Royal Commission into the Banking Sector of Australia

Question: Should a Royal Commission Be Held Into the Australian Banking System. Answer: Introduction The demand for the royal commission into the banking sector of Australia is found to be growing louder. But not all the individuals are in support of this idea. As per ABC News, in Australia a Royal Commission is having the unique power with regard to the investigation, which is in some of the ways, is considered to be more wide-ranging than that of a court (ABC News, 2017). It has been distinguished that might be because such kind of commissions are not recognized in determining the individual faults so their powers can be found to be less bound when compared to that of the courts. Hence, under the act of Royal Commission there is no excuse for the natural person in providing the providence on the basis of the self-incrimination (section 6A), however, the evidence that is provided to the Royal commission is not acceptable contrary to the individual in the proceedings of civil or criminal in any kind of Australian court (section 6DD). In similar to this the privilege that is legally professional is more condensed than in the court of law (section 6AA). The start of the Global Financial Crisis is from the disaster of subprime. Having an understanding regarding the crisis is important (Adams, Fss Gropp, 2014). Here the important facts about the banking sector in Australia have been briefed out which are as follows: there was a development of large industry about making the unreliable loans, sold using the destructive lending, by crooked lenders, etc. other than this various other banks in Australia including the Bank of America got engaged in the fraud documentation at the level of the industrial scale (Babb Kentikelenis, 2017). These unreliable loans have been sold in a huge number known as CDOs. These CDOs were considered to be risky ones have been sold with a worth of hundred billion dollars to all the banks throughout the world. The actual point is making dealings that are unreliable and practicing the culture that is unethical in the banking sector of Australia can create the disasters, national and international problems. Need of Royal Commission into the Banking Sector As per Bhagat, Bolton Lu, in our society and economy, the services that are related to banking and finance will play a fundamentally significant and constructive role. But there would not be wealthy high streets without the presence of wealthy back streets and banks are found to be crucial for both in providing the services and the credits to the households and for the businesses either it is large or small. This is the reason why it has become the national interest that the people and the companies are in a position to have clear cut confidence in these particular institutions. In the recent years with the help of the disclosures, this kind of confidence has become challenged (Bhagat, Bolton Lu, 2015). According to Board, these disclosures have been obtained most of them by Fairfax Media and specifically via Adele Ferguson investigative work regarding the fights of interest, the ragged treatment of the customers of insurance, manipulation of the market, the shabby treatment of the informers, the role of the institutions in the offshore tax havens and of others uncertain behavior (Board, 2015). It has been argued by the services of banking and the finance that these prayers will reflect merely only a few numbers of bad instances, but there would not be in-depth problem with the culture of the industry. As there would be the mounting of disclosures and allegations the current one in the financial markets is the rigging of the key rates of interest the concept that any kind of bad behavior is not usual and has become weak. Further, it has been sought out by the bank to bend at criticism and the examination by demanding that the internal investigations will fix any kind of problems. It has been noticed that it is not possible for the institutions for conducting the investigations independently. In the recent years, it was argued consistently that the governing bodies, particularly the corporate regulator the securities and the investment commissions of Australia have failed in investigating sufficiently and laws the sector of financial services (Chen, et al., 2014). It is again wished with them for enhancing the performance. A senate inquiry has recommended the royal commission two years ago to investigate the forgery into the Commonwealth Bank along with the allegations and fraud in its operations of financial planning. After which the attention has been broadened and now the whole sector is perceived widely with the distrust and the suspicion (?ip?i? Pavi?, 2016, January). Recently by the banks, it has been fuelled which has failed in passing the cuts in the official rates of interest and requesting to be under the pressure of cost while figuring out the margins of profit which in most of the industries is the envy of the companies. So, given is the key significance regarding the services of the banking and the financial companies and comprehensible view in the confidence of the public in this sector, it is believed by The Age with respect to the argument about the royal commission is reaching the leaning point. Although it is not said publicly it is expected by the banks that the royal commission would occur and the cause will be forced from the crossbenches of parliamentary. The calls have been resisted by the alliance before the election right from the labor for such an inquiry which is judicial however, these are already present on the government benches who had the belief that it should happen. In recent months it was publicly and sharply criticized by Malcolm Turnbull on the banks for numerous times and he was arguing by forcing them at least once a year to appear near the panel of parliamentary so that it would cause them in fixing their ways (Code, 2016). Da Gbadji, Gailly Schwienbacher said that it was believed that would not be sufficient. It is agreeable with the Prime Minister that the leaders of sectors have failed in fixing the culture which has betrayed the trust of the public arguably as it has provided the important financial support to the banks during the period of financial crisis globally and after that (Da Gbadji, Gailly Schwienbacher, 2015). A royal commission might be expensive and will take most of the time, so it is believed that there is a requirement for helping