BankingInsuranceSecurities.Com

There's a huge amount of excitement in Australia about the prosecution of several bankers for colluding in a share support scheme where a share issue did not fully sell out. Instead of being charged with market manipulation, itself a serious offence, federal prosecutors have taken the alternative of charging them with cartel offences. There's a lot of people spinning like tops, having panic attacks about what it means for investment banking and the professional support services like lawyers and accountants that are a central part of all public offers. But there is nothing complex about the fundamentals of the case.

This morning some media is abuzz with news of an AUD700m settlement between ASIC and Commonwealth Bank of Australia, sometimes known as "CommBank" and sometimes as "CBA". CBA was first out of the stocks with its press release. Then AUSTRAC released the draft Order that will be put before the Court in settlement. What jumped out?

The Commercial Affairs Department (CAD) of the Singapore Police Force and Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) advise the public to exercise extreme caution when dealing with unregulated online trading platforms. Has World Investors Stock Exchange (WISE) rebooted?

A scam-spam has been received from the fake internet domain WESTEMUNION.COM

(see update, below)

It's a stupid name: TSB is an acronym for Trustees Savings Bank and then some idiot, years ago, decided to add "Bank" to the acronym, in a move that rivals the equally stupid "ATM machine." But that's not the reason this heavy-duty spam-scam mailout is an obvious fraud. Warning: the content is highly plausible and the mail constructed to avoid even aggressive anti-spam filters.

Yesterday, we were supportive of Westpac in a case where adverse social reaction did not take account of the realities of the case. Today, they are getting a well deserved kicking from Beach, J in the Australian High Court. His Honour's language bordered in the intemperate in his obvious anger.

In Australia at present, there is a culture of attacking banks no matter what. Any handy stick can be used to beat them with. A case involving Westpac and a seriously ill disabled woman demonstrates that the craze has gone too far.

As the US bill to roll-back the Dodd-Frank reforms that were designed, amongst other things, to stabilise banks to protect them from failure is sent to the President, who promoted it, for signature, BankingInsuranceSecurities.com points out one statistic that might indicate how successful Dodd-Frank has been and why the changes increase the USA's risk profile.

If a little shop told its customers that they could have a special offer that cost x, then denied them when they arrived, then told them the price was actually 15% more than x, then when the bill arrived it was for a further 20%, credit card companies would be deluged with complaints and chargebacks. But that is exactly what Microsoft's Skype does, as Nigel Morris-Cotterill demonstrates.

Australia's Royal Commission into financial services has criticised the Australian Securities and Investment Commission (same word, different meaning) in relation to so-called enforceable undertakings. There is a problem but in part it's caused by factors outside ASIC's control.

The Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) has permanently banned financial adviser Ezzat-Daniel Nesseim from providing financial services.

The Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) announced today that it has issued prohibition orders (POs) against six individuals for the mis-selling of investment products. The individuals are:

Yesterday, US President Trump announced the long-telegraphed withdrawal of the USA from the Iran nuclear sanctions agreement, known as the Comprehensive Plan of Action. According to the US Treasury "The President confirmed that the US will begin the process of re-imposing all US sanctions previously waived under the JCPoA." That's going to cause huge complexity for businesses all over the world because no other government of any international importance is adopting the USA's position. Also, there's a gold-rush about to start.

Yesterday, the USA's President Trump announced that the US would leave the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action a.k.a. the Iran Nuclear Deal. Below is a list of resources.

On 19th April, Australia's newest national bank, Members' Equity Bank a.k.a. ME Bank, announced that it was to increase its interest rates on existing home loans, with effect from 19th April. Then it made a silly error. Given that the banking sector in Australia is under the most intense scrutiny and that it would be logical to assume that, if at any time, this is the time where banks will double, triple even quadruple check their actions, the stupidity of the error raises a serious question: is the financial sector in Australia simply under-skilled and, therefore, unfit for purpose?