A Big Step By Big Four Australian Banks: What You Should Know

The big four banks of Australia namely Australia and New Zealand Banking Group Limited (ASX:ANZ), National Australia Bank (ASX:NAB), Commonwealth Bank of Australia (ASX:CBA) and Westpac Banking Corporation (ASX:WBC) has taken a big step against the Hayne’s interim report ideas. Earlier, the Royal Commission has stated “greed” as the primary reason for the banks’ misconduct towards the customers. However, the banks are not agreeing with the suggestions which state that the present practices are breaching the legal obligations or that they are not in the best interests of the consumers. One of the big four banks, Commonwealth Bank of Australia, has already given the warning to the Royal Commission to move forward carefully with respect to the final recommendations.Â

The big banks in Australia have given their arguments in the submissions which have been made in the response to the Hayne Royal Commission’s interim report which are having 693 questions. However, the banks have selectively chosen the most relevant questions so that the 50-page limit of the commissioner can be compiled to. Commonwealth Bank of Australia has also doubted the viability of the financial advice businesses in case tougher rules and regulations gets introduced. AMP is of the view that adding an extra layer of regulation would also impact the consumers. This is because additional regulations would lead to an increase in the expenses of the financial advice which would be directly hitting the middle as well as low-income group people. The submission made by the AMP stated that from the past several years, the people are finding hard to afford the advice because of elevated regulatory burden as well as increased costs. It also added that many consumers who need the advice are not able to afford it.

National Australia Bank Limited has given the warning of the increased costs for the companies operating into the financial services if the commissioner goes ahead with the recommendation for the structural separation. NAB has also shown concerns regarding the increased costs which could severely impact the clients. Another major bank, Westpac Banking Corporation, is of the view that conflicts take place everywhere and that they do not come up from the structural features of the business. Westpac Banking Corporation has also tried to protect the use of a benchmark for assessing the loan affordability which is known as Household Expenditure Measure or HEM.

At the time of writing, Westpac Banking Corporation is trading at A$27.670 per share which implies that it witnessed the rise of A$0.010 per share or 0.036%. However, Commonwealth Bank of Australia is trading at A$70.640 per share implying an increase of A$0.020 per share or 0.028%. As we write, Australia and New Zealand Banking Group Limited and National Australia Bank Limited have witnessed the decline of 0.185% and 0.481%, respectively.

Over the past six months, Westpac Banking Corporation has delivered the return of -6.83% and currently has an annual dividend yield of 6.79%. This bank’s share price is trading towards the lower range.

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