks are obliged to do everything in their power to protect customers and their information, according to ANZ’s incoming chief information security officer, but need to do so without preventing access to popular services online.
06 Feb 2017
Andrew Cornell
|
Past Managing Editor, bluenotes
The reports of the death of Bitcoin may be exaggerations but they're out there.
02 Feb 2017
Andrew Cornell
|
Past Managing Editor, bluenotes
Japan's startling move to negative interest rates over the weekend again focusses attention on the limitations of monetary policy in combating an economic downturn.
31 Jan 2017
Andrew Cornell
|
Past Managing Editor, bluenotes
ANZ remains committed to the Asian region, CEO Shayne Elliott says, but changes to the economic and regulatory environment means the bank has had to adjust its strategy – not abandon it.
19 Dec 2016
Andrew Cornell
|
Past Managing Editor, bluenotes
Issues of sustainability, trust and social licence are increasingly important across the political and business environment - as developments in the US, Britain and Australia upend long-held conventional wisdom about how it all works.
16 Dec 2016
Andrew Cornell
|
Past Managing Editor, bluenotes
A recent drop into negative growth in Australia will not be enough to keep the economy from growing above trend in 2017, while growth in the Asia Pacific regions will be limited by developments in the US and China.
14 Dec 2016
Andrew Cornell
|
Past Managing Editor, bluenotes
It is increasingly important for businesses to ensure fairness is part of their customer experience amid an environment of wavering corporate trust, according to the outgoing Commonwealth Ombudsman and newly appointed ANZ Customer Fairness Advisor.
13 Dec 2016
Andrew Cornell
|
Past Managing Editor, bluenotes
Trust, purpose, social licence, corporate responsibility - no matter which business or political forum you attend, these themes are likely to be aired, if not formally then in discussions before and after.
08 Dec 2016
Andrew Cornell
|
Past Managing Editor, bluenotes
Traditionally conservative workplaces are slowly shifting to a new way of working as research shows knowledge-sharing initiatives like employee social networks can lift productivity by as much as 25 per cent.
07 Dec 2016
Andrew Cornell
|
Past Managing Editor, bluenotes
Come the end-of-year festive break and the attention of senior bank executives, particularly in finance and compliance, shifts to the Swiss town of Basel and its population of regulatory gnomes who in recent years have delivered surprise presents at this time.
30 Nov 2016
Andrew Cornell
|
Past Managing Editor, bluenotes
In the decades since payment cards entered commerce alongside cash their promoters have struggled to convince a significant minority of merchants the benefits of non-cash payments outweigh the costs.
22 Nov 2016
Andrew Cornell
|
Past Managing Editor, bluenotes
Darwin’s strategic location as a trading port is no secret to the Larrakia people, the original custodians of the land and waters around the Northern Territory capital.
15 Nov 2016
Andrew Cornell
|
Past Managing Editor, bluenotes
The Donald Trump presidency remains an unknown quantity. As Reserve Bank of Australia deputy governor Guy Debelle told a conference last week, the only certainty is uncertainty and if you’re going to write volatility insurance charge a high price for it.
09 Nov 2016
Andrew Cornell
|
Past Managing Editor, bluenotes
The headline outcomes from the latest major bank profit reporting season (picking up Commonwealth Bank’s June year) were stark:
07 Nov 2016
Andrew Cornell
|
Past Managing Editor, bluenotes
Technology is reshaping banking at a faster and faster rate, according to Incoming ANZ Group Executive, Technology, Gerard Florian. But banks must also balance the demands of consumers, regulators and technology as they push to provide innovative services to customers.
03 Nov 2016
Andrew Cornell
|
Past Managing Editor, bluenotes
ANZ’s new chief financial officer Michelle Jablko said the bank’s full-year result showed a focus on becoming a better-balanced, simpler, better-capitalised institution.
03 Nov 2016
Andrew Cornell
|
Past Managing Editor, bluenotes
The momentum behind ANZ’s rebalancing in key areas continues to build, while cost performance is improving and key markets remain robust, the bank’s CEO says.
02 Nov 2016
Andrew Cornell
|
Past Managing Editor, bluenotes
Banking will look radically different in 10 years’ time, probably even five. It will be digital – even though that means many things to different people. And financial technology start-ups – fintechs – will be behind much of the transformation.
29 Oct 2016
Andrew Cornell
|
Past Managing Editor, bluenotes
ANZ CEO Mike Smith is confident the bank can maintain the strong market share growth which was a pillar of another record annual profit.
29 Oct 2016
Andrew Cornell
|
Past Managing Editor, bluenotes
ANZ remains committed to its Asian strategy after posting another record profit and doesn't envision changes to its payout ratio, according to ANZ chief financial officer and incoming chief executive Shayne Elliott.
26 Oct 2016
Andrew Cornell
|
Past Managing Editor, bluenotes
“Information wants to be free”, one of the most enduring internet memes, is often attributed to Steven Levy in his 1984 book Hackers.
18 Oct 2016
Andrew Cornell
|
Past Managing Editor, bluenotes
There is little doubt much has been done on the risk and regulation front since the financial crisis of 2008. Nor is there any lack of debate about how effective the measures have been. The to-and-fro over capital, ‘too-big-to-fail’, acceptable profits, culture and remuneration continue.
12 Oct 2016
Andrew Cornell
|
Past Managing Editor, bluenotes
In Australia last week, the banking industry was focussed on a parliamentary inquiry into the industry’s culture and response to a range of issues from customer complaints to pricing to market behaviour.
28 Sep 2016
Andrew Cornell
|
Past Managing Editor, bluenotes
The seemingly inexorable trend towards a cashless society continues as contactless payments and mobile wallets replace cash in consumer commerce and real-time payments occur deeper and deeper into the world of small as well as large business.
20 Sep 2016
Andrew Cornell
|
Past Managing Editor, bluenotes
Corporate balance sheets globally have a lot of cash with earnings solid and interest rates low but caution and limited opportunity for investment is leaving much of it unspent.
13 Sep 2016
Andrew Cornell
|
Past Managing Editor, bluenotes
One of the key things banks do is borrow money for short periods of time and lend it out for long periods - maybe take deposits for three months and make home loans for 20 years. It is what is called ‘maturity transformation’ and when all goes well, it’s a profitable business.
06 Sep 2016
Andrew Cornell
|
Past Managing Editor, bluenotes
The G20’s deliberations over the weekend demonstrated the financial crisis is not over some eight years later. Global growth is fragile, monetary policy fraught, trade barriers are growing not falling (for example, in the year up to the latest confab, G20 governments imposed 350 new measures discriminating against foreign commercial interests, almost four times the number in 2009).
