ME bank customers have complained of not being able to purchase petrol and groceries, with outages disrupting numerous debit and mastercard transactions on Friday afternoon. 

CBA is raising interest rates on a range of fixed-rate home loans, the latest big bank to increase costs for home buyers seeking to lock in their borrowing costs.

If Mnuchin becomes Treasury secretary, he'll be the third Goldman Sachs alum in three decades to get the job as the President-elect surrounds himself with bankers and billionaires.

ANZ Bank chief Shayne Elliott insists the bank's strategy of breaking ranks with rivals and doing a deal with Apple Pay is helping the lender's business.

The high-rise construction boom that is transforming the skylines of Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane will probably leave parts of these cities with too many apartments, ANZ Bank chief executive Shayne Elliott predicts.

Bank of Queensland chairman Roger Davis has highlighted the risks from a looming surge in apartment settlements Brisbane and Melbourne, amid signs more buyers are facing difficulties completing off-the-plan purchases.

Ombudsman Kate Carnell is suggesting changes to the banking code based on contracts and transparency.

The competition watchdog has knocked back a request from three of the country's major banks to launch a collective boycott of Apple Pay, in what it says is a "finely balanced" draft decision.

AMP has shaken up its management team in the wake of escalating losses in its life insurance division. 

A former Westpac financial planner has been banned from providing financial advice for eight years after an investigation found he gave clients inappropriate advice, costing the bank $1.1 million.

Corporate cop Greg Medcraft says the government's banking inquiry is right to focus on ways to make banks share more data on their customers, a move that would boost competition in the concentrated sector.

Australia's major banks must review whether staff have been setting up accounts customers did not want in order to hit sales targets, after the cross-selling scandal engulfing United States lender Wells Fargo.

Westpac Bank is the first of the majors to increase interest rates on its fixed rate home loans and investment loans, but market watchers says it likely the other majors will follow. 

ANZ Bank and Macquarie Group have admitted their traders tried to rig contracts in Malaysia's foreign exchange markets.

Banks say a plan to name and shame employees who break the rules within five days after their breach is "unrealistic" and have hosed down support for a banking tribunal.

Credit Suisse is courting investors to raise as much as $US2 billion for a fund that will buy stakes in hedge-fund firms.

Westpac-owned RAMS is hiking fixed interest rates by up to 0.4 percentage points, the latest lender to respond to growing market bets that official rates have bottomed.

Bank employees who break the rules would be publicly named and shamed within five days under changes proposed by a parliamentary committee examining the big four banks.

Identity theft is the fastest-growing type of fraud and a growing source of losses for banks as cyber criminals target the vast array of personal information held online, a new report warns.

A lack of accountability and a "few bad apples" mindset is plaguing Australia's largest corporations and is behind the mishandling of scandals and widespread misconduct in the financial services sector.

More parents are putting their assets on the line to guarantee their childrens' home loans, two major banks say, as rising prices prompt first home buyers to take on bigger debts.

Australia's banks need more than pledges from CEOs to improve their culture following a series of scandals at their financial planning and insurance arms, a leading finance expert has warned.

• COMMENT

Around this time of year, bosses of the big four banks steel themselves for a showdown over the billions of dollars banks lend to fossil fuel projects.

Commonwealth Bank has sliced a range of term deposit interest rates, the second round of cuts since it three months ago trumpeted rate rises on deposits as a win for savers.

Westpac is dismissing concerns of a looming apartment glut in Sydney and Melbourne, arguing neither city will face an oversupply of housing next year when thousands of new units come onto the market.

• ANALYSIS

Governments and big corporations no longer have borrowed money on tap at the lowest interest rates on record.

HSBC is looking to cash in on the rising number of business people making multimillion-dollar fortunes through closer ties with Asia, launching private banking services in Australia.

A series of companies associated with high-flying Sydney accountant have been found to have avoided paying tax by the High Court, in a case that the tax office has described as 'blatant tax evasion'.

CommSec has paid a $200,000 fine for allowing the relative of a deceased client to trade shares on the dead person's online account.