The latest SICAG email update hit my friends today...no surprise there is not ONE mention of any media comment towards Manny.
Here are some excerpts, seriously guys, I know you are trying to achieve justice, but it's time to turn one barrel of the 12 gauge on Storm for a change. I applaud the social work SICAG is achieving, but WHY won't you turn ANY attention on the Cassimatis's? An explanation is owed:
It is necessary to make a comment in regard to two connected issues that potentially will cause most concern in the process of reaching a satisfactory conclusion to this dispute. The bank in its rhetoric is unmistakeably implying that it should be understood that the share market had suffered unprecedented falls and that they will not willingly be responsible for addressing losses as a result. The other connected issue is the question of who was responsible for managing our margin loans and making the margin calls in the face of a ‘tanking market’. Members will be aware that the bank has been sheeting the blame entirely back to Storm and to the clients on this question. However we feel sure that members will be unanimous in their belief that despite the market volatility, the investment model they invested in which was conducted in a ‘joined at the hip’ relationship by Storm and CBA, under no circumstances should it have allowed their financial wellbeing, along with their lives to be totally decimated. For the bank to maintain the stance that their Terms and Conditions are legally binding and that this entitled them to sit on their hands and do nothing while watching their clients be destroyed, for no other reason other than that they simply could, will by any standard of unconscionable conduct be unsustainable in the face of intense negotiations.
That's great, now where's the pressure on Manny? Why is he sitting but 20km away and you guys with your presence are doing nothing to ask him where it all went awry?
The bank managers who were too good to be true
Duncan Hughes
The mystery of how two BoQ managers outdid all their peers may be unlocked by the Storm inquiry.
Being the top-performing branch in Bank of Queensland's 215-strong national network is no small feat. But doing it two years in a row earned a stream of accolades for Declan Carnes and Matthew Buchanan, the owner-managers of Bank of Queensland's North Ward branch on the outskirts of Townsville. Carnes was the celebrated branch manager of the year in 2006 for achieving sales three times budget, and Buchanan shared the glory from the unprecedented pinnacle of back-to-back top performances. Chief executive David Liddy was gushing: the two owner-managers "represent the bank's five core values - passion, achievement, courage, integrity and teamwork - and this is reflected both in their growing customer base and their branch's amazing financial performance". Not everyone was enraptured. "Bank management was always running around telling other branches that we could do it like the North Ward," said Jeff Jones , a former Bank of Queensland branch manager who has been involved in finance for 30 years.
"But they would never tell us how they did it." The branch's "amazing" financial performance is under scrutiny as part of a seven-month criminal and corporate investigation into the collapse of Storm Financial by the Australian Securities and Investments Commission, a federal parliamentary inquiry and a pending legal action by former customers. The Storm disaster has ensnared Bank of Queensland and Commonwealth Bank of Australia, the two lenders with the strongest ties to the Townsville-based financial advisory firm that collapsed in January, sinking thousands ofcustomers in hundreds of millions of dollars of debt. For months, despite mounting evidence of dodgy loan applications, both banks stood their ground that they had done no wrong. The mess Storm clients were in was solely due to the failed firm's advice and of the clients' own making. "I believe the situation they got themselves into is their responsibility," CBA chief Ralph Norris said in February. But last week - just before the inquiry's first public hearing and following ASIC's suggestion that it could use its own powers to force a settlement for Storm clients - Norris recanted. In an extraordinary about-face Norris admitted his bank had identified shortcomings in lending to Storm clients and promised to put things right. This week he went even further, agreeing to work with law firm Slater & Gordon, which is representing 1300 clients, to implement an accelerated resolution process and bringing in former High Court judge Ian Callinan as an independent arbitrator. Liddy dug in. After months of fobbing off detailed inquiries from TheAustralian Financial Review about Bank of Queensland's involvement and exposure Liddy finally went on the record on Thursday to clarify what the bank called "significant misinformation". There was no evidence of improper or dishonest practices or conduct, no evidence of misleading or deceptive conduct, no proceedings from Slater & Gordon and no formal investigations from ASIC, the bank said in a 15-point rebuttal aimed at soothing investor concerns about any costly fallout. ASIC demanded a rebuttal of the rebuttal, which Bank of Queensland was forced to issue on Friday afternoon. His comments that it was not facing any legal action were pilloried by lawyers and former investors.
According to the bank, there are about 319 customers who were associated with Storm with aggregate loans of about $105 million. It would not comment on other Bank of Queensland branch managers' claims that the vast bulk, if
not all, came from the North Ward branch. Through its franchise model the bank pays owner-managers initial, or
upfront, commissions of about 0.5 per cent and trailing commissions of some 0.15 per cent, on loans. Based on the bank's numbers that would mean in the four years to the end of 2008 the branch earned about $1 million in
commissions from bank loans alone. But former managers, like Jones, claim the branch at its peak was generating
loans of between $20 million and $30 million a month, massively inflating commissions. The bank would not comment. According to Storm's former national development manager, Ron Jelich, whohas provided lengthy statutory declarations to the parliamentary inquiry, the North Ward branch and Storm headquarters had worked "hand in glove" for several years. "I have accounts from three former Townsville Storm staff that Buchanan was in their office every day," Jelich said. Buchanan referred questions to the head office, which refused to comment. Carnes would not comment. The AFR has previously reported on several cases of former Storm clients who
claimed they were unaware that they had taken out Bank of Queensland loan and remortgages because all the paper work was handled by Storm advisers.
This is all well and good, and I commend SICAG on trying to find answers. The question is, why aren't SICAG looking for the obvious answers from the guy who is actually responsible and lives but 20km away in Belmont behind iron gates?
The bias is really getting old.