06 Sep 2016
Andrew Cornell
|
Past Managing Editor, bluenotes
ANZ is making headway in the simplification of its institutional bank offering and a new strategy has received board approval but market conditions remain challenging, according to business head Mark Whelan.
30 Aug 2016
Andrew Cornell
|
Past Managing Editor, bluenotes
Promising developments are visible across a range of Asian economies, belying the mood of doom and gloom, ANZ’s new chief economist says, particular in India.
30 Aug 2016
Andrew Cornell
|
Past Managing Editor, bluenotes
What finally sees off an ageing, ailing business model is not always the most obvious threat. In journalism, for example, the end of print newspapers may not come just because Facebook or the iPhone are now what is read on trains.
23 Aug 2016
Andrew Cornell
|
Past Managing Editor, bluenotes
The global financial crisis is still with us. Its onset was unpredicted, its ramifications unpredictable. But at its heart was what otherwise discredited former American Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld termed “unknown unknowns”.
16 Aug 2016
Andrew Cornell
|
Past Managing Editor, bluenotes
It’s indisputable the level of core capital banks must carry is rising higher and higher; nor is it in dispute capital was too low when the financial crisis hit. Indeed, some prominent authorities, including former Bank of England governor Mervyn King and Financial Times columnist Martin Wolf, believe in even higher levels of capital.
09 Aug 2016
Andrew Cornell
|
Past Managing Editor, bluenotes
As interest rates fall around the world to historic, even negative, levels, both public and technical debates are alive about the implications for banks.
09 Aug 2016
Andrew Cornell
|
Past Managing Editor, bluenotes
ANZ is confident of improving returns as it moves to address a continued slow-growth environment and reduce its exposure to under-pressure sectors, CEO Shayne Elliott says.
02 Aug 2016
Andrew Cornell
|
Past Managing Editor, bluenotes
Venture capital investment hit a record in 2015. It won’t top that in 2016. The latest EY global venture capital trends report found $US148 billion invested through 8,381 deals in 2015 – the highest venture capital (VC) activity in nearly two decades.
19 Jul 2016
Andrew Cornell
|
Past Managing Editor, bluenotes
From Castle Hill, the 300-metre pink granite monolith looming over Cleveland Bay and spectacular Magnetic Island, the city of Townsville looks a like it should be a flourishing economic centre.
12 Jul 2016
Andrew Cornell
|
Past Managing Editor, bluenotes
How do you convince fiscal miscreants to pay their taxes on time? Simply tell them everyone else is doing it, it turns out. Behavioural economics does the rest for you.
11 Jul 2016
Andrew Cornell
|
Past Managing Editor, bluenotes
Nostalgia is a beguiling, often sepia-toned wistfulness about a kinder, simpler past. It’s more prevalent the older we get. And advanced economies around the world are getting older.
05 Jul 2016
Andrew Cornell
|
Past Managing Editor, bluenotes
No doubt it’s familiar to all but in the climactic showdown in Sergio Leone’s epic Western The Good, The Bad and The Ugly the three protagonists confront one another. A classic stand-off, in a cemetery no less, beloved of game theorists, the winner getting the money and the losers ending up, well, six-feetunder.
28 Jun 2016
Andrew Cornell
|
Past Managing Editor, bluenotes
There are two particular groups devastated by Brexit: British pollsters and Japanese policymakers.
21 Jun 2016
Andrew Cornell
|
Past Managing Editor, bluenotes
If ever the famous aphorism, dating back a century or more, about generals always fighting the last war rings true, it is in the war against cybercrime.
20 Jun 2016
Andrew Cornell
|
Past Managing Editor, bluenotes
Australia’s transition to a services economy will force businesses to reassess internal management practices as demand for labour surges in the lead up to 2030, according to ANZ’s Acting Chief Economist Richard Yetsenga.
15 Jun 2016
Andrew Cornell
|
Past Managing Editor, bluenotes
There was a resurgence of activity in the financial technology (fintech) universe in the first quarter of the year after signs of potential rapid deflation at the end of 2015.
07 Jun 2016
Andrew Cornell
|
Past Managing Editor, bluenotes
In the last month, both China and India have emphasised the critical role green investing can play in addressing environmental damage, carbon intensity and global warming; the global banking Financial Stability Board has expanded its climate-related financial disclosure task force; and a major investor group has published seven climate change policy priorities.
30 May 2016
Andrew Cornell
|
Past Managing Editor, bluenotes
That ratings agencies like Standard & Poor’s build an ‘implicit government guarantee’ into their ratings of the major Australian banks is not a surprise. It’s long been the case.
24 May 2016
Andrew Cornell
|
Past Managing Editor, bluenotes
If you want to know why only one in 50 fathers take up paid parental leave, listen in on the conversations they have with their male colleagues and bosses.
17 May 2016
Andrew Cornell
|
Past Managing Editor, bluenotes
Whether it’s a bubble or not, the investment binge into financial services start-ups and financial technology companies (fintech) has long looked unsustainable. There are too many opportunities swimming in an evaporating pool of investment capital.
12 May 2016
Andrew Cornell
|
Past Managing Editor, bluenotes
ANZ’s new ‘centre of the future’ in Sydney is part of a shift in the banking sector to bring digital into the branch for both staff and customers, ANZ Group Executive Australia Fred Ohlsson says.
10 May 2016
Andrew Cornell
|
Past Managing Editor, bluenotes
Credit quality, unsurprisingly, was the major focus of investors and analysts with the Australian bank interim results and trading updates.
09 May 2016
Andrew Cornell
|
Past Managing Editor, bluenotes
Businesses are beginning to recognise their important role in preventing family violence, former Australian of the year Rosie Batty says, as statistics demonstrate the incidence of victims among their staff.
03 May 2016
Andrew Cornell
|
Past Managing Editor, bluenotes
ANZ has moved to recognise the changing pace of modern technology by taking more of the cost of depreciating technology up front, acting chief financial officer Graham Hodges says.
03 May 2016
Andrew Cornell
|
Past Managing Editor, bluenotes
ANZ’s institutional business dragged back stronger earnings from other divisions in the bank but division boss Mark Whelan said the bank was already well advanced in reshaping the business with early returns promising.
