…about banking and house prices. One wonders how that got past the Corporate Affairs twinkies.
Obviously we’re being facetious, Brian isn’t really the Head of LGBTQI123& non-TERF Advocacy (not that you’d know it to look at what he seems to spend most of his time focusing on).
No, he’s the CEO of Westpac
Which means, on balance, the article is even more worrying.
Why?
Ask yourself a question; when the CEO of the 2nd biggest bank decides to write a blog post explaining that the property market isn’t crashing, that the bank is sound and they are still open for business, does that make you feel great comfort and security?
Or, do you think to yourself, “why is he telling me this, why wouldn’t everything be fine, what does he know that I don’t?”
Bill’s Opinion
The lady doth protest too much, methinks
It’s highly unlikely any of the major Australian banks are going to be in trouble any time soon. However, the prime candidate if one does hit hard times would be the one with the largest exposure to interest only investment loans and a top of the market (2007) acquisition of a competitor that they never got round to integrating and realising economies of scale….
Aside from never integrating that acquisition, they forgot to tell them that they are not a competitor anymore. Even though they fund from the same place. Whoops. Additionally, the large heritage brand with material market share is the premium offering, supposedly able to charge more for a mass market service (?!). While the regional challenger brand/s with the strong customer service promise and associated cost base can’t charge people appropriately for this and must be subsidised by the premium mass market brand (?!). In addition to some weak economies of scale. I guess we’ll see how this works out when the pressure really comes on, which is not yet.
I suspect Brian is telling us this because he can’t shrink his way to greatness, and has a cost base suitable for a much bigger business. So get on board, borrowers.
40,000 is a lot of employees.
Have you come across Price’s Law?
I believe the square root of 40,000 is 200. Have you met the other 199 yet?
I hope that this gets legs.
Tencent-backed WeBank is looking to move into Australia, as it applies for several trademarks in the country for its Shenzhen headquarters.
Tencent sees future in Australia for WeBank
According to the Australian Financial Review, the Adelaide-based legal firm KHQ Lawyers is helping WeBank with these applications, which are mostly centred around lending. In China, the bank offers SME and personal finance.
WeBank is a digital entity which works through WeChat. It is valued at $21 billion, and its microloans range between $150 and $30,000. It reported a 2018 first-half net profit of $160 million last October.
https://www.bankingtech.com/2019/01/tencent-backed-webank-eyes-australian-expansion/