The big four are minting it right now, but 2 big threats are building
A surprise burst in credit growth means it’s a great time to be a big bank. But behind the scenes, the banks see big structural shifts they say should have the nation worried.
Executives from the big four banks should be in a pretty good mood at The Australian Financial Review Banking Summit on Monday morning. As one very senior banker told Barrenjoey’s veteran bank analyst Jonathan Mott recently: “If you can’t make money in this environment, you never will.”
The bank reporting season was, frankly, a stunner. It was only back in mid-November that a tepid trading update from Commonwealth Bank sent the stock down more than 15 per cent in two weeks, and sparked fears that pressure on margins could finally crack the sector’s golden run.