03 May 2016
Andrew Cornell
|
Past Managing Editor, bluenotes
ANZ chief executive Shayne Elliott says the bank is making some hard decisions to reposition itself for the future after posting a fall in interim cash earnings but he stressed the bank’s core businesses remain strong.
02 May 2016
Andrew Cornell
|
Past Managing Editor, bluenotes
ANZ’s announcement of a long-awaited joint venture with Apple to offer Apple Pay, and one for Android Pay looming, brings the relationship between established banks and financial technology companies – fintechs – to the fore.
28 Apr 2016
Andrew Cornell
|
Past Managing Editor, bluenotes
ANZ will become the first major bank in Australia to offer Apple Pay services in the latest significant development in the Australian payments sector.
27 Apr 2016
Andrew Cornell
|
Past Managing Editor, bluenotes
The global economy continues to splutter with the International Monetary Fund once again downgrading its outlook (although still expecting growth) and a swarm of central banks expressing similarly gloomy views.
21 Apr 2016
Andrew Cornell
|
Past Managing Editor, bluenotes
The Australian Bankers’ Association has released a six-point action plan aimed at bolstering consumer confidence in banking, with a focus on protecting whistleblowers, strengthening customer-complaint processes and improving conduct.
20 Apr 2016
Andrew Cornell
|
Past Managing Editor, bluenotes
China’s transition toward a consumption-led economy is clearly underway.
19 Apr 2016
Andrew Cornell
|
Past Managing Editor, bluenotes
Death is difficult to talk about. Even the quality media, which have long prided themselves on clarity and simple language, now regularly refer to “passing” rather than dying. There’re more euphemisms for dropping off the twig today than even Monty Python could cope with.
12 Apr 2016
Andrew Cornell
|
Past Managing Editor, bluenotes
Australia’s banking system came through the financial crisis as well as any in the world. Taxpayers ultimately made money out of a government guarantee program, institutional failure – notably of market-funded mortgage specialists – was digested by the system.
05 Apr 2016
Andrew Cornell
|
Past Managing Editor, bluenotes
Banks are leveraged plays on economies because they lend their capital many times over. So when economies are strong, banks perform even more strongly.
04 Apr 2016
Andrew Cornell
|
Past Managing Editor, bluenotes
BlueNotes Debates bring together important voices across the business, economic and social spectrum to thrash out where the issues lie. Managing editor Andrew Cornell recently chaired a forum of regional corporate advisory, restructuring and administration professionals. After debating their particular take on the outlook for 2016, the discussion turned to the impact of digital disruption.
30 Mar 2016
Andrew Cornell
|
Past Managing Editor, bluenotes
Japan has entered its third “lost decade" of economic malaise following the collapse of its bubble economy in the early 90s.
22 Mar 2016
Andrew Cornell
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Past Managing Editor, bluenotes
Henry Ford, founder of the eponymous global car brand, famously dismissed market research with the observation “if I had asked people what they wanted, they would have said faster horses".
08 Mar 2016
Andrew Cornell
|
Past Managing Editor, bluenotes
One of the interesting discussions sparked by Maile Carnegie's decision to leave Google to join this bank, ANZ, was around whether banks might soon be better run by technologists.
02 Mar 2016
Andrew Cornell
|
Past Managing Editor, bluenotes
ANZ CEO Shayne Elliott says a changing environment for wealth management is behind a decision to bring services closer to customers while simplifying the wealth arm of the bank, including insurance.
01 Mar 2016
Andrew Cornell
|
Past Managing Editor, bluenotes
The ructions in China have inevitably shifted thinking around the role of China's currency, the renminbi (RMB). While China's stated long term aim is opening up its economy and internationalising the RMB, market turmoil and growth concerns have created new uncertainty.
23 Feb 2016
Andrew Cornell
|
Past Managing Editor, bluenotes
You have to move fast in modern technology: fintech is already passe. Apart from being a bubble (at least in the view of many analysts), tech savvy soothsayers and the occasional carpet bagger have already moved on to the next wave of digitally disruptive platforms, be they in agtech (agricultural technology), mining tech (smart technology for the resources industry) or regulatory technology.
22 Feb 2016
Andrew Cornell
|
Past Managing Editor, bluenotes
BlueNotes Debates bring together important voices across the business, economic and social spectrum to thrash out where the issues lie. Managing editor Andrew Cornell recently chaired a forum of regional corporate advisory, restructuring and administration professionals to debate their particular take on the outlook for 2016.
17 Feb 2016
Andrew Cornell
|
Past Managing Editor, bluenotes
ANZ is confident it can grow its underlying businesses but remains wary of challenging economic conditions in Asia after posting a rise in cash profit during the first quarter.
16 Feb 2016
Andrew Cornell
|
Past Managing Editor, bluenotes
Australia has the fourth-biggest pool of pension savings in the world and now a government which recognises innovation as critical to economic well-being. But the question then becomes: how can we ensure these funds are used to support Australian innovation in a way that supports both industry and super balances?
16 Feb 2016
Andrew Cornell
|
Past Managing Editor, bluenotes
Bank shares, globally, have borne the brunt of the new year sell-off on equity markets. It's not good news and not just for those owning bank shares.
07 Feb 2016
Andrew Cornell
|
Past Managing Editor, bluenotes
Australia has the fourth-largest pool of pension savings in the world and now a government which recognises innovation as critical to economic well-being. So how can we ensure these funds are used to support Australian innovation in a way that supports both industry and super balances?
27 Jan 2016
Andrew Cornell
|
Past Managing Editor, bluenotes
New ANZ chief executive officer Shayne Elliott says changes to ANZ's management structure are about refocussing on its strengths and driving value at the bank.
27 Jan 2016
Andrew Cornell
|
Past Managing Editor, bluenotes
Market volatility, concerns about major economies and the flow on for credit quality have been pushing up market interest rates and the funding costs for the global banking sector.
19 Jan 2016
Andrew Cornell
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Past Managing Editor, bluenotes
Even as global equity markets have plumbed depths not seen since the financial crisis, investor appetite for start-ups, particularly in the financial technology – 'fintech' – space has remained near insatiable.
29 Dec 2015
Andrew Cornell
|
Past Managing Editor, bluenotes
It's been a big year for ANZ BlueNotes in 2015 as we continue to strike to provide you with the best content at our disposal.
15 Dec 2015
Andrew Cornell
|
Past Managing Editor, bluenotes
There aren't many bank stock bulls among global investors. Understandable given global growth is still limp, geopolitical risk high, regulation uncertain and disruption on everyone's mind.
