Commonwealth Bank of Australia
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The Commonwealth Bank of Australia is an Australian multinational bank with businesses across New Zealand, Asia, the USA and the UK. It provides a variety of financial services including retail, business and institutional banking, funds management, superannuation, insurance, investment and broking services. The Bank is one of the "Big Four" Australian banks, and is the largest bank in the Southern Hemisphere.ref
In 2018, findings from the Royal Commission into Misconduct in the Banking, Superannuation and Financial Services Industry
showed a negative "profit at all cost" culture within the Bank, amid allegations of fraud, deception, and money laundering, among various other crimes.ref Commonwealth Bank of Australia has all the dirt - take a shovel, there's a lot of it.
The Bank operates through 5 divisions:
- Retail Banking Services is the branded retail banking division. It provides banking products and services to personal and small business customers.
- Business and Private Banking provides banking services to business, corporate and agribusiness customers, and also provides banking and advisory services for high net worth individuals.
- Institutional Banking & Markets serves the commercial and wholesale banking needs of large corporate, institutional and govt clients across a range of financial services solutions, including access to debt capital markets, transaction banking, working capital and risk management.
- Wealth Management provides superannuation, investment, retirement and insurance products, and services including financial planning. § CFS Global Asset Management manages investments on behalf of institutional investors and pension funds, wholesale distributors and platforms, financial advisers and their clients.
- International Financial Services incorporates the Asian retail and business banking operations, investments in China and Vietnam and the life insurance operations in Indonesia.
CFS Global Asset Management
In Jun.2018, the Bank announced its intention to demerge Colonial First State Global Asset Management, its wealth management and mortgage broking businesses, by creating a new wealth management business. It will include Colonial First State, Colonial First State Global Asset Management, Count Financial, Financial Wisdom, Aussie Home Loans, and minority shareholdings in CountPlus and Mortgage Choice.A/cs 2018, pp.22,250
In Oct.2018, the Bank announced it has entered into an agreement to sell Colonial First State Global Asset Management to Mitsubishi UFJ Trust and Banking Corporation. The transaction is subject to regulatory approval in various jurisdictions. MUTB is a trust bank containing one of Japan’s leading asset managers, and is a wholly owned subsidiary of Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group Inc, one of the world’s largest financial institutions.ref Website
The Luxembourg-registered First State European Diversified Infrastructure Fund FCP-SIF was set up specifically to acquire infrastructure assets in Europe.ref Its first acquisition was the Anglian Water Group. B'berg, ref, ref, ref See also Dato Capital, DDG.
UK investments are here. As of Feb.2019, consists of:
