Australia and New Zealand Banking Group News

A man who attempted to rape a woman in Christchurch in a terrifying six-hour ordeal had been deported from Australia a year earlier for multiple offences.

Commonwealth Bank says it will not discuss the exposures to the debt-laden Dubai World.

Tower Australia full-year profit declined by 32 per cent as the life insurer's investments were hit by volatile markets and a higher amortisations charge.

U.S. private equity investor JC Flowers is circling Britain's weakened banking industry, prepared to swoop on forced divestments over the next 12 months, according to the firm's new European and Asia Pacific boss.

RATINGS agency Standard & Poor's has warned that nearly all the world's big banks - including Australia's major lenders - have insufficient funds to cover their lending exposures and risk a ratings downgrade unless they move to bolster their balance sheets over the next 18 months.

An "evil" US con man who portrayed himself as a "Hanoi Hilton" prisoner of war survivor to scam victims in Australia, New Zealand and the US out of almost $US4 million has been jailed.

GE Capital, the financial services segment of the General Electric Company , today announced the appointment of Steve Sargent as president and CEO of GE Capital's business operations in Asia Pacific.

Sri Lanka's navy says it has intercepted two fishing trawlers carrying 60 asylum seekers heading for Australia.

MARKET RAP Time for a breather By R M Cutler MONTREAL - Asian stock exchanges began this week with a promising advance on Monday but Friday saw the MSCI Asia Pacific Index down for the fourth straight day, the longest losing streak in over four months.

MELBOURNE, AUSTRALIA and SUNNYVALE, CA -- -- 11/22/09 -- Zultys, Inc., the leading provider of elegantly simple Unified Communications : and VoIP Business Phone Systems : since 2001, today announced a distribution partnership with Alloy Computer Products of Melbourne, Australia.

Talk about a sticky situation for a company undertaking a capital raising. Crane rental company Boom Logistics entered a trading halt to conduct a $67 million equity raising on Tuesday only to receive a hostile takeover approach from its largest shareholder, Harbrew Group hours later.

ANZ has offloaded its custodian services business to US bank JPMorgan, in a bid to lay the ghost of its securities lending problems.

Over the last two weeks Nortel staff have been learning whether they have a future with the company as the process of integrating the vendor into its new owner Avaya proceeds.

" Australia New Zealand Banking Group, the parent bank of ANZ and National Banks, intends to sell its custodian services businesses in Australasia to investment bank JP Morgan.

Japanese whaling ships left port on Thursday for Antarctic waters for their annual hunt of the ocean giants, Greenpeace said, setting the stage for high-seas confrontations with anti-whaling activists.

In a move that highlights the difficulty of regulating ratings agencies, Standard & Poor's has joined Moody's in withdrawing its application to supply ratings of corporate bonds and other debt-based securities to retail investors in Australia, after new rules were announced this month by the Australian Securities and Investments Commission.

Police chiefs from around New Zealand and Australia have come together to launch a united stand against drunken violence.

Police chiefs from around Australia and New Zealand will come together to launch a united stand against drunken violence today.

French insurer AXA SA and Australia's AMP Ltd need to sweeten their bid for AXA Asia Pacific Holdings by about 10 percent to seal the proposed $11 billion deal, analysts and fund managers say.

Brightpoint, Inc. announced today that its subsidiary, Brightpoint Australia Pty Ltd , has entered into a distribution agreement with BlueAnt Wireless.