08 Dec 2015
Andrew Cornell
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Past Managing Editor, bluenotes
As a cadet finance reporter, every time I rang a broker about the stock market I had to steel myself for the wonderful insight “the market went up/down because there were more/less buyers than sellers”.
02 Dec 2015
Andrew Cornell
|
Past Managing Editor, bluenotes
An enduring theme in corporate Australia, picked up by a new prime minister, is concern around a lack of innovation, often sheeted back to a lack of risk appetite.
30 Nov 2015
Andrew Cornell
|
Past Managing Editor, bluenotes
Where are the big risks for banks in 2016? ANZ Lending Services, which deals closely with the insolvency and risk management sector, last week rounded up a dozen or so specialists and asked them this question.
30 Nov 2015
Andrew Cornell
|
Past Managing Editor, bluenotes
Food and water are two of the most basic essentials for human existence. Under pressure, we may well learn to live without the internet again but without food, water and acceptable air to breathe, we cease to exist.
25 Nov 2015
Andrew Cornell
|
Past Managing Editor, bluenotes
Incoming ANZ CEO Shayne Elliott says he will inherit an organisation that is very different, operating in a very different world, to the one Mike Smith took over in 2007 and that will demand a shift in how the bank operates.
24 Nov 2015
Andrew Cornell
|
Past Managing Editor, bluenotes
Go to Google Trends and compare “Bitcoin” and “Blockchain”. The former, the cryptocurrency that leapt to prominence 18 months ago, has declined steeply as a searched term - but off Alpine peaks and it's still at high altitudes.
17 Nov 2015
Andrew Cornell
|
Past Managing Editor, bluenotes
Banks ignore their regulators at their peril. So when the boss of the Bank of England, who is also chair of the global Financial Stability Board, devotes a major speech to the financial implications of climate change, it's prudent to pay attention.
10 Nov 2015
Andrew Cornell
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Past Managing Editor, bluenotes
The global financial system regulators released a package of materials Monday night in the lead up to the forthcoming G20 summit in Turkey but it hardly allayed concerns the regulatory agenda was no closer to settling down.
04 Nov 2015
Andrew Cornell
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Past Managing Editor, bluenotes
The Financial Times' highly respected Lex column has delivered a slap to (northern hemisphere) bank executives, telling them to stop making promises they never keep.
27 Oct 2015
Andrew Cornell
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Past Managing Editor, bluenotes
The first law of thermodynamics is energy cannot be created or destroyed, just transformed from one state to another. That pretty much sums up the first law of risk as well.
20 Oct 2015
Andrew Cornell
|
Past Managing Editor, bluenotes
Westpac Banking Corp's decision to raise $A3.5 billion in new capital immediately raised investor questions about a new round of equity raisings even though the other three Australian majors had already raised comparable amounts.
15 Oct 2015
Andrew Cornell
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Past Managing Editor, bluenotes
Australian of the Year Rosie Batty has become a tireless and poignant protagonist in the campaign to raise the profile and lower the human cost of domestic violence since the tragic death of her son at the hands of his father.
13 Oct 2015
Andrew Cornell
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Past Managing Editor, bluenotes
Going viral is one of the favoured metaphors of the social and digital world but it is the nature of viruses to rapidly mutate, shifting targets and impacts.
09 Oct 2015
Andrew Cornell
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Past Managing Editor, bluenotes
BlueNotes and PwC Capital Edge are presenting a series of discussions and roundtables with industry experts, ranging across the wide capital markets universe from start-ups and entrepreneurs to risk and digitalisation.
05 Oct 2015
Andrew Cornell
|
Past Managing Editor, bluenotes
At the start of October, ANZ unveiled its CEO succession plan, with chief financial officer Shayne Elliott to take over from current boss Mike Smith on January 1, 2016. The two sat down with BlueNotes after the announcement to reflect on their time at the bank and imperatives for the future.
29 Sep 2015
Andrew Cornell
|
Past Managing Editor, bluenotes
A quarter of Australians have had it with cash. At least according to electronic payments network PayPal. The network's research found not only did 25 per cent of respondents not shop at cash-only businesses, more than half noted cash-only organisations were hard to do business with.
22 Sep 2015
Andrew Cornell
|
Past Managing Editor, bluenotes
Financial services companies around the world are signing up for consortia and joint ventures to keep pace with the accelerating digital disruption at a rate not seen… well not seen for a decade or so. Unsurprisingly, most of the latest partnerships orbit around financial technology, “fintech".
15 Sep 2015
Andrew Cornell
|
Past Managing Editor, bluenotes
The mass theft of payment card data aside, the biggest payments scam going in the United States at the moment is petrol theft – even as the cost of fuel falls.
01 Sep 2015
Andrew Cornell
|
Past Managing Editor, bluenotes
Coca-Cola apparently has a “global water steward”. His name is Greg Koch and his full title is “Senior Director of Global Water Stewardship”.
25 Aug 2015
Andrew Cornell
|
Past Managing Editor, bluenotes
Banks obviously will not escape the current market carnage but over the longer term, and across a range of international indices, they are being sold off more than broader markets.
18 Aug 2015
Andrew Cornell
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Past Managing Editor, bluenotes
Barely had anxieties over a collapse on Chinese share markets began to ease and stress levels were heightened again with the formal intervention to lower the RMB, followed by a market sell-off.
14 Aug 2015
Andrew Cornell
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Past Managing Editor, bluenotes
Unsettling economic data, an equities meltdown, now intervention in the Chinese currency market by the central bank. Signs China is stepping back from financial liberalisation?
10 Aug 2015
Andrew Cornell
|
Past Managing Editor, bluenotes
BlueNotes would not exist were it not for the ANZ board trip to Silicon Valley two years ago. It was then the board, and ANZ chief executive Mike Smith in particular, saw how powerful the shift to a digital and social world truly was.
04 Aug 2015
Andrew Cornell
|
Past Managing Editor, bluenotes
Following the Titanic disaster – the shipwreck not the movie – the global shipping industry and governments vowed to make sea travel safer.
23 Jul 2015
Andrew Cornell
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Past Managing Editor, bluenotes
Spiralling global demand has Australia facing a boom in its gas market similar to the ones seen in other commodities in past years, according to ANZ's head of commodity research, which could see LNG overtake iron ore as the main driver of Australia's exports in the export stakes and help push Australia's trade balance back toward the black.
14 Jul 2015
Andrew Cornell
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Past Managing Editor, bluenotes
Two things are clear about the future capital requirements for Australian banks following Monday's international capital comparison study by the Australian Prudential Regulation Authority.
