Briefs: Citibank's profit falls, Stevens appointed to FSB role, FOS appoints new directors, MyState

Banking Day staff
  • Citibank Australia, the local retail banking arm of Citigroup, suffered a 31 per cent fall in net profit in 2014, according to a report in Fairfax Media. Net profit for the 12 months to December was A$227 million. Revenue fell 10 per cent to $1.2 billion. Net assets grew one per cent to $3.5 billion and residential mortgages grew five per cent to $8.9 billion. The bank's investment banking division, Citigroup Global Markets Australia, lost $35.3 million last year.
  • Reserve Bank governor Glenn Stevens has been appointed chair of the Financial Stability Board's Standing Committee on Assessment of Vulnerabilities. Other FSB appointments include Daniel Tarullo, a governor of the US Federal Reserve Board, who has been appointed to the FSB's Standing Committee of Supervisory and Regulatory Co-operation; and Ravi Menon, the managing director of the Monetary Authority of Singapore, who will chair the Standing Committee on Standards Implementation.
  • The Financial Ombudsman Service has appointed two new directors: Carmel Franklin, the chair of Financial Counselling Australia, has been appointed as a consumer director; and Louise Lakomy, a former executive financial planner at Westpac and a former director of the Financial Planning Association, has been appointed as an industry director.
  • MyState Ltd has sold its shares in the payments company Cuscal. MyState issued a statement saying it had reviewed its investment in Cuscal and determined that it did not represent a long-term strategic asset. It made a A$3.9 million profit in the sale. MyState will continue to use Cuscal as its payments and switching outsource provider.