Tag: WBC

Westpac yesterday signalled the possible sale of several wealth assets including its superannuation and insurance operations and wealth platforms.

Westpac has joined rival ANZ in not paying an interim dividend to shareholders after revealing a massive slump in earnings for the six months to March 31.

Westpac has joined the NAB in revealing a huge boost to its impaired loans charge for the six months to March 31, a move that could see the bank report a statutory loss for the half, or at best a very weak profit.

Even before the financial impact from the COVID-19 pandemic is felt, Westpac has warned the market that it will take a $1.43 billion hit to its first-half profits thanks to higher provisions for the money laundering compliance scandal and customer refunds.

Unlike rivals NAB and the Commonwealth with their (in the market’s view) – solid result and update last week, we saw a very different story from Westpac which has issued what amounted to a warning of a looming earnings downgrade.

Well, the naming of former ANZ CEO, John McFarlane as the incoming chair of Westpac did nothing for the embattled bank’s share price yesterday.

Westpac is expected to name former ANZ CEO, John McFarlane as its new chair, to replace Lindsay Maxstead who is leaving the bank in the wake of the multi-billion dollar money-laundering scandal.

Another headache for Westpac is in the offing after the key banking regulator, APRA revealed that the bank could face fines and the disqualification of its senior management over the money laundering and terrorism financing law breaches outlined by AUSTRAC.

The continuing pressure from the AUSTRAC money laundering claims and pressure from regulators has seen Westpac decide to let small investors withdraw orders to buy shares in the $500 million offer to retail investors as part the $2.5 billion capital raising announced earlier this month.

Westpac shares ended higher for the first time in five days yesterday in the wake of the dramatic changes at the top of the country’s second-largest bank.

Westpac is losing CEO Brian Hartzer, chair Lindsay Maxstead and a long-time director in a cleanout directly linked to the AUSTRAC money laundering and child sex scandals.

More pain for Westpac and its shareholders and it is not going to change any time soon.

Another week ahead, more meetings and more pressure on Westpac, its CEO, Brian Hartzer, chair, Lindsay Maxstead, and other directors after Friday’s emergency board meeting and statement failed to convince investors and critics that the bank has a handle on handling the sensational AUSTRAC money laundering allegations.

Westpac’s $500 million retail funding raising is now underway and closes on December 1. At a price-earnings ratio of more than 7%, will it prove to be attractive to retail investors?

Shocking allegations against Westpac from AUSTRAC the financial intelligence agency, accusing the country’s oldest bank of systematically breaching Australia’s anti-money laundering and counter-terrorism finance laws 23 million times.

Westpac shares went into a two-day trading halt before the ASX opened on Monday morning to allow it to make a surprise capital raising of around $2.5 billion to big shareholders.

Will we see more customer remediation costs on the way for Westpac after a loss in the Federal Court that saw the bank severely criticised and its actions taken to task by the three judges sitting on the appeal?

Westpac has joined rivals, NAB and ANZ in revealing more hits to the bottom line for 2018-19 from customer remediation and compensation costs.

The banking regulator, APRA continues to get tougher with banks and other financial groups it supervises. Yesterday it issued what amounts to a very expensive traffic fine for Westpac.

Westpac is having a second go in a few months in overhauling the way it calculates executive pay.