07 Jul 2015
Andrew Cornell
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Past Managing Editor, bluenotes
For the Greeks, the most positive aspect of the referendum was its clear-cut outcome. For markets, the same can also be said.
29 Jun 2015
Andrew Cornell
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Past Managing Editor, bluenotes
There are two ways of reading these lines from the new Bank for International Settlements (BIS) annual report: “Despite substantial efforts to strengthen their capital and liquidity positions, advanced economy banks still face market scepticism. As a result, they have lost some of their traditional funding advantage relative to potential customers.”
23 Jun 2015
Andrew Cornell
|
Past Managing Editor, bluenotes
At his peak in the mid 90s, David Letterman, the American talk show host, had around eight million viewers for his nightly variety act. Eight million people tuning in at the same time, households together around a TV screen.
10 Jun 2015
Andrew Cornell
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Past Managing Editor, bluenotes
Cryptocurrencies and their enabling technologies have been back in the news with more traditional financial institutions globally, including banks, announcing trials or at least interest.
02 Jun 2015
Andrew Cornell
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Past Managing Editor, bluenotes
The 21st century may be the Asian Century or it may yet be the century the emerging world joins the developed world. But however this century plays out, it will be an Age of the City.
02 Jun 2015
Andrew Cornell
|
Past Managing Editor, bluenotes
The issue of trust in banking has been headline news globally in recent months and particularly acute in Australia last week.
26 May 2015
Andrew Cornell
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Past Managing Editor, bluenotes
ANZ and Coca-Cola Amatil chairman David Gonski has been approached many times over the years for an autobiography or memoir of his storied corporate life. The subtext of the offers though, Gonski suggests, is it wasn’t actually him they were interested in.
26 May 2015
Andrew Cornell
|
Past Managing Editor, bluenotes
ANZ last week joined a growing list of financial institutions to offer a “green bond”.
18 May 2015
Andrew Cornell
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Past Managing Editor, bluenotes
In the financial crisis there was actually little correlation between financial institutions which ticked all the boxes on regulatory compliance, across any number of measures, and those that failed or flourished.
12 May 2015
Andrew Cornell
|
Past Managing Editor, bluenotes
The focus during the Australian bank profit reporting season was, not unexpectedly, on capital. The amount needed, by when and for what.
05 May 2015
Andrew Cornell
|
Past Managing Editor, bluenotes
ANZ CEO Mike Smith says the bank's super-regional strategy helped it weather challenging operating conditions, supporting what he described as a "well-balanced result".
05 May 2015
Andrew Cornell
|
Past Managing Editor, bluenotes
ANZ's chief financial officer Shayne Elliott says the bank can still achieve a challenging return-on-equity target despite difficult operating conditions in the first half.
04 May 2015
Andrew Cornell
|
Past Managing Editor, bluenotes
As giants like Apple and Google and China Union Pay, along with literally thousands of would-be disruptors, try to upend the global payments system, it may seem slightly anachronistic the Reserve Bank of Australia still has its focus on interchange fees – an agenda kicked off well over a decade ago when Apple still just made computers and Google was barely a verb.
28 Apr 2015
Andrew Cornell
|
Past Managing Editor, bluenotes
In what was a predominantly bullish and timely reminder the Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN) looms as the next economic giant in the region, a few challenges stood out in ANZ Research's latest economic insight, ASEAN: The Next Horizon.
21 Apr 2015
Andrew Cornell
|
Past Managing Editor, bluenotes
It’s taken a price collapse in the rock star commodity of the last half decade – iron ore – for many, maybe even Canberra, to realise Australia is not actually a resource economy.
14 Apr 2015
Andrew Cornell
|
Past Managing Editor, bluenotes
In Asia, indeed in any of the markets where the financial crisis was a matter of contagion not primary infection, there's a prevailing view not all the doctor's orders are sensible.
08 Apr 2015
Andrew Cornell
|
Past Managing Editor, bluenotes
The missives of central bankers around the world are now studied with the same sort of intensity medieval scholars devoted to understanding the ancient texts. The legion of mystic druids of financial markets study the entrails seeking guidance from the gods on what “normal” and “patient” might mean for interest rates.
31 Mar 2015
Andrew Cornell
|
Past Managing Editor, bluenotes
Disruption, particularly in financial services, is one of the hottest investment themes going.
24 Mar 2015
Andrew Cornell
|
Past Managing Editor, bluenotes
We are truly in an extraordinary environment when many real interest rates are negative – that is, inflation is higher than the rate being offered on securities like government bonds.
17 Mar 2015
Andrew Cornell
|
Past Managing Editor, bluenotes
Financial inclusion makes extraordinary differences to individual lives, whether in developing countries where a bank account can be the line between a poverty trap and a thriving business or in a developed economy where a debt cycle can become a wealth plan.
10 Mar 2015
Andrew Cornell
|
Past Managing Editor, bluenotes
Anyone still in doubt about whether the world’s major economies are moving ahead with a price on carbon should pay attention to what is being said at China’s National People’s Congress where the political, social and economic priorities of the world’s next economic superpower are being laid out.
03 Mar 2015
Andrew Cornell
|
Past Managing Editor, bluenotes
“Too big to fail” is the moral hazard conundrum at the centre of the debate about the future of financial services, anchoring issues such as how the sector should be structured, regulated, financed. More than two dozen global banking behemoths have been officially designated too-big-to-fail or in regulator-speak “globally systemically important banks”.
24 Feb 2015
Andrew Cornell
|
Past Managing Editor, bluenotes
It sounds like the set up for a joke: a bunch of guys are sitting around for their regular get together, eating and drinking, before they realise none of them can pay.
20 Feb 2015
Andrew Cornell
|
Past Managing Editor, bluenotes
BlueNotes Debates bring together important voices across the business, economic and social spectrum to thrash out where the issues lie. Managing editor Andrew Cornell chaired a forum of regional corporate advisory, restructuring and administration professionals to debate their particular take on the outlook.
17 Feb 2015
Andrew Cornell
|
Past Managing Editor, bluenotes
It is still said that, economically speaking, Australia is basically a quarry, farm and beach. Resources, agriculture, tourism.
17 Feb 2015
Andrew Cornell
|
Past Managing Editor, bluenotes
ANZ chief executive Mike Smith told BlueNotes the December quarter earnings were much as he had expected but he still believed “boring” bank results were good in uncertain times.
