A quick reflection on the past six months conjures up images of destruction, confusion, pain and suffering.
The misgivings and sufferings of the financial services industry at the hands of the global financial crisis (GFC) are considered by many not yet over. Despite the massive shake-up we’ve already had, many claim aftershocks are imminent.
While conducting an in-depth post mortem of the past six months would seem too cruel, perhaps a better way to consider the past six months of 2009 is just that – the past.
Perhaps the best way forward is to concentrate on the actions that have been taken to avoid the disasters so far.
It has been a common theme that advice firm Storm Financial and agribusiness companies Timbercorp and Great Southern were felled by the GFC.
Initially that suggestion may have stuck, however, as the stories behind the management of these firms are starting to unravel, such suggestions begin to sound less likely.
While stones have been cast at the management of Storm Financial, Timbercorp and Great Southern, perhaps attention should be turned to the future of these firms.
The Parliamentary Joint Committee on Corporations and Financial Services has already attracted a number of submissions from industry, with the inquiry into financial products and services to date receiving 111 submissions from industry participants and investors.
The inquiry into agribusiness managed investment schemes has attracted 40 submissions, including submissions from a number of key industry associations.
The action taken by those in the industry has already had a flow-on effect with Commonwealth Bank of Australia’s admission of involvement in Storm’s collapse and news ASIC is probing Bank of Queensland over its alleged involvement with Storm.
On the agribusiness front, Timbercorp investors also flexed their collective muscle and ousted the firm’s liquidator, KordaMentha, as responsible entity for a number of the group’s schemes.
Meanwhile, merger and acquisition activity within the funds management sector seems to be back on the cards.
In early June, BlackRock announced it had executed a purchase agreement to acquire Barclays Global Investors, including the iShares exchanged-traded funds unit, in a US$13.5 billion deal.
Late last month, MLC announced it was the successful bidder for Aviva’s wealth management business and last week asset consultant Watson Wyatt Worldwide became the latest M&A player when it agreed to merge with Towers, Perrin, Forster & Crosby.
If the second half of the year can continue in the same manner the first half ended, there surely will be more positives to come.
