Westpac Eyes Divestments As Dividend Disappears
Westpac yesterday signalled the possible sale of several wealth assets including its superannuation and insurance operations and wealth platforms.
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Dividend Deferred At Westpac After H1 Cash Earnings Fall 70%
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.
Read MoreWBC – Morgans rates the stock as Add
The first half-credit impairment charge is slightly lower than Morgans expected. The broker believes the announcement aligns with its base case that Westpac will not raise capital.
Read MoreWestpac Joins NAB With $2.2b Warning
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.
Read MoreWestpac Flags $1.4b Austrac Hit With “Significant” Virus Damage Still To Come
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.
Read MoreAPRA Pressures Banks On “Prudent Reductions” To Dividends
APRA, the financial regulator, has told banks, insurers, and other financial groups to think carefully about deciding whether dividends can be paid to shareholders over the rest of this year and into 2021.
Read MoreRBNZ Ratchets Up Pressure On Bank Dividends
It’s getting harder for Australian financial regulators to avoid joining their peers in New Zealand, the UK and EU in ordering banks to suspend their dividends and other capital management moves such as share buybacks.
Read MoreUK Banks Told To Scrap Dividends, Could APRA Follow Suit?
Barclays, RBS, Lloyds, Standard Chartered, Santander and HSBC have all agreed to not proceed with dividends. Will Australian financial regulators follow their peers in the EU and UK and tell major banks to suspend dividends and planned buybacks?
Read MoreBanks In Better Shape For Virus Than For GFC
Analysts argue Australia’s banks are in a much better position to weather this storm than they were in 2008, and have been oversold on that basis.
Read MoreBank Shares Come Under More Selling Pressure
Bank shares took their second pounding of the week so far yesterday after Monday’s thumping and its clear investors were quite blinkered in their approach yesterday.
Read More“A Material Hit”: Bank Margins Squeezed By Lower Rates
The RBA’s rate cut and bets that another will follow in the next month or so have seen questions again raised over the share prices and sustainability of bank dividends at their current levels.
Read MoreWeary Westpac Flags Earnings Downgrade
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.
Read MoreWestpac Shares Unmoved On Appointment Of “Battle-Hardened” Chair
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.
Read MoreWestpac Tipped To Appoint Former ANZ CEO John McFarlane As Chair
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.
Read MoreBanks Underperform As Afterpay Soars In 2019
If you exclude the likes of Afterpay Touch, then the financial sector did not help the wider market in 2019.
Read MoreBank Shares Rally After NZ Regulators Lower Capital Hurdles
The shares of Australia’s big four banks rose strongly yesterday after the Reserve Bank of New Zealand watered down its new capital requirements.
Read MoreAPRA Weighs In On Westpac 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.
Read MoreWestpac Allows Retail Investors To Withdraw From SPP
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.
Read MoreWestpac Shares Rise As Heads Roll
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.
Read MoreAustrac Scandal Claims Westpac CEO, Chairman
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.
Read MoreASIC Piles On The Pain For Westpac
More pain for Westpac and its shareholders and it is not going to change any time soon.
Read MoreWhat Next For “Devastated” Westpac?
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.
Read MoreWhere Do The Banks Sit In The Switch From Growth To Value?
Jamie Nicol, Portfolio Manager for DNR Capital’s Australian Equities High Conviction Fund and SMA, spoke with Informed Investor about the rotation from growth to value.
Read MoreAnalysts Review Bruised Westpac
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?
Read More23 Million Breaches: AUSTRAC Takes Aim At Westpac
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.
Read MoreBank Earnings Review: Is The Worst Behind Us?
KPMG’s Major Australian Banks Year-End Analysis Report 2018-19 finds that the four majors reported a combined cash profit after tax from continuing operations of $26.9 billion, down 7.8% on FY2018.
Read MoreWBC – Morgans rates the stock as Add
Westpac’s earnings result fell short of Morgan’s forecast, although adjusting for “transient items” produces a better underlying result. The dividend of 80c, down from a 94c interim, is -4c lower than the broker forecast.
Read MoreNAB Next In The Firing Line As Westpac Disappoints
NAB shares slid yesterday in the wake of Westpac’s surprise $2.5 billion capital raising and dividend cut as investors said the Melbourne-based lender would be the next major to cut its payout or even approach shareholders for more money.
Read MoreWestpac Halted Ahead Of $2.5bn Raising
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.
Read MoreWestpac Lashed As ASIC Wins Advice Case Appeal
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?
Read More“Put It Right”: Westpac Unveils New Remediation Costs
Westpac has joined rivals, NAB and ANZ in revealing more hits to the bottom line for 2018-19 from customer remediation and compensation costs.
Read More“Premium”: RBA Warns On Bank Earnings
In its second and final stability review for 2019, the RBA has warned on a combination of factors that will depress bank earnings, starting with the continuing rise in customer remediation over abuses exposed by the Hayne Royal Commission.
Read MoreAPRA Fines Westpac Over Reporting Failure
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.
Read MoreCould APRA’s New Capital Requirements Crimp Bank Dividends?
The chances of the banks paying higher dividends in the coming years look to have diminished after APRA ordered Westpac, NAB and ANZ to set a total of $1.5 billion in extra capital aside.
Read MoreBanks Respond To Revised Capital Buffers
Weaker bank shares helped take the wider market lower for another session, but the day’s loss was nowhere near as damaging as Monday’s 1.2% slump.
Read MoreHow The Banks Responded To The RBA Decision
The RBA’s second 0.25% rate in two months had a predictable impact on bank share prices – down they went, taking the ASX 200 with them.
Read MoreCBA Leads Bank Rebound In June Half
Redemption? Sort of; but the way the share prices of Australian banks rebounded in the June half year was extremely helpful to super funds and self-managed funds and investors generally.
Read MoreTalking Income – Banks, Telstra, Woolworths & New Opportunities
Scott Kelly, Portfolio Manager for the DNR Capital Australian Equities Income SMA, gives Informed Investor his thoughts about which are the best income stocks on the ASX at the moment.
Read MoreWestpac Rejigs Executive Bonuses Pay Again
Westpac is having a second go in a few months in overhauling the way it calculates executive pay.
Read MoreRBA Boss Warns Banks On Undermining The Economy
ANZ and Westpac failed to pass on the full 0.25% cut from the Reserve Bank to its mortgage customers and immediately faced pressure from the central bank.
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