ANZ Banking Group Limited (ANZ):
ANZ Banking Group wants to connect more business customers directly with its information systems via ‘‘application programming interfaces’’ (APIs), allowing real-time transaction and payments data to be integrated into clients’ software to help lift productivity. As banks try to become more seamless, ANZ already has 1300 customers, mostly from the institutional bank, linked into ANZ with APIs, which refers to technology allowing IT systems to connect. It’s believed more customers are directly plugged into ANZ with APIs than any other bank. Nigel Dobson, ANZ’s general manager for transformation projects, said more small-to-medium businesses would also interact with ANZ through APIs, given the technology was getting cheaper and more effective. This means they will be able to access key banking data directly without having to extract it through bank internet portals. Mr Dobson will present on the potential for small business APIs at an internal ANZ event on Wednesday to be attended by federal Small Business Minister, Michael McCormack.
Fortescue Metals Group Limited (FMG):
The nation’s lithium boom is gathering pace, with iron ore giant Fortescue Metals flagging it will drill for the battery mineral and analysts expecting global demand to rise like it did for iron ore at the start of China’s industrialisation last decade, when mine supply struggled for years to catch up. In the past two months, basically since the Frankfurt Motor Show, the potential demand for the battery ingredient has been in focus, with car manufacturers and governments flagging more electric vehicles and restrictions on petrol cars. In response, Australian lithium stocks have been surging, with Pilbara Minerals (helped by a deal with Chinese carmaker Great Wall), Galaxy Resources and Kidman Resources shares all doubling in that time and Mineral Resources up 16 per cent and now with a market value of $3.4 billion. UBS analyst Lachlan Shaw, who in September toured battery makers in China and Korea, said comparisons with the pre-boom iron ore market were growing.
Harvey Norman Holdings Limited (HVN):
Gerry Harvey’s Harvey Norman has received a reprieve from the corporate regulator, which appears to have put on ice its investigation into the way the retailer accounts for its franchisees. In a letter sent to Harvey Norman on Tuesday, the Australian Securities and Investments Commission said it did not intend to make further inquiries after querying the company’s 2016 accounts, particularly whether franchised stores should be consolidated. However, ASIC’s senior executive leader in the financial reporting and audit division, Doug Niven, said the commission may review subsequent financial reports as part of its ongoing surveillance program. ASIC started reviewing Harvey Norman’s accounts last year following concerns raised by governance group Ownership Matters over the level of disclosure about the group’s relationships with franchisees.
NIB holding Limited (NHF):
Nib Holdings chairman Steve Crane says the market will ‘‘remain tough’’ until the government’s wide-ranging private health reforms come into force, urging the sector to ‘‘prosecute the case for why’’ with consumers in the meantime. Ahead of the $2.9 billion private health insurer’s annual meeting today, Mr Crane said the onus is on the industry to make sure people understand ‘‘why they want health insurance’’. ‘‘Until this [the private health reforms] are legislated and get in place ... the current theme is the market is very tough and I don’t think that is going to change in the short term,’’ he said. ‘‘Once things are legislated, and we can go out and say to people ‘you’ve now got a discount for joining the system’, I’ll be talking a bit about that and what that means for somebody because I think it’s meaningful. We’ll be trying to do that but we the industry, we are going to make sure we prosecute the case for why.’’
Suncorp Limited (SUN):
Suncorp says it has tripled the number of customers who get their motor claims ‘‘fast-tracked’’ following a successful trial of IBM’s supercomputer Watson. The $17.6 billion bancassurer said at its investor strategy day it had begun testing Watson software in its insurance arm as a way of working out who is to blame for accidents. From June the proportion of customers who were fast-tracked through the ‘‘simple claims’’ process had tripled. On Wednesday Suncorp said the IBM Watson artificial intelligence technology had been integrated into Suncorp’s online claims process and would be deployed across the more than 500,000 motor claims it gets each year. The system is now being used across Suncorp’s personal insurance brands including, AAMI, Suncorp, GIO and Bingle.
Westpac Banking Corporation (WBC):
Westpac was so financially exposed to a benchmark interest rate that it chose to manipulate the pricing instead of allowing the rate to emerge from legitimate trading in the bank bill market, the Australian Securities & Investments Commission has said. “In effect, the tail was wagging the dog,” Philip Crutchfield QC, for the markets watchdog, told the Federal Court. ASIC opened its landmark case yesterday against Westpac, the remaining major bank to face allegations of market manipulation after ANZ Bank and National Australia Bank negotiated nearly $100 million in combined settlements, by playing a series of taped conversations, many featuring the group’s top trader, Colin “The Rat” Roden. ASIC alleges the bank’s traders tried to move the benchmark rate to suit the banks’ commercial interests, potentially at the expense of borrowers who paid interest rates tied to it.
(Source: AIMS）
ANZ Banking Group wants to connect more business customers directly with its information systems via ‘‘application programming interfaces’’ (APIs), allowing real-time transaction and payments data to be integrated into clients’ software to help lift productivity. As banks try to become more seamless, ANZ already has 1300 customers, mostly from the institutional bank, linked into ANZ with APIs, which refers to technology allowing IT systems to connect. It’s believed more customers are directly plugged into ANZ with APIs than any other bank. Nigel Dobson, ANZ’s general manager for transformation projects, said more small-to-medium businesses would also interact with ANZ through APIs, given the technology was getting cheaper and more effective. This means they will be able to access key banking data directly without having to extract it through bank internet portals. Mr Dobson will present on the potential for small business APIs at an internal ANZ event on Wednesday to be attended by federal Small Business Minister, Michael McCormack.
Fortescue Metals Group Limited (FMG):
The nation’s lithium boom is gathering pace, with iron ore giant Fortescue Metals flagging it will drill for the battery mineral and analysts expecting global demand to rise like it did for iron ore at the start of China’s industrialisation last decade, when mine supply struggled for years to catch up. In the past two months, basically since the Frankfurt Motor Show, the potential demand for the battery ingredient has been in focus, with car manufacturers and governments flagging more electric vehicles and restrictions on petrol cars. In response, Australian lithium stocks have been surging, with Pilbara Minerals (helped by a deal with Chinese carmaker Great Wall), Galaxy Resources and Kidman Resources shares all doubling in that time and Mineral Resources up 16 per cent and now with a market value of $3.4 billion. UBS analyst Lachlan Shaw, who in September toured battery makers in China and Korea, said comparisons with the pre-boom iron ore market were growing.
Harvey Norman Holdings Limited (HVN):
Gerry Harvey’s Harvey Norman has received a reprieve from the corporate regulator, which appears to have put on ice its investigation into the way the retailer accounts for its franchisees. In a letter sent to Harvey Norman on Tuesday, the Australian Securities and Investments Commission said it did not intend to make further inquiries after querying the company’s 2016 accounts, particularly whether franchised stores should be consolidated. However, ASIC’s senior executive leader in the financial reporting and audit division, Doug Niven, said the commission may review subsequent financial reports as part of its ongoing surveillance program. ASIC started reviewing Harvey Norman’s accounts last year following concerns raised by governance group Ownership Matters over the level of disclosure about the group’s relationships with franchisees.
NIB holding Limited (NHF):
Nib Holdings chairman Steve Crane says the market will ‘‘remain tough’’ until the government’s wide-ranging private health reforms come into force, urging the sector to ‘‘prosecute the case for why’’ with consumers in the meantime. Ahead of the $2.9 billion private health insurer’s annual meeting today, Mr Crane said the onus is on the industry to make sure people understand ‘‘why they want health insurance’’. ‘‘Until this [the private health reforms] are legislated and get in place ... the current theme is the market is very tough and I don’t think that is going to change in the short term,’’ he said. ‘‘Once things are legislated, and we can go out and say to people ‘you’ve now got a discount for joining the system’, I’ll be talking a bit about that and what that means for somebody because I think it’s meaningful. We’ll be trying to do that but we the industry, we are going to make sure we prosecute the case for why.’’
Suncorp Limited (SUN):
Suncorp says it has tripled the number of customers who get their motor claims ‘‘fast-tracked’’ following a successful trial of IBM’s supercomputer Watson. The $17.6 billion bancassurer said at its investor strategy day it had begun testing Watson software in its insurance arm as a way of working out who is to blame for accidents. From June the proportion of customers who were fast-tracked through the ‘‘simple claims’’ process had tripled. On Wednesday Suncorp said the IBM Watson artificial intelligence technology had been integrated into Suncorp’s online claims process and would be deployed across the more than 500,000 motor claims it gets each year. The system is now being used across Suncorp’s personal insurance brands including, AAMI, Suncorp, GIO and Bingle.
Westpac Banking Corporation (WBC):
Westpac was so financially exposed to a benchmark interest rate that it chose to manipulate the pricing instead of allowing the rate to emerge from legitimate trading in the bank bill market, the Australian Securities & Investments Commission has said. “In effect, the tail was wagging the dog,” Philip Crutchfield QC, for the markets watchdog, told the Federal Court. ASIC opened its landmark case yesterday against Westpac, the remaining major bank to face allegations of market manipulation after ANZ Bank and National Australia Bank negotiated nearly $100 million in combined settlements, by playing a series of taped conversations, many featuring the group’s top trader, Colin “The Rat” Roden. ASIC alleges the bank’s traders tried to move the benchmark rate to suit the banks’ commercial interests, potentially at the expense of borrowers who paid interest rates tied to it.
(Source: AIMS）
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