17 Feb 2015
Andrew Cornell
|
Past Managing Editor, bluenotes
A lower Australian dollar is “ultimately a good thing for shareholders” ANZ chief financial officer Shayne Elliott told BlueNotes in a video interview on the release of a December quarter trading update.
10 Feb 2015
Andrew Cornell
|
Past Managing Editor, bluenotes
The investor-focussed traditional weekend media in Australia did a thorough go over of the implications of the Reserve Bank’s somewhat surprising decisions to cut the overnight cash rate 25 basis points last week.
05 Feb 2015
Andrew Cornell
|
Past Managing Editor, bluenotes
ANZ will lower its interest rate for variable rate mortgages by 0.25 percentage points following its monthly interest rate review.
03 Feb 2015
Andrew Cornell
|
Past Managing Editor, bluenotes
The numerous economic troubles facing the world, rather than any one large issue, played a role in the Reserve Bank of Australia’s decision to cut interest rates to a record low of 2.25 per cent, according to ANZ Australia CEO Phil Chronican.
03 Feb 2015
Andrew Cornell
|
Past Managing Editor, bluenotes
If the age of digital financial services has not yet arrived completely, it’s not for lack of publicity. Every consultant worth their MBA has contributed something on digital disruption and 2015 has kicked off with leagues of reports.
27 Jan 2015
Andrew Cornell
|
Past Managing Editor, bluenotes
Ratings agency Moody’s Investors Service noted investment-grade 10 year corporate bond yields had, on hitting 4.42 per cent last week, reached their lowest level since 1957. Yields on the global benchmark US 30 year Treasury bonds are also at historic lows.
20 Jan 2015
Andrew Cornell
|
Past Managing Editor, bluenotes
Looking at the top 10 stocks on the Australian stock exchange, the dominant role played by the Big Four banks in equity portfolios is clear. The top two stocks are banks: Commonwealth Bank and Westpac Banking Corp. In positions four and five are ANZ Banking Group and National Australia Bank.
13 Jan 2015
Andrew Cornell
|
Past Managing Editor, bluenotes
Come the new year and the tenor of most commentary is inevitably what does the future hold? In the financial services sector that speculation tends to fall into two categories: for markets like Australia, with a healthy system where banks dominate investment portfolios, the question is can their performance continue to sustain expectations for dividends and capital growth.
24 Dec 2014
Andrew Cornell
|
Past Managing Editor, bluenotes
BlueNotes Debates bring together important voices across the business, economic and social spectrum to thrash out where the issues lie. Managing editor Andrew Cornell chaired a forum of regional corporate advisory, restructuring and administration professionals to debate their particular take on the outlook.
23 Dec 2014
Andrew Cornell
|
Past Managing Editor, bluenotes
Twelve months ago, when I’d been at ANZ a couple of weeks, BlueNotes publisher Paul Edwards had a couple of central ideas about the yet-to-be-named online publication I’d been hired to edit.
19 Dec 2014
Andrew Cornell
|
Past Managing Editor, bluenotes
While markets have focussed on possible new capital requirements for Australian banks in the wake of a major review, ANZ chief financial officer Shayne Elliott notes the new regime will come in gradually and banks have many options to manage the shift.
16 Dec 2014
Andrew Cornell
|
Past Managing Editor, bluenotes
There’s been a major financial system review produced, concerns linger around a housing bubble, consumer confidence is fragile, the banking sector is dominated by a group of majors and the resource economy is making a slow transition to other growth drivers.
02 Dec 2014
Andrew Cornell
|
Past Managing Editor, bluenotes
After a few delays and strong arming from the Reserve Bank of Australia, sufficient financial institutions, including the big banks, have now signed up to build Australia’s real time payments system, the prosaically named 'New Payments Platform', the NPP.
25 Nov 2014
Andrew Cornell
|
Past Managing Editor, bluenotes
The United States Federal Reserve has taken navel gazing to a new level with two of its officers publishing a paper on the way the Fed talks.
18 Nov 2014
Andrew Cornell
|
Past Managing Editor, bluenotes
It now seems likely, following some very strongly encouraging words by Reserve Bank of Australia governor Glenn Stevens in a recent speech, that enough major payments-industry participants have signed up to make a start on Australia’s long-expected real time payments platform.
11 Nov 2014
Andrew Cornell
|
Past Managing Editor, bluenotes
Having covered a few multi-lateral summits in my time – the best being the G8 held in Okinawa (remote to deter protestors but a tropical paradise) – I have a lot of sympathy for Brisbane where the G20 gathering will take place this week.
05 Nov 2014
Andrew Cornell
|
Past Managing Editor, bluenotes
Westpac rounded out the Australian bank profit reporting season on Monday for those banks with a September year (Commonwealth Bank, with a June year, has a trading update this week) and one set of figures stood out: total loans grew 8 per cent over the year to $580.3 billion while total customer deposits grew 7 per cent to $409.2 billion.
31 Oct 2014
Andrew Cornell
|
Past Managing Editor, bluenotes
Mike Smith walks through the components of ANZ’s September year result, across geographies, operations and outlook.
28 Oct 2014
Andrew Cornell
|
Past Managing Editor, bluenotes
Three of Australia and New Zealand’s four major banks report their full year profits over the next two weeks and the fourth, Commonwealth Bank of Australia, will provide a trading update. The consensus of public forecasts is for a solid season absent of one-offs such as restructuring costs.
24 Oct 2014
Andrew Cornell
|
Past Managing Editor, bluenotes
The founding managing editor of BlueNotes, Andrew Cornell, is a finalist in the Commentary, Analysis, Opinion and Critique category in the Australian Walkley Awards for Excellence in Journalism, the most prestigious Australian journalism awards.
23 Oct 2014
Andrew Cornell
|
Past Managing Editor, bluenotes
The philanthropic universe is tilting. There are no longer clear lines between business, charities, not-for-profits and those who give. Those groups receiving funds realise they are in a competitive market, they must be able to demonstrate the difference they make.
21 Oct 2014
Andrew Cornell
|
Past Managing Editor, bluenotes
The abolition of signatures as a means to verify credit card payments has prompted some alarming media coverage, such as the story noting a restaurant owner had to send customers around the corner to an ATM to get cash to pay their bill.
14 Oct 2014
Andrew Cornell
|
Past Managing Editor, bluenotes
It’s possible David Murray’s Financial System Inquiry may make some recommendations on bank capital. It’s also possible the Reserve Bank of Australia may introduce some so-called “macro-prudential” measures to address particular concerns around asset bubbles.
