by Ganesh Sahathevan
Shayne Elliot, ANZ’s chief executive appearing before MPs to answer questions about the bank’s conduct. Photograph: Lukas Coch/AAP
The Australian Broadcasting Corporation(ABC) has reported:
This week, a parliamentary inquiry recommended a radical overhaul of our corporate regulator, the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC), in yet another call to bring it into line with its global peers.
The first recommendation was a demand for the federal government to recognise the organisation's inadequacies.
ASIC's failures have been well documented over the past 25 years, most recently by former High Court justice Kenneth Hayne in his royal commission into banking misconduct.
The Australian Securities and Investment Commission (ASIC) is too focused on its own internal problems, too sprawling to carry out its duties under the law, and should be split into two separate regulators, according to a long-running Senate inquiry.
In its final report, the 20-month inquiry by the Senate Economics Committee found Australia's corporate and financial services regulator consistently fails to prosecute offenders, and it responds to most reports of alleged misconduct by taking no further action.
It found when the regulator did manage to take enforcement action, the civil penalties it imposed "were often at odds with the scale of the offending," and few criminal sanctions were ever achieved.
"While ASIC tries to deflect criticism that it is a weak corporate regulator by promoting its recent enforcement actions, the reality remains that corporate law is under-enforced in Australia," the report said.
ASIC's problems can explain why ASIC has failed to investigate ANZ's central role in 1MDB theft.
TO BE READ WITH
Wednesday, June 5, 2024
Malaysian court told 80% of AmBank's wrongdoing was during tenure of former MD and ANZ employee Ashok Ramamurthy - ANZ CEO Shayne Elliot told Senate he was satisfied nobody employed by ANZ did anything wrong
by Ganesh Sahathevan
80% of AmBank's wrongdoing was during tenure of former MD Ashok Ramamurthy
Former Bank Negara Malaysia (BNM) governor Tan Sri Dr Zeti Akhtar Aziz told the High Court that 80% of AmBank’s wrongdoing during the 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB) debacle happened during AmBank group managing director Ashok Ramamurthy’s tenure, and that his statement, which was recorded by the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC), was a “cover up”.
However, ANZ CEO Shatne Elliot told the Senate in October 2016 that he was satisfied nobody employed by ANZ did anything wrong.
To Be Read With
The issue was,and remains ,ANZ client and "ally" Najib Razak, not 1MDB:Another example of how ANZ and Shayne Elliot misled parliament
by Ganesh Sahathevan
Shayne Elliot, ANZ’s chief executive is appearing before MPs to answer questions about
the bank’s conduct. Photograph: Lukas Coch/AAP
The Guardian reported this response from ANZ CEO Shayne Elliot to the House of Representatives Economics Committee when questioned about the 1MDB money laundering scandal:
"No link" to 1MDB scandal, Shayne Elliott says
Adam Bandt has quizzed the ANZ executives about its role sitting on the board of Malaysian bank AmBank which held billions in the 1MDB funds at the centre of a global financial scandal.
More than $US1bn is alleged to have flowed into Malaysian prime minister Najib Razak’s bank accounts between January 2011 and April 2013 — much of it from 1MDB.
ANZ chief executive Shayne Elliott says he is satisfied nobody employed by ANZ did anything wrong and the bank was not being investigated by the US Justice Department.
He says the bank has no relationship with 1MDB, or link to what is alleged to have happened.
This response is disingenious at best, for the issue was always , and remains, as reported above , ANZ and AMBanlk's collusion in Najib's laundering of funds misappropriated from 1MDB:
ANZ has since its acquisition of an interest in AMBank "significant management and operational influence" over AMBank (see See Page 29 of the ANZ announcement to the SEC),and has a special relationship with Najib over and beyond that of client.As PM and Minister for Finance ANZ had been in active negotiations with Najib to increase its stake in AMBank.
SEE ALSO FOR REFERENCE
ANZ finds an unlikely ally at the top in
Malaysia
Mar 8 2011 at 12:34 AM Updated Mar 8 2011 at 8:04 AM
by Sarah Thompson and Jamie Freed
From little things big things grow – until you hit a foreign ownership cap.
Some welcome news for ANZ Banking Group’s Asian strategy has emerged from Malaysia. The country’s Prime Minister, Najib Razak , has reportedly said he was open to allowing ANZ to increase its stake in Malaysian bank AmBank Group above the 30 per cent foreign ownership cap to 49 per cent.
Malaysia provides some of the highest returns on equity for banks anywhere in the world and ANZ has a toe hold with a 24 per cent stake in AmBank, the country’s fifth-largest lender.
ANZ has been looking at ways to either become bigger or get out of its minority holdings in Asian banks, and Najib’s comments provide a welcome sign that Asian countries may be looking to ease their rules to attract greater foreign investment.
Deutsche Bank yesterday said a greater stake in AmBank would be an attractive fit with ANZ’s Asian expansion strategy. Malaysia certainly ticks Asia chief Alex Thursby ’s boxes of growing fast while having lots of savings in its bank deposits. AmBank’s shares are also trading at an attractively low valuation at 1.8 times book value.
Buying another 25 per cent stake in the bank would cost ANZ about $1.5 billion assuming no takeover premium, Deutsche reckons. Given ANZ has about $3.5 billion in surplus capital this would not be a stretch.
Of course the downside is ANZ would still find itself as a minority shareholder in a bank, with no clear path to complete control.
The Australian Financial Review
Read more: http://www.afr.com/technology/technology-companies/anz-finds-an-unlikely-ally-at-the-top-in-malaysia-20110307-iu6x4#ixzz4NrcQUjFn
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Posted 23rd October 2016 by ganesh sahathevan
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