Westpac

There was a time, not so long ago, when AMP and the Australian banks dominated the New Zealand wealth management and advice sector. With Westpac confirming sale talks last week (October 16) and AMP’s ongoing sale saga, the locals have largely bought back the farm. Forsyth Barr is set to leapfrog Craigs Investment Partners –…

Commonwealth Bank executive Andrew Hall has joined the Insurance Council of Australia (ICA) as its new chief executive. Hall was previously Commonwealth Bank’s executive general manager for corporate affairs for over seven years and before that was director of corporate and public affairs at Woolworths for over six years. Hall will take over from outgoing…

Westpac has announced a new specialist businesses division and has appointed Jason Yetton as chief executive of the division. The specialist business division has been created to simplify the Australian and New Zealand banking businesses. This will include wealth platforms, superannuation and retirement products, investment, general and life insurance, auto finance and Westpac Pacific. Yetton…

Investors hoping that the big banks will restore their dividends sooner rather than later are likely to be disappointed, as the earnings pressure on the banking sector will continue into the 2020/21 financial year. The banks’ March-half earnings (December-half in Commonwealth Bank’s case) fell by an average of 33 per cent, driven by big increases…