BFCSA Blog

Banks panic as both major US political parties adopt Glass-Steagall banking separation policy The Democratic and Republican parties in the USA have both adopted, for the 2016 Presidential election campaigns, the policy of reinstating the Glass-Steagall law, eight years after the eruption of the global financial crisis caused by the repeal of Glass-Steagall in 1999. The Glass-Steagall Act 1933 was the most successful financial regulation in history. It mandated the strict separation of commercial banks that normal people use for everyday business, from Wall Street’s investment banks, insurance companies and stock brokerages—no cross-ownership, no shared directors, no contact. Under Glass-Steagall the government protected the deposits of commercial banks through the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation; however, this protection was a backstop—the real security came from keeping the commercial banks and their deposits away from risk-taking investment banks. Meanwhile, investment banks were given the message: gamble at your own risk—if you lose, you...

Vikings Revenge: Iceland Takes Back Power To Create Its Own Money Written by 21st Century Wire on April 9, 2016 http://bsnews.info/vikings-revenge-iceland-takes-back-power-create-money/   The Vikings revenge. Iceland is taking the money back from the clutches of the private fractional reserve lending cartel. It’s happened before in history, and with great success, but it has also prompted a violent backlash from the elites… Back in 1914, the Bradbury Pound was introduced by the UK government as an ’emergency measure’ to bolster a failing economy. It was a huge success. The banking elite were unhappy, however and panicked – before managing to wrestle control of the money supply afterwards. President John F. Kennedy also introduced a similar ‘Greenback’ in 1961, and again, the banking elite were very unhappy about being pushed out, and losing control of the issuance ofmoney as debt. JFK did not survive past 1963. Then there was Muammar al-Gaddafiin Libya who,...

The results are in: Australian households have more debt compared to the size of the country’s economy than any other in the world. Research by the Federal Reserve has shown the consolidated household debt to GDP ratio increased the most for Australia between 1960 and 2010 out of a select group of OECD nations. Australia’s household sector has accumulated massive unconsolidated debt compared with other countries. As of the third quarter of 2015, it now has the world’s most indebted household sector relative to GDP, according to LF Economics’ analysis of national statistics. Denmark long held this unholy accomplishment, but has been slowly deleveraging over the last several years as its housing bubble peaked and burst during the GFC. The latest debt-financed boom in Sydney and Melbourne has resulted in Australia now overtaking Denmark, a comparison of official figures from Australia and Denmark has shown. Denmark long held this unholy accomplishment, but has been...

How Australian households became the most indebted in the world Philip Soos The rapid rise of capital city house prices in the past two years has propelled Australia past Denmark with a ratio of 123.08% debt to GDP, analysis shows   The results are in: Australian households have more debt compared to the size of the country’s economy than any other in the world.   Research by the Federal Reserve has shown the consolidated household debt to GDP ratio increased the most for Australia between 1960 and 2010 out of a select group of OECD nations. Australia’s household sector has accumulated massive unconsolidated debt compared with other countries. As of the third quarter of 2015, it now has the world’s most indebted household sector relative to GDP, according to LF Economics’ analysis of national statistics. Denmark long held this unholy accomplishment, but has been slowly deleveraging over the last several years...

Click here to recommend this to your friends <http://cecaust.com.au/releases/2014_10_17_Ebola_Threat.html>  Citizens Electoral Council of Australia  Media Release  Friday, 17 October 2014 Australians cannot tolerate Abbott-Hockey austerity in face of Ebola threat  In light of the Ebola epidemic, now clearly a global threat, Federal Treasurer Joe Hockey must abandon his current 2014-15 budget and immediately increase spending on public health, medical research and science. All budget cuts affecting health and science must be jettisoned, and the federal government must undertake an emergency action plan to boost funding and staffing of medical facilities, including hospitals, pathology, research and vaccine production centres, together with efforts to support the manufacture of medical equipment and protective gear, in the face of expanded global demand.  Prime Minister Abbott must reverse his decision to commit money alone to the international effort to tackle Ebola at its root, and coordinate the medical teams and troops already demanded by the Australian...

