Briefs: BOQ writes off new CRM system, stats on managed funds, Japan to ease banking rules, RBS out

Banking Day staff
  • Bank of Queensland will take a $7 million hit to its half-year earnings after it announced APRA had blocked plans to introduce a new cloud-based customer relationship management system, the AFR has reported. The bank has been piloting the use of a CRM system from Salesforce since late 2012 in a few branches and had planned to role it out across the bank. It said the board had decided to impair the $10 million pre-tax carrying value in the system, which is the amount it has invested to date.

  • The latest figures from the Australian Bureau of Statistics show that, at 31 December 2014, the managed funds industry had A$2.49 billion funds under management, an increase of $57.6 billion (two per cent) on the September quarter. The main "valuation effects" during the December quarter 2014 were: the S&P/ASX 200 increased 2.2 per cent; the price of foreign shares, as represented by the MSCI World Index (excluding Australia), increased 0.8 per cent; and the Australian dollar depreciated 6.7 per cent against the US dollar.

  • Japan is considering relaxing rules on what businesses bank holding companies can own, allowing lenders to invest more freely in IT ventures as they face growing competition from non-bank online payment services, reports the Economic Times. The rule changes would also allow bank holding companies to allocate assets and functions more freely among subsidiaries.

  • Nearly 1500 staff of the Royal Bank of Scotland based in India might be out of a job. The Economic Times reports that the bank will try and sell its operations and give up its branch status in the country.