IT WAS an enlightened decision by Australia's fourth-biggest bank to sign a Brit as boss back in June last year. Certainly some British "stiff upper lip" has been needed over the journey, as ANZ has reeled from disaster to reputational disaster.
So it was refreshing to see Mike Smith in delightfully chipper form at the Westin Hotel in Sydney yesterday, where he addressed the Australia-Israel Chamber of Commerce lunch.
On the woes of Wall Street, Smith said: "I would never buy shares in an investment bank — its good to work for them, but if you still think you're going to get bonuses, I'm not sure."
Which brought a few laughs, although probably not from ANZ bankers, who don't have a snowball's chance in hell of banking a bonus cheque this year.
Smith was in such good form he was happy to comment on just about any topic, including some that are still causing heartburn at ANZ headquarters. On why ANZ decided to get involved in the securities lending business and bankroll both Opes Prime and Tricom, Smith quipped: "Are there no decisions you wish you (hadn't) made in life? Of course there are. I got married years ago. We can all be smart in retrospect."
On his old employer, HSBC, writing down $30 billion: "We all have our bad days."
Soon, another chap who's been making quite a few appearances at the Westin grabbed the microphone — Australian Competition and Consumer Commission chairman Graeme Samuel, who spent Sunday night at the hotel's Heritage Ballroom at a farewell dinner for Telstra's Phil Burgess.
If Treasurer Wayne Swan relaxed the Four Pillars policy, Samuel asked, and ANZ then proposed a merger with one of the other Big Four banks, could he provide a potted version of the potential for a lessening of competition in the market?
Certainly no Dorothy Dixer from the floor there.
"That's a no-brainer, really, Graeme," responded Smith.
"Who's got the lack of brains?" retorted Samuel.
"What can I say, it depends which one. I'm not doing your job for you as well," Smith concluded.
But, just like Samuel's roasting of Burgess on Sunday night, it was all in good fun.
Murphy's lore
Sydney solicitor Chris Murphy simply enjoyed a wry chuckle. Murphy's big stake in Challenger Financial Services, bought with borrowed money through Opes Prime, has been described as the "black hole" into which the margin lender ultimately collapsed.
Challenger (CGF), along with Allco, Macquarie Bank, Babcock & Brown and ABC Learning Centres, had been one of the most "shorted" stocks on the ASX since the start of the year, and Murphy knew it.
On February 7 this year, Murphy emailed more than 60 movers and shakers in the corporate world, with the email landing in inboxes including many at the ASX and ASIC.
The email, entitled "shareholder action right now", called for a stop to short-selling.
"I have spoken to the holders of over 8 million CGF shares and I have asked them to contact their brokers and to demand that their holdings not be lent out for short-selling purposes," Murphy wrote.
"At this stage clients have contacted ABN Amro, Citi, Merrill Lynch, CommSec and Credit Suisse to inform them their shares are not to be lent out.
"Why? Over 200 million shares have been borrowed and churned in CGF through share lending to hedge funds attempting to force the share price down. At present if there is no share lending to shorters there will be a need for the shorters to buy back 15 million shares in CGF in very quick time and that will blast the stock price skyward. Continued…