  I was 54, looking through the real estate for sale on the internet when I came across the most beautiful home, right on my favourite stretch of river. Of course it was expensive but I had a good income and thought I would at least give it a go. My way of thinking was that "If the bank doesn't think I can afford it then they won't give me the money." WHAT WAS I THINKING??!! I made an application through a broker who was upbeat about loans and approval was easy.  I left the broker's office thinking it was all an interesting exercise but I would never gain approval.  How wrong was I! They had to break the loan into four smaller loans, mortgaging the home and two rural properties I owned and I had to borrow another $130,000 privately (through someone the broker recommended) to use as a deposit...

Highly paid regulators snoozing once again.............this time on Foreign Investment: Tenants in our own country?  Yes indeedy!  FIRB wouldn't have correct data.   Time for consumers to rise up against these perils.  No-one in the next generation of adults has any CONFIDENCE in being able to work work work and afford a home...........housing is all about grouping together in commune type living and putting up with mattress on floor and paying low rent.  They feel locked out of the home ownership arena.     This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. http://beta.macrobusiness.com.au/2014/07/treasury-figures-show-foreign-property-buying-has-exploded/#comment-383310  Treasury data shows foreign buying rocket  1 July 2014 Leigh Van Olsen  Another day, another report on the huge surge of foreign investment in Australian property, this time from The Australian In the first nine months of this financial year, sales to foreigners are almost double the total from the whole of last year and represent a record 13 per cent of the total value...

The next subprime mortgage crisis in the making PADDY MANNING Crikey business editor |  EMAIL   |  COMMENT         GLOBAL FINANCIAL CRISIS, MORTGAGES, SUBPRIME IMPLOSION, SUBPRIME LENDING, SUBPRIME MORTGAGES   SUBSCRIBE TO CRIKEY - http://media.crikey.com.au/ It is a bit of myth that Australia dodged the global financial crisis because we had tougher lending standards than the United States, where ticking-bomb subprime mortgages were packaged up into toxic derivatives like collateralised debt obligations, slapped up with dodgy AAA credit ratings and on-sold to financial institutions investors all over the world. OK, we didn't yet have NINJA loans -- mortgages made to those with no income, no job or assets -- but that was probably more down to luck than good management. However, we did have a snowballing problem with subprime mortgages in Australia -- low-doc home loans flogged to struggling borrowers by conflicted mortgage brokers -- and we were lucky it didn’t do...

http://www.lawyersweekly.com.au/news/give-more-ammunition-to-asic-costello Give more ammunition to ASIC: Costello 13 March, 2007 CORPORATE WRONGDOING may attract civil sanctions and higher penalties under a discussion paper released by the Treasury last week into corporate law reform.  The paper accords with a wider governmental strategy to explore ways of reducing regulatory burdens and simplify existing laws.   One proposal discusses the expansion of civil sanctions in corporate law to add more firepower to those policing dubious corporate behaviour, along with the possibility of increased penalties. The review is intended to strike a balance between the need to have strong sanctions that deter and punish corporate wrongdoing and protect the market’s integrity, as well as foster a competitive business environment.  In a speech given to the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) summer school, Treasurer Peter Costello praised the strong record of the regulatory body. “ASIC’s enforcement record is a great testament to the assiduous work of...

APRA worried about growth of high risk lending in Australia’s $1.3 trillion mortgage market   JEFF WHALLEY BANKING HERALD SUN MAY 26, 2014 8:27PM Qld Courier MAIL THE nation’s banking watchdog says it has witnessed “increasing evidence” of high-risk lending in the $1.3 trillion mortgage market as the scrap for market share intensifies in the face of low lending rates. The Australian Prudential Regulatory Authority has laid down the law to banks and other lenders with a series of new draft guidelines aimed at sharpening risk management. The Reserve Bank has maintained official interest rates at a historic low of 2.5 per cent since August last year. That’s created a hothouse atmosphere among banks which are fiercely competing to grab as much of the mortgage market as possible. “In this environment, APRA is seeing increasing evidence of lending with higher risk characteristics and it does not want this trend to continue,’’...

