The merger, if it gets through the competition regulators, underlines the fact that nothing matters more in Australian banking than mortgages.

For four years, a criminal case brought by an Australian regulator against Citi, Deutsche Bank, ANZ and six bankers who were facing jail has looked ill-judged, acting retrospectively against common market practice in a share placement. Now it has collapsed and lessons need to be learned

Australian lender serves up word soup along with first-half results.

The Malaysian lender has reached a $700 million settlement with the Malaysian government. It draws another line under 1MDB, but Najib’s trials will rumble on.

No developed market in the world has blue-chip banks paying higher dividends than those in Australia. It’s implausible to continue doing so during the coronavirus crisis – but banks fear a backlash from the income-loving retirees and retail folk who make up half their investor base.

The bank's global head of core trade products says: 'Once you start digitizing trade finance, everything starts to move faster.'

Thursday’s announcement by Commonwealth Bank of Australia (CBA) that it is suspending the sale of its wealth business may trigger similar turnarounds by other big four banks. They have unexpected latitude after the Royal Commission.

The final report of Australia’s Royal Commission into misbehaviour in financial services had plenty of blood and thunder, and has already brought down the top executives of National Australia Bank, but it doesn’t bring the promise of lasting reform.

Commissioner Kenneth Hayne 'not as confident as I would wish to be that the lessons of the past have been learned'.

An industry humbled, NAB flagellated – but it doesn’t make the biggest change.

The bank has sold most of what it wanted to in the region, but faces some big costs at home.

Criminal cartel charges has turned a three-year-old ANZ share placement from being just another reputational headache in Australian banking to something that has bankers seriously alarmed.

Australia is used to regulatory and reputational calamity, but a case against ANZ, Citi and Deutsche has taken a more personal turn.

DBS is all about digitization bringing costs down, but Thursday’s numbers show a reversal. It’s caused by the acquisition of ANZ’s wealth business in Asia.

The multi-decade period of extraordinary plenty for Australia’s big four banks may be at an end.

Shayne Elliott’s tenure as CEO of ANZ has already been marked by several strategic initiatives since he took the top job in January. None is more striking than the apparent reversal of his predecessor’s grand ambitions for Asia. Is there method in the madness of undoing years of expensive effort? And can a renewed focus on Australia deliver growth when some say the domestic industry is past its peak?

Asian banks are increasingly proving themselves to be much more than just volume-hungry lenders.

These are miserable times in Australian banking, which is suffering issues ranging from banking culture to credit quality as the commodity cycle ends. Commonwealth Bank has reputational issues around its CommInsure unit, while both ANZ and Westpac are under investigation for rate manipulation.

Many banks now say cash management is the heart of their business, not just for the returns it can generate in its own right but also for the opportunity to pump other products and services through their networks. Euromoney’s survey reveals banks still have a lot of work to do to turn aspiration into reality

Farhan Faruqui leaves Citigroup to join ANZ as head of international business.

At a time when others have retrenched and reshaped, ANZ stands out for the brassiness of its ambition. Can it match its words with delivery?