Briefs: NAB tipped to float UK banks, NZ joins Australia's tax crackdown, Sirius project financiers 30 October 2014 4:24PM Banking Day staff Briefs, Andrew Thorburn, the new chief executive of National Australia Bank, is tipped by The Herald Scotland to raise the possibility of removing the troubled Clydesdale and Yorkshire banks from NAB's balance sheet via a share float when he gives his first full-year results presentation later today. Thorburn, who recently announced plans for an IPO to offload the group's US subsidiary Great Western Bank, is keen to re-focus on the group's core Australian and New Zealand franchises, particularly as the UK banks may disclose further payment protection insurance claims by customers, seeking redress over PPI "mis-selling" along with claims for being shunted into complex business loans, speculates online news site, heraldscotland.com. New Zealand Revenue Minister Todd McClay announced New Zealand would join Australia in adopting FATCA-style measures for automatic exchanges of information through banks on companies' financial assets so as to minimise tax evasion. "New Zealand intends to align its timetable with Australia's and begin exchanging information on a voluntary basis from 2018, aiming for mandatory reporting in 2019. This will give New Zealand's financial industry enough time to comply with the initiative," McClay said. Rapidly expanding WA mining company Sirius Resources has named the banks that will provide debt financing for the construction of its A$473 million Nova Nickel Project in Western Australia. The four lead arrangers are ANZ, BNP Paribas, HSBC and Westpac. The jostling to fund the project extended to "unsolicited interest from a variety of potential financiers", according to Sirius managing director, Mark Bennett. Finalisation "is subject to a number of conditions precedent", including completion of legal and technical due diligence and documentation. The New Zealand finance company, Dorchester Pacific, has reached the 90 per cent threshold in its takeover of car auction firm Turners Group, allowing it to mop up remaining shares, BusinessDesk reports. Dorchester offered Turners' shareholders either NZ$3 a share in cash, two-year notes paying interest of nine per cent until they convert to Dorchester shares, ordinary shares of Dorchester, or any combination of the three. The car auction house will complement Dorchester's loan book, which shows 70 per cent is made of car loans, while the focus of its insurance business is also car related. One of the world's largest independent financial advisory organisations, deVere Group, is to launch in Australia. DeVere has more than 70 offices around the world, servicing over 80,000 clients, and has in excess of US$10 billion under advice and management. Its first Australian office will open in Melbourne in November, looking to service a core client base of well-heeled British expats. Nigel Green, founder and chief executive, said the move was "fuelled by consistent and increasing client enquiries in Australia for specialist cross-border financial advice." The expansion into Australia follows the firm's recent acquisition of Meridian Financial, which has an Australian Financial Services License. A country manager for deVere Australia would be appointed "imminently", the firm said.