Watchdog sounds warning on risky home loans DateMay 27, 2014 Read later Jacob Greber and Clancy Yeates  SMH Sydney Morning Heraldf Concerning trend: APRA chairman John Laker. Photo: Rob Homer The bank regulator has intensified its crackdown on risky lending, pushing back against a potential property ­bubble and increasing the Reserve Bank of Australia's capacity to keep interest rates at a record low. Concerned fierce competition for customers is driving down lending standards, the Australian Prudential Regulation Authority on Monday issued tough guidelines on how it expects banks to monitor and manage mortgage risks. This includes making banks consider geographic concentrations of risky loans; limits on loans relative to incomes; stress-testing borrowers; and avoiding giving managers financial incentives to make more loans. Analysts said the draft guidelines, which fall just short of the "macro­- prudential" rules adopted by regulators in New Zealand and Canada, mean the pace of growth in the mortgage...

 Huh????  ASIC panning the use of bank calculators re mortgages 2004 and then in 2005 exempted bankers from prosecution????   Its game on!!!  Thanks Gladys  This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. http://www.theage.com.au/news/property/end-of-the-line/2004/09/22/1095651380749.html   September 22, 2004   The Australian Securities and Investment Commission (ASIC) has shut down loan calculators on more than 100 Australian websites in another move against line-of-credit home loans that use false advertising to trick unwary borrowers.   The calculators were on websites of financial institutions, including banks, building societies, credit unions and mortgage brokers...............In response to ASIC's move, the Mortgage Industry Association of Australia (MIAA) this week released advertising guidelines for its members, prohibiting false advertising under the threat of sanctions.  "Brokers must portray things the way they really are," says its chief executive officer, Phil Naylor.   "You can use charts and graphs to sell loans but they must show the repayments correctly. The calculator is one of the issues we address specifically in the...

http://bfcsa.com.au/index.php/entry/bfcsa-nab-and-grab-priestley-the-farmers-story-reposted Comment by arree Monday, 24 March 2014                           " disgusting and appalling, unaustralian and UNBELIEVABLE!.. then again, not so unbelievable now that we know that we borrowers have been scammed all along, thanks to BFCSA and Denise Brailey. No one inside one bank department knows what the other ones are doing... eg. today I received a greetings card from RAMS stating "Happy Loan Anniversary" !!... Our maladministration in lending complaint against RAMS is with FOS and we have not paid RAMS a cent for 2 years whilst under investigation and we have been living in our home. RAMS is playing games and stalling proceedings so that the interest just keeps piling up. RAMS has put a proposal to us which could have been put to us 2 years ago if they had of agreed to meet with us, and we would have gotten on with our lives instead of living in...

Banks jockeying to do it all over again with carbon trading  nb: everyone wins except consumers The woman credited with inventing credit default swaps (CDOs) is a key architect of the Carbon Emission Scheme, the future of which  is being debated by world leaders in Copenhagen. Blythe Masters, the JP Morgan employee who invented credit default swaps, is now heading JPM’s carbon trading efforts. Masters, 40, oversees the New York bank’s environmental businesses as the firm’s global head of commodities. Masters was part of JP Morgan’s team developing ideas for transferring risk to third parties and went on to manage credit risk for JP Morgan’s investment bank. Among the credit derivatives that grew from the bank’s early efforts was the CDO. As news circulates on the internet allegations that giant banks will make a killing on carbon trading, there are fears the scheme presents a high probability for fraud and insider...

Changes to Penalties?  It's more of Australian Securities and Investment Commission ("ASIC") Chief Medcraft's Muddle and his equally mind-blowing smoke screens:  He wants parking ticket type fines increased for misdeameanors  BUT DOES NOT MENTION immediate action AGAINST LENDERS.  Lenders APPROVED these dodgy loans - every last one of them.  Medcraft's Banker Mates set up the consumers to enable the Banks to steal ordinary Mums and Dads homes and his Banker Mates set up the Borrower agents to take the wrap! Then there was the securitisation scandal re the Australian Office of Financial Management to buy the TOXIC products and and "profit from the fraud." Medcraft says he wants stiffer penalties but only takes the annual obligatory handful of actions via DPP, and only against the little cases - brokers with foreign names...........did you notice that?  Easy targets?  Not too much hard yakka?   Your bias is showing. Greggie, What about the...

