Briefs: BMW Finance fined for responsible lending breaches, former public service high-flyer joins B
Car finance provider BMW Australia Finance has been fined A$391,000 and had conditions placed on its credit licence after the Australian Securities and Investments Commission found that it had breached responsible lending and repossession rules. ASIC said BMW Finance failed to make reasonable inquiries about consumers' living expenses and income and made insufficient inquiries about consumers' capacity to repay the loans. It also failed to inform consumers about their rights in situations where a vehicle was being repossessed. The company must appoint and independent consultant to review its policies and procedures. The Bendigo and Adelaide Bank board has appointed Jan Harris as a non-executive director. Harris has held senior roles in the Treasury, most recently deputy secretary, and in the Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet. She has been a member of the Council of Financial Regulators, the Centre for International Finance and Regulation and the Financial Sector Advisory Committee. She is currently a member of the audit and risk committee of the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation. ANZ has announced that it will outsource its financial planning administration to Macquarie Investment Management. ANZ will wind down it's A$6.9 billion wrap platform Oasis and move its planners to a new Macquarie wrap later this year. Oasis has 146 staff, who will be given "time, support and notice to consider other options." National Australia Bank has been notified by one of the ratings agencies that it is undertaking an assessment of Clydesdale Bank's deposit rating, utilised in certain secured funding programs, which could result in a downgrade of the deposit rating or the placing of the rating on credit watch. NAB said its spin-off company CYBG is expected to have a senior standalone investment grade credit rating. This development put off the CYBG float by a day. Commonwealth has raised US$1.36 billion in a dual-tranche covered bond issue, split into maturities of five and 15 years. Pricing on the five-year tranche was 33 basis points over mid-swaps. The funds were raised by CBA's own syndication team, with joint lead managers BNP Paribas and UBS.