PART A

1. Select five groups of financial institutions (i.e. life insurance is one group, general insurance is another) in the Australian financial system. Compare the amount of assets owned by each of the different groups of financial institution in the Australian financial system?

2. Investigate the size and proportion of lending to the different sectors by the commercial banks. Has the proportion of lending changed over time?

3. Where do the commercial banks source their funds? How has the funding structure to the commercial banks changed over the years?

Section 1 & 2 requirements in details

• You must collect at least 5 years’ worth of data and the data must be current (at least extended to September 2018). These data are usually available from Reserve Bank, Australian Prudential Regulatory Authority (APRA) or Australia Bureau of Statistics (ABS) Financial Accounts.

• You may present part (1) in table. Though not a requirement it also helps if you plot those figures on a line graph.

PART B

The Honourable Kenneth Madison Hayne AC QC just recently submitted his final report to the Governor-General on 1 February 2019 for the inquiry into the financial services industry.

Required:

1. List and discuss the objectives of the government in setting up of this inquiry.

2. How is the recent Royal Commission on the Banking, Superannuation and Financial Services different from the Murray Inquiry in the financial system back in 2014

3. Read through Chapter 2 Banking of the final report. Which area of the commercial banking activities has been the main target of this Royal inquiry? Where are the conclusions and recommendations tabled by the inquiry?