Payment Protection Insurance
Friday, September 30th, 2011However it began, the discounting is hurting NAB. Stewart issued a profit warning on July 14, that cash earnings before significant items for the six months to September 30 are expected to be 10-15% lower than the March 2004 half-year result of $1.85 billion. As a reason for the downgrade, Stewart said: “In our retail bank in Payment Protection Insurance �Australia�we have forgone income and incurred expenses protecting the franchise.” None of the other banks have had to come out with a similar profit warning. David Spotswood, investment manager at Credit Suisse Asset Management, says the two main issues for the company are its inability to explain clearly why its profits are falling by about $500 million, or 10-15%, in 2004, when the sector is growing at 5-12%, and how the management and board plan to steer the company’s strategic direction, financial targets and performance indicators. ” Payment Protection Insurance Both these issues are about clarity or the lack of it,” he says. Stewart’s decision to use discounting to retain customers is occurring at a time when NAB’s board and executive team are in transition and the Australian Prudential Regulation Authority (Apra) has imposed a series of conditions that are hurting the bank financially. The most important is Apra’s requirement that NAB must have a minimum capital reserve equivalent to 10% of its risk-weighted assets. To meet this requirement by June 30, as well as pay shareholders a dividend, the company had to make a $2-billion subordinated debt issue as well as a $1.2-billion equity issue, which the bank referred to as a fully underwritten dividend reinvestment plan. Payment Protection Insurance