Dear Mortgage Brokers You will all become the prize bunnies under the new NCCP laws.  Why?  Banks made onus on you to verify documentation, even though you do not have the resources, the training or qualification and are not licensed to do this task. Even though same laws apply to Banks (and have for years), ASIC is  taking NO ACTION AGAINST LENDERS.  Instead ASIC will ignore the piece of legislation that says the Banker is responsible for verification of loan documents and instead ASIC will ping a few Brokers. THIS IS A CRIME SCENE INVENTED BY THE BANKS.............................and in crime - there is always a scapegoat.   Look in the Mirror..........................say three times; "The Banks are setting me UP.  Approval of loans is the duty owed by the Bank to its customers under s27.1 of the Bankers Code....Banks owe that duty, not me, but I am being made the SCAPEGOAT." Then...

After 20 years of assisting consumers, I now have three excellent researchers who generously donate their time to our cause.  I do sift through and pick out some of the most significant information that the world wide web has provided for us.  Our latest is from an old forum site which contained chatter re the Storm victims 2008-2009.   CHATTER ONLINE from Storm people "Originator of the Contract - THE BANK RESPONSIBLE for fraudulent lending" Re: BOQ.....Where fraudulent activity is proven and it will be, with physical evidence, loans should be rendered null and void. The offending bank staff should be removed/ and or prosecuted and David Liddy should be forced to step aside. It may be deemed to be the customers responsibility, however, when an employee joins the bank in a lending capacity, they are trained to process material within the parameters of the Trade Practices Act, the Banking Code...

Commonwealth Bank Maladministration with (NAME WITHELD) I have documented proof of all on this page and I also have a copy of my LAF from the bank.   This is a letter I emailed to dozens of Senators around Australia.  Can I please ask you Senator why ASIC, FOS and COSL never investigated my situation when I was in need and why the bank savaged me when I was most vulnerable, why I was made to pay for their own bank managers maladministration and greed, why I am now left on a Disability pension and mentally ill because of the Commonwealth Bank’s rape of my rights, why the Queensland Police are reluctant to investigate the obvious crime and what did I do wrong to deserve this?  Why do we have all these laws and regulatory bodies if they do nothing to protect the victims?  Here is my story . . .  It...

In 2010, I received settlement on my divorce and approached Maquarie Bank for a loan. I told them that I had lost my business - my divorce has undermined my enthusiasm for anything - and it has been sold. I advised them that I was unemployed - stated in writing, and was moving out of Sydney to cheaper housing. At the time, I was 55 years old. I was probably depressed, certainly upset, that I had lost both my marriage, long term dwelling and business in the space of one year. I combined all my savings - they gave me $480,000 on a 30 year loan, with the full knowledge that I was unemployed. The only thing that saved me, was I put my retirement savings from super (I was 55) into the offset account. At the time, I believed I would get work. I had been employed consistently for 20...

Dear members This is extremely urgent.  Please send your story to Alan Jones.  2GB We have over 1200 copies of fraudulent loan applications which have been presented to ASIC  but they refuse to act. Thousands of Australians have lost their farms, businesses and homes as a result of bank greed. This evidence was presented to the Senate Inquiry into ASIC in Sydney a fortnight ago. Rather than listen to disgruntled bank and ASIC customers I highly recommend you talk to Senator John Williams who was there and if you want to follow that up to also contact Denise Brailey who is the criminologist in our support group. Denise has over fifteen years of records detailing ASIC, FOS and COSL failings plus all the evidence against the banks and how they engineered this mass fraud on Australia's most vulnerable older persons - mainly pensioners. I IMPLORE ALL members to write a brief outline of...