, Columnist
The End of the Great Australian Bank Boom
Bad publicity and headline-grabbing fines aren’t to blame.
The culprit's to be found on the streets of the country’s sprawling suburbs.
Photographer: Peter Parks/Getty Images
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It doesn’t feel all that long ago that Australian banks were the envy of the world.
In March 2009, when stress-testing of U.S. financial institutions drove the final spasm of the previous year’s credit crisis, you could have bought all the shares in Citigroup Inc., Royal Bank of Scotland Group Plc and Barclays Plc with their $8.4 trillion of gross assets for less than you’d pay for the equity of Westpac Banking Corp., with $347 billion of assets.