Good morning, and welcome to The Bulletin. In today’s edition: Australian banking scandal described as a wake up call for NZ, Commonwealth wide free trade deal being talked up, and nurses union voting on strike opens.

Scandalous banking misconduct in Australia is being described as a wake up call for New Zealand, reports Radio NZ. A royal commission over the ditch is currently shaking Australian banking to its core, revealing unethical and in some cases illegal practices with customers, bribery and fraud – here’s a good explainer from the Sydney Morning Herald. A major theme of the last week was customers being charged for financial advice they never received – in some ludicrous cases, clients who were dead were charged for financial advice. Massey University’s Dr Claire Matthews says now would be a good opportunity to look further into banking practices here.

Why does this matter at all to New Zealand? Well, most of our big banks – Westpac, ANZ, BNZ, ASB etc – are Australian owned, and their parent companies are currently getting dragged by the Royal Commission. The New Zealand boss of financial services firm AMP, whose Australian arm has been under particular scrutiny, insisted to the NZ Herald that none of the practices being scrutinised in Australia are taking place here.

Continue to the full article on The SpinOff   ||  April 23, 2018   |||