the sector in clearing the problems with the help of its internal culture and established it again and support the confidence of the community. Ultimately, it is in the interest of the sector along with the entire society and economy. Right Time for Royal Commission in Australian Banking Sector In the concept of royal commission, there is a wealth of wisdom which is the first thing to be noticed while seeking to get off from the place disorganization. However, in the nations wealth most of the guardians seem to be determined on the digging that is not wise into the deepest pit of the criticism of the parliamentary and publicity is to the extent of irony that they are taking the risk in helping to bring them to the royal commission which they were trying to avoid. The investigations that were carried out by The Age has revealed much of the results as a part of the evidence for the banks with respect to the things that are done wrong in the companies is the outcome of the some of the bad apples (Dr Andy Schmulow, 2017). It is under the argument that the evidence against the banks has been mounted last year; to institute the royal commission into the integrity of the culture and conduct it is in the national interest of such kind of socially and economically fundamental financial institutions. In the recent days authentication to the inquiries of parliament has supported this view (Flannery, 2016). In the coming days, Westpac and ANZA the chief executives of the CBA will be following of NAB, whose verification has revealed of the widespread of the behavior that is poor, in which the cheating done for the hundreds and thousands of customers is included and the payment that is inappropriate of huge and perhaps the excessive bonuses. For avoiding the royal commission this kind of appearances is the part of the efforts that are put by the banks and the alliance of government. The key argument of the discussion is that the laws and the regulations which are already there are very much sufficient in making sure of the treatment that is given properly to the customers by the banks and hence the royal commission would just be the expensive inhibition for the functioning of the financial sector in the orderly fashion. This is not at all accepted. The existing regulators are not inhibited by the legal investigation. It has been argued consistently that the governing bodies which exist specifically the corporate regulator the ASIC is found to fail in its investigation as it was not sufficient (Gennaioli, Martin Rossi, 2014). It is to be noted that they are looking for the improvement and are pursuing the Westpac currently overdue the industry by lending. Only the second half of the cross-examination of the parliament is being witnessed to, which the CEOs of the banks have agreed in submitting the bid collectively for avoiding the legal investigation (Hilscher, Landskroner Raviv, 2016). But even at this level of the new processes, they might wonder that, is there any chance in backing off from the royal commission. Foundation for the Australian Banking Sector The above sectioned mentioned the details regarding the right time to which there should be the description of the Australias banking as well as the financial system. In that context, this portion has been originated in the 19th century as per the British laws and the institutions. Based upon that the commercial financial or banking sector is said to be established in the year 1817 and by the effect of that Australia experienced the establishment of the privately owned bank. Thereafter the establishment of this bank provided the issue relating to the legal tender which occurred in New South Wales. This action in further condition is again followed by the emergence of the first savings bank that keeps the record regarding the process of safekeeping of the money of the new arrivals that act within the colonies (Kidwell, et al., 2016). Thus by the 19th century there has been a great increase in the number of banks within the new territories of Victoria as well as the South Australia. This resulted in such condition that the British took the decision of expanding their financial system in the colonies of Australia. All of these acts established the condition that reflected in the settling down of the foreign exchange markets along with the encouragement of the competition within the interest rates (Knights Tinker, 2016). Therefore it resulted in the vast development of the branches of the banking sector within the Australian colonies. More specifically the right time for the origin of the commission with respect to the Australian banking Sector when the Australia felt the enhancement within the investment which is again associated with the extraordinary levels of the building activity as well as the speculation of the property market in the Australian market. At the same time, the banking sector in the Australian colonies is seen to have an increase of their risk levels. This rise in the risk levels is specifically to maintain the share market as per the competition raised from the non-bank financial institutions like the pastoral, building and the mortgage companies. Along with that there has been the condition where there is the collapsing of the real estate market and based upon that the banks basically try to find the better prudential practices (MacDonald, van Oordt Scott, 2016). In that context, the Australian banks provided the better fare at the time of depression which again highlighted the links in between the financial system along with the stability and economic growth as well as the employment. The highlighting of the links during depression occurred in the year 1930. This year is further responsible for the activity by which all the functions came under the close scrutiny by the result of which the Royal Commission is formed to take care of the Banking as well as the Money by the year 1936-37 (Nawaz, Haniffa Hudaib, 2014, November). Thereafter the commission provided the recommendations regarding various measures which will establish the support as well as the stability of the financial system in Australia by helping in the origin of the financial deregulation. Origins of Financial Deregulation: The regulatory system that prevailed post-war in evidently longed to obtain the super visionary and monetary goals through direct constraints on the financial activities of the banks. The regulations that were followed in this time provided restrictions on the operational