As good as it gets
The banking sector has been front and centre of the Covid-19 pandemic. Low interest rates and government support have put the banks in a relatively strong position. But the easy days of low rates, monetary stimulus and industry disruption paint a complicated outlook for the big four.
To understand their present situation, it helps to go back to the financial industry royal commission. It exposed a lot of the skeletons in the banking sector’s closet, including misconduct ranging from fees charged to deceased estates to predatory lending practices.
“The banks have done some cosmetic changes, but have gotten away without making large scale changes,” says Mathan Somasundaram, CEO of Deep Dive Analytics, an investment strategy service.
They did divest from their non-core operations, namely their wealth management operations.
