Via Banking Day:
The new and popular Bank Financial Strength Dashboard of the Reserve Bank of New Zealand may be extended to include “conduct” metrics, Toby Fiennes, head of prudential supervision, told an accounting forum last week.
“In the wake of the recent Australian Financial Services Royal Commission’s interim report, there is much focus on misconduct and fair treatment of customers [and] we would welcome ideas” on conduct metrics, Fiennes said.
“What, for example, would be a minimum or standard benchmark and how should one define and source the information?”
The RBNZ’s Dashboard, Fiennes explained, launched on 29 May.
“We received a lot of positive feedback on the ease of use of the Dashboard from many sources including financial journalists, academics, and a number of government agencies.
“Early usage statistics were positive. The Dashboard received more visits in its first 24 hours than its predecessor (the G1 table) typically receives in an entire year. The vast majority of these visits are from New Zealanders.
“An interesting observation is that about 15 per cent of users to date are return visitors.
“We have had good engagement from “academics, rating agencies, specialist financial journalists. Some have asked for less static data, and for us to introduce scenario analysis.
“For example, stress test results may contain useful information for the riskiness of individual banks.
“We plan to review the case for making individual bank results publicly available alongside the next stress test, building on the steps we have already taken to increase the granularity of stress test reporting.”?
Granted it’s hardly a revolution but it shows the right spirit of accountability and transparency at least. As opposed to our mobsters:
The Reserve Bank of Australia and Treasury have privately cautioned the Morrison government that any regulatory response to the financial services Royal Commission must be careful to avoid putting the brakes on lending to home buyers and business.
So, which criminal behaviours is Chairsatan Lowe going to protect so that they can resume as soon as possible to avoid a “credit crunch” (that is, any return to legally and morally acceptable banking)? Take your pick:
Charging dead people:
- In April the commission revealed the sordid details in which planners from Commonwealth Bank subsidiary Count Financial profited for years from dead customers’ fees.
- In the worst case revealed, a planner knew a client had died in January 2004, but was still taking almost $1000 a year in fees until December, 2015.
- By August it was also revealed how National Australia Bank superannuation services whacked fees on the accounts of more than 4000 dead customers.
- A month later, in September, it was the turn of AMP to be caught out charging life insurance to dead people on their superannuation accounts.
Bullying, stalking and abusing the disabled and infirm:
- The call revealed a salesman bombarding the young man with information, with the 26-year-old offering hesitant, one word answers. Mr Stewart said his son not understand what was happening.
- When he pleads: “I need to go”, the salesman pressures him for bank details to set up direct debit.
- In September the commission heard how aggressive case managers at insurance giant TAL who hounded a nurse with an anxiety disorder for six years — including using a private detective to film her at a swimming pool — went unpunished.
- Insurance giant TAL hired a private detective to spy on the nurse. Picture: Stock image
- The commission heard how CommInsure rejected a woman’s claim after she was treated for breast cancer because her surgery wasn’t “radical” enough.
- In March, the commission heard from a man who told the Commonwealth Bank “I’m a gambler, I’ve got a gambling problem” as he pleaded to escape a credit card debt spiral. Instead he was offered more credit.
- Youth-focused insurer Youi provided service that was anything but “awesome”, leaving victims of natural disasters displaced from their homes for more than a year.
Rapacious incentives:
- The commission saw evidence of how Freedom Insurance — the company which pressure sold to a man with Down syndrome — rewarded the best salespeople with Vespa scooters and trips to Bali.
- But it was revealed funeral insurer Let’s Insure did similar incentives, offering top sales people trips to Las Vegas to stay at a “glitzy hotel”.
- In yet another case a BankWest manager was awarded a trip to Hayman Island and hailed as a “regional champion” before his dodgy lending practices contributed to a struggling farmer losing his property.
- In one case, the royal commission blasted Aussie Home Loans for keeping tearful victims of a shonky mortgage broker in the dark about his fraud, all the while continuing to collect trailing commissions on the $70 million of loans he wrote.
- In one case a victim was kept in the dark even after she called Aussie in tears after being accused by her bank of presenting faked loan documents.
Evil planners and predatory lending:
- In April we heard of rogue National Australia Bank staff who falsified documents to secure mortgages for customers in return for cash bribes paid across the counter, the banking royal commission has heard.
- In another case — a high-flying Westpac executive said the bank was too busy to tell the corporate cop about a shonky financial planner, even though it had secretly started paying back the planner’s victims.
- One of the scariest things in the whole commission were questions over how safe our mortgage market actually is.
- The commission posed serious questions about the Household Expenditure Measure (HEM) — the benchmark used to assess a customer’s debts and liabilities — which was heavily criticised in the interim report.
- The commission said lenders did not diligently analyse a customer’s household expenses which could restrict or prohibit their ability to take out a loan.
The RBA should keep out of the legislative process. Let the new rules transpire then use its monetary tools accordingly.