flexibility to the activities of banks and their capability to compete in the market. For an instance, the rate of interest caps on the deposit accounts posed restrictions in the ability of banks to bring in funds. In a similar way, lending was constrained through the guidelines on the bank approvals regarding trading (Samra, 2016). The savings banks had confronted the restrictions in their capability for lending regarding housing by the need of possessing the maximum of assets in the form of cash, government deposits or securities with the central bank. The participation of the NFBIs developed to complete the gaps that were caused by the constraints on banks which included the merchant banks to the building societies and service corporations to the service the market of home lending (Saunders Cornett, 2014). The bank's assets face the declination as a part of the GDP along with the declination of the share of markets of the commercial banks during the period of 1955 to 1980. This had significant implications for the conduction of monetary regulations and policies that were depended on the direct controls on the financial institutions like banks and also resulted in the concerns from an avaricious perspective. The financial authorities in Australia were concerned about the prevailing trend at the initial stage and many steps were taken towards the deregulation during the era of the 1960s and 1970s to boost the banks' position and initiating the establishment denotes by which the implications could be put on the wider system of finances (Sheppard, 2013). For example, the maximum rates on big overdrafts were discarded during this time and the rates of interest regarding the certification of deposit were removed in 1973 which allowed certain banks to have some scope I managing the liabilities. In spite of every issue, regulations were focused on the competition and domestic market among the local institutions. Making the regulations free of control in certain areas, it had implications of increasing stress on the regulations that lingered (The Age, 2017). The pressures were increasing by the growing nature of the flow of capital is sensitive to the interest which hugely posed implications in the establishments of the subsidiaries of merchant banks of the foreign banks that had funds accessibilities from the counterparts that are overseas parent organizations. These capital flows were volatile which along with the exchange rate lead to the complications in the efforts to regulate the domestic liquidity and maximize the differential regulation implications among various aspects of the financial system. The requirement of the central banks to provide funding to any shortfall in raising the debt of the government as an outcome of the mechanism of raising debts that are not efficient added to the issues with the management of liquidity. The Government of Australia instigated a wide-scale review of the financial system of Australia which was named as Campbell Committee in the year 1979 (Ueda Di Mauro, 2013). References ABC News. 2017. Why Australia needs a banking royal commission. Adams, Z., Fss, R. and Gropp, R., 2014. Spillover effects among financial institutions: A state-dependent sensitivity value-at-risk approach.Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis,49(03), pp.575-598. Babb, S.L. and Kentikelenis, A.E., 2017. International financial institutions as agents of neoliberalism.The SAGE handbook of neoliberalism. Thousand Oaks: SAGE Publications. Bhagat, S., Bolton, B. and Lu, J., 2015. Size, leverage, and risk-taking of financial institutions.Journal of Banking Finance,59, pp.520-537. Board, F.S., 2015. Assessment Methodologies for Identifying Non-Bank Non-Insurer Global Systemically Important Financial Institutions.The Second Consultation Document, Financial Stability Board, Basel. Chen, R.R., Chidambaran, N.K., Imerman, M.B. and Sopranzetti, B.J., 2014. Liquidity, leverage, and Lehman: A structural analysis of financial institutions in crisis.Journal of Banking Finance,45, pp.117-139. ?ip?i?, M.L. and Pavi?, T., 2016, January. Management and supervisory board gender diversity as an indicator of financial institutions profitability in Croatia. InInternational Scientific and Professional Conference: Contemporary Issues in Economy and Technology, CIET 2016. Code, M., 2016.Financial institutions. Da Gbadji, L.A.G., Gailly, B. and Schwienbacher, A., 2015. International analysis of venture capital programs of large corporations and financial institutions.Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice,39(5), pp.1213-1245. Dr Andy Schmulow, D. 2017. For and against a royal commission into banks. Flannery, M.J., 2016. Stabilizing large financial institutions with contingent capital certificates.Quarterly Journal of Finance,6(02), p.1650006. Gennaioli, N., Martin, A. and Rossi, S., 2014. Sovereign default, domestic banks, and financial institutions.The Journal of Finance,69(2), pp.819-866. Hilscher, J., Landskroner, Y. and Raviv, A., 2016. Optimal regulation, executive compensation and risk taking by financial institutions. Kidwell, D.S., Blackwell, D.W., Whidbee, D.A. and Sias, R.W., 2016.Financial institutions, markets, and money. John Wiley Sons. Knights, D. and Tinker, T. eds., 2016.Financial institutions and social transformations: International studies of a sector. Springer. MacDonald, C., van Oordt, M. and Scott, R., 2016. Implementing Market-Based Indicators to Monitor Vulnerabilities of Financial Institutions. Nawaz, T., Haniffa, R. and Hudaib, M., 2014, November. The Impact of Intellectual Capital on Corporate Performance of Islamic Financial Institutions. InInternational Conference on Intellectual Capital and Knowledge Management and Organisational Learning(p. 519). Academic Conferences International Limited. Samra, E., 2016. Corporate governance in Islamic financial institutions. Saunders, A. and Cornett, M.M., 2014.Financial institutions management. McGraw-Hill Education,. Sheppard, D.K., 2013.The Growth and Role of UK Financial Institutions, 1880-1966. Routledge. The Age. 2017. Australian banks: Time is right for a royal commission. Ueda, K. and Di Mauro, B.W., 2013. Quantifying structural subsidy values for systemically important financial institutions.Journal of Banking Finance,37(10), pp.3830-3842. Zhang, Z., Xie, L., Lu, X. and Zhang, Z., 2015. Determinants of Financial Distress in Large Financial Institutions: Evidence from US Bank Holding Companies.Contemporary Economic Policy.