McEwan has simplified, stabilised and rebuilt NAB's momentum following the dark days of the Royal Commission. Now Andrew Irvine is tasked with maintaining it.
Andrew Cornell
Associate editor, banking and finance
Andrew is a multi-award winning journalist, including a Walkley for analysis of the global financial crisis, and was founding managing editor of ANZ bluenotes, Australia's first corporate newsroom. He is a former associate editor and north Asia bureau chief for The Australian Financial Review and author of several books on business and Japan.
Contact Andrew via email or Signal.
If ever there was a business model for the times it was buy now, pay later. Load up young consumers with debt on the promise there was no interest cost, charge merchants high service fees to cover marketing, and rely on cheap funding, FOMO and a very benign credit cycle.
Westpac and ANZ are taking a novel approach to solving internal problems they can't fix themselves.
For value investors, Australia's biggest bank is a conundrum. It is expensive on every measure but its share price keeps on flying and has defied gravity for almost two decades.
In just over a decade, payments fintechs have built a 25% market share in the big bank-dominated merchant payment processing sector, an opaque but crucial business.
The major banks have too much capital and not enough to do with it. They already started buying back shares, and in 2024 the market is expecting more.
More and more merchants are surcharging you just to pay them. It's hitting the tips of waiters and also distorting price signals in the payment system.
International payments are among the most expensive and least transparent in the financial system, and ripe for reform. But the shift to a harmonised, real time system has been anything but swift.
The new year promises reprieve for margin-crunched bank investors — at least if the ASX bank index can be believed. But not everyone thinks it can.
Bendigo Bank argued in court last year that smaller banks cannot compete effectively with the big four. Newer challengers like Judo Bank and Alex see things differently.
Macquarie's renewables-focused Green Investment Group has made extensive staff cuts over the last year as the clean energy industry takes a macroeconomic hit.
An asset class is very different to an instrument of the financial system. Following SEC approval of bitcoin ETFs, the cryptocurrency is the former, not the latter.
The enormous and growing cost of misconduct by cryptocurrency and digital payments companies goes beyond the billions they're paying in fines.
Intense competition for mortgages and deposits crunched big bank margins in the second half of 2023 but investors are happier now as competition backs off.
Some experts believe generative AI could have a bigger impact on the banking industry than the internet. And that might be underselling the impact.
Rebuilding a tech stack or integrating with a rival is hard enough for the major banks like Westpac and ANZ. But for smaller lenders like People First Bank, it can be a nightmare.
The festive season is a crucial proving ground for how spenders and sellers want to transact. Will more want to do it on the real-time NPP this year?
If there was substantial data on market power, merger benefits or competition in the ANZ-Suncorp merger hearings it was either redacted or heard behind closed doors.
In the Federal Court on Thursday the competition regulator got its chance to defend its earlier decision to block ANZ's acquisition of Suncorp Bank.
Imperium Markets will launch a major research project into digitalising the $3 trillion wholesale bond and deposit market and running it on blockchain.
The competition regulator says a merged ANZ-Suncorp would be 3.5x the size of its nearest rival outside the Big Four — Macquarie Bank.
Bitcoin is nearing two-year highs, institutional money is engaging, and ETFs are on the horizon. But would you hold cryptocurrency as a nest egg or inflation hedge? And when was the last time you bought something with crypto?
Can smaller banks effectively compete in the home loan market with Australia's big four? According to one of the most prominent smaller lenders, the answer is no.
Bendigo & Adelaide Bank began its campaign for a merger with Suncorp Group's banking business in earnest in Australian Competition Tribunal hearings on Friday.
New research finds a disconnect between how loan books and equity markets are judging the risks of climate change.
Soul Patts' takeover bid probably won't succeed, at least under the current proposal, but Perpetual is also unlikely to continue in its current form.
Day two of the big four bank's appeal of its rejected Suncorp Bank deal was all about market definitions. And fried chicken.
Major bank partnerships, raisings and actual profits signal there's some optimism in fintech, but capital and startups are in short supply.
Hearings in the second biggest merger battle in town got underway today, with lawyers for ANZ making the case that the rejection of its Suncorp Bank acquisition should be overturned.
Bendigo & Adelaide Bank has reaffirmed its desire to buy Suncorp Group’s banking business, confirming in a submission to the Australian Competition Tribunal it should be considered a “counterfactual” alternative acquirer to ANZ.
Amid operational turbulence and mounting losses, staff engagement at a key CPA Australia division as hit "at risk" levels as redundancies and restructuring roll on.
Reflections on an investment legend who was firmly rooted in reality and instrumental in the success of Berkshire Hathaway.
Professional accounting body CPA Australia is cutting 10% of its headcount in a morale sapping redundancy program. But, six years on from a major leadership scandal, its problems don't end there.
Cryptocurrencies dominate the headlines around blockchain and tokenisation, but crypto purists are awakening to the world outside currencies and assessing other assets worth vastly more.
Fintech conductors aim to orchestrate the noise of a cacophony of payment options being offered to both consumers and merchants.
The market for bank stocks has settled as investors and analysts finish digesting the fine print of their results. And they're not expecting a rewarding 2024.
In the wake of the SBF and now CZ scandals crypto can go one of two ways from here: further marginalisation of the vast but dubious asset class, or a shift deeper into the mainstream.
The margins in home mortgages are tightening so banks are shifting their attention to the smaller business sector - long dominated by NAB. So what does the boss of its business bank think?
Blown-out and failed major tech projects in the finance sector have a history of shareholder value destruction, dating back decades. Now a new wave has started — including at ANZ, Westpac and the ASX.
As banks look to improve the credit quality of their SME loanbooks, private credit and private equity see opportunity amid stress and reduced borrowing options.
