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Banking Summit

At the Financial Review Banking Summit we will challenge the sector’s most influential leaders on how they will differentiate their businesses, where capital will be directed, and where their priorities lie.

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The ASX 200 bank index has surged nearly 10 per cent this year.

Banking’s next gen

Bank leaders face succession as shares peak, leaving newcomers to find growth in a challenging landscape

Banking Summit - Early bird

Join the Australian Financial Review’s Banking Summit where the next generation of banking leaders explore emerging trends and shape the financial landscape of tomorrow.

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The ASX 200 bank index has surged nearly 10 per cent this year.

Banking’s next gen

Bank leaders face succession as shares peak, leaving newcomers to find growth in a challenging landscape

Nora Scheinkestel and other directors at Westpac’s annual meeting last year in Brisbane.

Two Westpac directors leave after just three years on coveted board

The resignations add to a significant transition for the bank, with a new chairman appointed last year and a fresh chief executive starting next month.

  • Lucas Baird
NAB’s Ross McEwan: “Are we pushing too many people outside [banking].”

Non-banks raise $15b for mortgages the banks couldn’t write

The major lenders have warned tough rules are pushing borrowers to more expensive and riskier loans. But banks still dominate the market.

  • Updated
  • Lucas Baird and James Eyers

Five years after the royal commission, big banks have their mojo back

But the newfound assertiveness isn’t simply due to the fading of past humiliations. They are increasingly conscious their large size is now a huge asset.

  • Karen Maley

Banks struggle to balance risk, reputation and regulation

Blowback over lending practices and perceived corporate greed means banks have become reluctant to take too many chances with their lending. But at what cost?

  • Jennifer Hewett
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March

CBA’s Michael Vacy-Lyle and NAB’s Julie Rynski believe it is time to for Australia’s big four banks to start structuring new collateralised debt products and take more risks.

CBA, NAB business bankers want to take more risk as competition mounts

Business bankers believe lenders should diversify how they collateralise business loans, including methods such as equipment or invoice financing.

  • Aaron Weinman

Banks warn growing risk aversion pushing borrowers into worse loans

National Australia Bank’s Ross McEwan says some prospective customers are being pushed toward riskier loans as the rules make lending more expensive.

  • Updated
  • Lucas Baird and James Eyers
Ross McEwan argued that rent control legislation in the ACT, where rent rises are capped at 110 per cent of inflation, had “killed the build-to-rent sector”.

Housing supply crunch brings questions about migration: NAB’s McEwan

The National Australia Bank’s chief executive said building approvals would have to rise to “well over 200,000” to sustain current immigration numbers.

  • Lucas Baird
Westpac’s Peter King has backed CBA’s Matt Comyn and his concerns about Apple’s growing dominance in payments.

Westpac and NAB back CBA, call for more scrutiny of Apple in payments

Authorities in the US allege the tech giant has locked the iPhone to build a monopoly. In Australia, banks say its digital wallet prevents competition.

  • Jonathan Shapiro and James Eyers
Commonwealth Bank chief executive Matt Comyn is cautious about the year ahead.

The feeding frenzy that sent CBA shares to $120

Commonwealth Bank’s staggering $120 a share price came up a few times at The Australian Financial Review Banking Summit. Brian Johnson nailed why it had run so hard.

  • Anthony Macdonald
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Ross McEwan, Matt Comyn, Peter King and Antonia Watson at the AFR Banking Summit.

It’s time for banks to take more risk, not less

While the prudential regulator sees more stresses ahead for banks, top CEOs worry the sector has become too risk-averse. They’ve got three big ideas to drive growth. 

  • James Thomson
Matt Comyn offers his views on tax reform at the Summit.

Slash income tax, lift GST and levy tech giants: Comyn’s growth fix

Commonwealth Bank’s chief executive is advocating the changes as one way to turn around a forecast long-term economic slowdown.

  • John Kehoe
How I would fix Australia's productivity challenges: Comyn
4:56

How I would fix Australia's productivity challenges: Comyn

CBA CEO Matt Comyn freestyles some ideas to change political terms and reform tax to turbocharge Australia's productivity.

  • Updated
Has the pendulum swung too far, asks McEwan
1:57

Has the pendulum swung too far, asks McEwan

Outgoing NAB CEO Ross McEwan asks if the pendulum has swung too far on banking regulation, leaving vulnerable Australians to payday lenders.

  • Updated
Anna Bligh is the chief executive of the Australian Banking Association.

Why it’s so hard to keep cash alive in Australia

The peak sector lobby group has confirmed the banks and large retailers have offered a short-term lifeline to keep cash transport firm Armaguard operating.

  • Lucas Baird
ABA boss: have banks become too risk averse?
2:11

ABA boss: have banks become too risk averse?

Former Queensland Premier and Australian Banking Association CEO Anna Bligh questions whether Australian banks have become too conservative on lending.

  • Updated

Last-minute lifeline to keep cash afloat

A short-term financial injection in the tens of millions of dollars has been offered to help Armaguard, the Lindsay Fox-owned cash transport firm, survive.

  • James Eyers

A decade of Banking Summit front pages

Here’s how The Australian Financial Review told the story of a decade of momentous developments in banking and finance.

David Murray at the Banking Summit in 2015.

From scandals to Team Australia: a decade of the AFR Banking Summit

The Summit is in its 10th year. We’ve had a courtside seat to the drama as a tarnished sector recovered during COVID.

  • James Eyers and Lucas Baird

Comyn lashes low scrutiny of tech giants’ ‘economic miracle’ returns

Commonwealth Bank boss Matt Comyn says local companies are being subjected to significantly more scrutiny than Apple, Meta and Google despite their big margins.

  • Updated
  • James Eyers
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Jim Chalmers announced a new banking regulatory policy at the AFR Business Summit, which will require ASIC and APRA to consider the burden of new regulation.

Chalmers pushes planning scheme amid torrent of new banking rules

The treasurer said the so-called regulatory grid would force regulators to consider the burden of changes on lenders, especially smaller and regional groups.

  • James Eyers

February

NAB said no decision has been made on its next business bank boss.

Succession intrigue over next NAB business bank boss

Imagine our curiosity when the bank, recently bereft of a business banking boss after Andrew Irvine was promoted to CEO, subbed in someone new for an upcoming event.

  • Lucas Baird
Could a BoQ takeover be next?

The junior banks at the top of the big four wishlist

Could Judo Bank or Bank of Queensland be a target for National Australia Bank?

  • James Eyers and Liam Walsh
Former ACCC chairman Graeme Samuel said the watchdog’s  decision to block the merger was clearly wrong.

Banking and business lobby blast 583-day wait for ANZ’s Suncorp deal

The ACCC’s former chairman Graeme Samuel was also critical of the decision to block the deal, saying it was clear to him that it was wrong from the outset.

  • Ronald Mizen
Rightly or wrongly, this deal has been seen as a legacy-maker for Elliott, his big roll of the dice to win back mortgage market that ANZ lost when it mismanaged the COVID-19 home loan frenzy.

How Macquarie helped ANZ win Suncorp

After more than 18 months, ANZ finally has its prize and can buy Suncorp’s banking division. Sorting out the winners and losers isn’t as clear-cut as it seems.

  • James Thomson