30 Sep 2014
Andrew Cornell
|
Past Managing Editor, bluenotes
As a Melbournian, the fact that Sydney is failing to deliver as a regional financial centre admittedly triggers a little schadenfreude. After all, they did steal the Olympics.
26 Sep 2014
Andrew Cornell
|
Past Managing Editor, bluenotes
Banking, according to ANZ’s CEO of International and Institutional Banking Andrew Géczy, is just as much about monetising insight as it about capital.
23 Sep 2014
Andrew Cornell
|
Past Managing Editor, bluenotes
There is only one share price, just as there is only one official interest rate. But these truisms are easily forgotten when economists pore over data entrails to foretell the next central bank move.
23 Sep 2014
Andrew Cornell
|
Past Managing Editor, bluenotes
ANZ CEO Mike Smith has defended the health of the Chinese property market, and warned against extrapolating small amounts of regional data and applying it across the country.
18 Sep 2014
Andrew Cornell
|
Past Managing Editor, bluenotes
In this second of our in-depth series on the Passion and Science of Giving, internet entrepreneur and dedicated philanthropist Daniel Petre delivers a forthright analysis of philanthropy in Australia.
16 Sep 2014
Andrew Cornell
|
Past Managing Editor, bluenotes
The banking industry has long reassured itself that even if customers don’t always like banks, they trust them. And trust is the over-riding base of a financial relationship.
09 Sep 2014
Andrew Cornell
|
Past Managing Editor, bluenotes
In Michelangelo Antonioni’s 1960s counter-culture classic Blow-Up, a hip photographer inadvertently captures what may be evidence of a murder in the background of a picture he’s taken.
02 Sep 2014
Andrew Cornell
|
Past Managing Editor, bluenotes
There’s something misleading about the term “surcharge”. Technically it sounds right – the “sur” prefix does denote over or above or more and a surcharge is an extra payment. But the implication is of a payment for an extra service.
31 Aug 2014
Andrew Cornell
|
Past Managing Editor, bluenotes
The Australian financial system is dramatically more resilient than before the financial crisis - and even since global regulatory reviews two years ago - according to ANZ’s response to the Interim Report of the Financial System Inquiry.
28 Aug 2014
Andrew Cornell
|
Past Managing Editor, bluenotes
ANZ held its biennial Asia Investor Tour in Hong Kong in July with senior International and Investment Banking executives briefing institutional investors and analysts on the next phase of the bank’s Asian strategy. One of the most highly engaged sessions was a discussion with three major Asian clients, facilitated by senior banker Tony Souza.
26 Aug 2014
Andrew Cornell
|
Past Managing Editor, bluenotes
The appointment in May of Farhan Faruqui as ANZ’s CEO International Banking caused plenty of chatter in the close knit banking circles of Hong Kong, Singapore and Shanghai. The Citi veteran of nearly a quarter of a century is one of the highest profile hires in Asia since Mike Smith launched ANZ’s super regional strategy in 2007.
26 Aug 2014
Andrew Cornell
|
Past Managing Editor, bluenotes
The second round of submissions to the Murray Financial System Inquiry close today and the FSI proposes to make most of them public on Friday. But recent public forums and speeches by David Murray, the chair, and committee members have added emphasis and indeed some new themes to the interim report released in July.
19 Aug 2014
Andrew Cornell
|
Past Managing Editor, bluenotes
The philanthropic universe is tilting. There are no longer clear lines between business, charities, not-for-profits and those who give. Those groups receiving funds realise they are in a competitive market, they must be able to demonstrate the difference they make.
19 Aug 2014
Andrew Cornell
|
Past Managing Editor, bluenotes
The tale of the bank profit results and trading updates so far is retail banking is very healthy, business banking promises better but is yet to deliver and the credit cycle, almost incredibly, continues to defy sceptics.
15 Aug 2014
Andrew Cornell
|
Past Managing Editor, bluenotes
We can and we are producing returns [in Asia] above our cost of capital today and we can improve from where we are now.
15 Aug 2014
Andrew Cornell
|
Past Managing Editor, bluenotes
It was a really solid result across the bank … it reflects well on the strategy
13 Aug 2014
Andrew Cornell
|
Past Managing Editor, bluenotes
There was a full ballroom at Melbourne’s Grand Hyatt today for the Trans-Tasman Business Circle business forum with ANZ CEO Mike Smith. Here’s the key takeaways from my wide-ranging conversation with Mike.
13 Aug 2014
Andrew Cornell
|
Past Managing Editor, bluenotes
Legislation that was written in an old world environment needs to be refreshed and modified.
05 Aug 2014
Andrew Cornell
|
Past Managing Editor, bluenotes
New National Australia Bank chief executive Andrew Thorburn heralded his rein by anointing a new court of senior management. Much has been said about his choices and those who will leave the bank but one particularly interesting aspect is the deeper entrenchment of New Zealand banking in Australia.
04 Aug 2014
Andrew Cornell
|
Past Managing Editor, bluenotes
Maybe for some, the leap from electric fences keeping herds of animals under control to security at Buckingham Palace is not really such a huge one. It’s still a pretty good story though and one that in essence captures the nature of one of New Zealand’s most successful multi-national corporations, Gallagher.
25 Jul 2014
Andrew Cornell
|
Past Managing Editor, bluenotes
Key themes, key charts, what participants thought.
24 Jul 2014
Andrew Cornell
|
Past Managing Editor, bluenotes
Revenue per major customer grows exponentially as that customer is banked across multiple countries, reinforcing the fundamentals of ANZ’s super regional strategy.
24 Jul 2014
Andrew Cornell
|
Past Managing Editor, bluenotes
ANZ’s International and Institutional bank is more than covering its cost of capital as it moves from investment in building an Asian network to “production” and the division’s chief executive Andrew Géczy believes a “through the cycle” return on equity of around 13 per cent is appropriate for the business.
23 Jul 2014
Andrew Cornell
|
Past Managing Editor, bluenotes
ANZ has laid out its strategy for deepening and improving returns from its super regional strategy with an emphasis on tighter customer focus, more rigorous selection of relationships and improved productivity.
22 Jul 2014
Andrew Cornell
|
Past Managing Editor, bluenotes
One of the slightly concerning elements in the interim report of the Murray Financial System Inquiry was an apparently ambivalent attitude to financial literacy. Throughout the report, particularly in regard to superannuation and investment, financial literacy is recognised as a necessary if not sufficient condition for better outcomes.
22 Jul 2014
Andrew Cornell
|
Past Managing Editor, bluenotes
The business carriage of the Group of 20 caravan has moved on with the B20 holding its major presentation and releasing its recommendations in Sydney last week, emphasising not only was the Australian government’s incremental 2 per cent growth target possible but it could be beaten.
15 Jul 2014
Andrew Cornell
|
Past Managing Editor, bluenotes
For Australia’s last two major financial system inquiries, Campbell in 1981 and Wallis in 1997, the inquisitors could and did recommend and the government could and did accept measures which fundamentally reshaped the economy and its place in the world.
08 Jul 2014
Andrew Cornell
|
Past Managing Editor, bluenotes
In facing the media about Commonwealth Bank’s response to its financial planning malfunction, CBA chief executive Ian Narev made a crucial point about culture and regulation.
01 Jul 2014
Andrew Cornell
|
Past Managing Editor, bluenotes
China stories often begin with a variation on the line about the Chinese word for crisis being composed of two characters, one danger and the other opportunity. That’s not quite right, the second character is, less precisely, “critical point”.
01 Jul 2014
Andrew Cornell
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Past Managing Editor, bluenotes
The Bank for International Settlements, the Basel-based “central bank for central banks” as it is known, has just released its annual report and the key themes are particularly worthy central bank favourites: markets out of synch with reality, the dangers of fudged data and an economically unsustainable misallocation of resources.
23 Jun 2014
Andrew Cornell
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Past Managing Editor, bluenotes
In the huge produce hall at Fieldays in Hamilton New Zealand, the southern hemisphere’s largest agricultural trade fair, a sausage and small goods maker was lamenting how difficult he was finding it to secure supplies of top quality beef and lamb.
23 Jun 2014
Andrew Cornell
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Past Managing Editor, bluenotes
Bank fees in Australia continued their downward trend as a percentage of loans and deposits in 2013 according to the latest Reserve Bank of Australia review, good news for customers. Bank fees from households are now $1 billion or 20 per cent lower than their peak in 2009.
18 Jun 2014
Andrew Cornell
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Past Managing Editor, bluenotes
Corporate and institutional clients are looking for more detailed market intelligence from their relationship bankers rather than simply well priced product and services according to ANZ’s CEO International and Institutional Banking Andrew Géczy.
17 Jun 2014
Andrew Cornell
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Past Managing Editor, bluenotes
There’s no doubt the Financial Times has some of the finest business writers in the caper – and their World Cup coverage is wonderful too – so it wasn’t a huge surprise the FT’s Lex column managed to summarise an enduring theme so pithily.
09 Jun 2014
Andrew Cornell
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Past Managing Editor, bluenotes
In Melbourne’s Docklands precinct, where the ANZ mothership is berthed, there’s dozens of small cafes and lunch spots. Almost all accept contactless card payments, the so-called “tap and go” system.
05 Jun 2014
Andrew Cornell
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Past Managing Editor, bluenotes
New openings in India.
03 Jun 2014
Andrew Cornell
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Past Managing Editor, bluenotes
News two of Japan’s mega-banks, Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corp and Mitsubishi UFJ, are stalking the American operations of French bank BNP Paribas may have caused ripples in American banking but it would be no surprise to Asians.
27 May 2014
Andrew Cornell
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Past Managing Editor, bluenotes
Delivering his opening remarks to the second Australia-Hong Kong RMB Trade and Investment Dialogue, Hong Kong Monetary Authority chief executive Norman Chan outlined the enormous growth in usage of the Chinese currency internationally since the first tentative openings just three years ago.
20 May 2014
Andrew Cornell
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Past Managing Editor, bluenotes
As a journalist for more than three decades, two of them at the Australian Financial Review and the last five months here at ANZ, I’ve spent my career in the game and am heavily invested in its future.
13 May 2014
Andrew Cornell
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Past Managing Editor, bluenotes
Not unexpectedly, this latest reporting season for three of the four major Australian banks was typified by a hard slog on revenue, a grind on cost control and cyclically low bad and doubtful debt charges.
06 May 2014
Andrew Cornell
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Past Managing Editor, bluenotes
That Australia’s economic productivity is not a good story is well known but some media reports of the latest productivity commission work at least provided a cause: artisan breads. You know, sourdoughs, batards, boules, casalinghi, Mongolian yak loaves.
30 Apr 2014
Andrew Cornell
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Past Managing Editor, bluenotes
The idea that manufacturing is dead and dying in this country is a myth.
30 Apr 2014
Andrew Cornell
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Past Managing Editor, bluenotes
Australia and New Zealand’s connection to the region is much stronger than it was say five years ago and both countries are starting to get that.
30 Apr 2014
Andrew Cornell
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Past Managing Editor, bluenotes
Most of the divisions have put in a pretty good performance in what was not an easy environment.
29 Apr 2014
Andrew Cornell
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Past Managing Editor, bluenotes
Consider the most powerful tools of global central banks: interest rates, payments policy, quantitative easing. And then there’s jawboning, talking about themselves.
22 Apr 2014
Andrew Cornell
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Past Managing Editor, bluenotes
The interim profit season looms for four of the five major Australian banks and some of the regionals, a time when investors will take stock of whether the strong run in bank shares – despite some jitters – can continue.
15 Apr 2014
Andrew Cornell
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Past Managing Editor, bluenotes
David Gonski, ANZ’s incoming chairman, has form with chief executive Mike Smith.
15 Apr 2014
Andrew Cornell
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Past Managing Editor, bluenotes
The enigmatic Satoshi Nakamoto, who may or may not be a person or a collective or a “creative cloud”, carries a profound warning for traditional financial services companies which goes deeper than cyber currencies and security.
04 Apr 2014
Andrew Cornell
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Past Managing Editor, bluenotes
Andrew Géczy, ANZ’s CEO International and Institutional Banking, took on the role just on six months ago after nearly seven years of rapid network expansion and acquisition in the region – and a financial crisis which led to a rewriting of the regulatory landscape.
01 Apr 2014
Andrew Cornell
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Past Managing Editor, bluenotes
David Murray, in calling for submissions to the financial system inquiry he is chairing, exhorted interested parties not to push a narrow self interest. Of course, most submitters ignored him.
Andrew Cornell
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Past Managing Editor, bluenotes
The economic tide is going out. Now is when we’ll find out which financial trends will be exposed or stand proud.
Andrew Cornell
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Past Managing Editor, bluenotes
bluenotes in wide conversation with ANZ’s Board of Directors in the Board Minutes series.