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The banking sector in Australia consists of a number of banks licensed to carry on banking business under the ''Banking Act 1959'', foreign banks licensed to operate through a branch in Australia, and Australian-incorporated foreign bank subsidiaries. The banking system is liquid, competitive and well developed. For the 10 years ended mid-2013, the Commonwealth Bank was ranked first in Bloomberg Riskless Return Ranking a risk-adjusted 18%. Westpac Bank was in fourth place with 11% and ANZ Bank was in seventh place with 8.7%.〔(【引用サイトリンク】title=Imbal hasil bank asal Australia Jawara )〕 == History == The first bank to be established in Australia was the Bank of New South Wales, which was established in Sydney in 1817, with Edward Smith Hall as its cashier and secretary. During the 19th and early 20th century, the Bank of New South Wales opened branches throughout Australia and Oceania: at Moreton Bay (Brisbane) in 1850, then in Victoria (1851), New Zealand (1861), South Australia (1877), Western Australia (1883), Fiji (1901), Papua New Guinea (1910) and Tasmania (1910). In 1835 a London-based bank called the Bank of Australasia was formed that would eventually become the ANZ Bank. In 1951, it merged with the Union Bank of Australia, another London-based bank, which had been formed in 1837. In 1970, it merged with the English, Scottish and Australian Bank Limited, another London-based bank, formed in 1852, in what was then the largest merger in Australian banking history, to form the Australia and New Zealand Banking Group Limited. A speculative boom in the Australian property market in the 1880s led to the Australian banking crisis of 1893. This was in an environment where little government control or regulation of banks had been established and led to the failure of 11 commercial banks. Until 1910 banks could issue private bank notes, except in Queensland which issued treasury notes (1866–1869) and banknotes (1893–1910) which were legal tender in Queensland. Private bank notes were not legal tender except for a brief period in 1893 in New South Wales. There were, however, some restrictions on their issue or other provisions for the protection of the public. Queensland Treasury notes were legal tender in that State. Notes of both categories continued in circulation until 1910, when the ''Australian Notes Act 1910'' prohibited the circulation of State notes as money and the ''Bank Notes Tax Act 1910'' imposed a tax of 10% per annum on 'all bank notes issued or re-issued by any bank in the Commonwealth ... and not redeemed'. These Acts put an end to the issue of notes by the trading banks and the Queensland Treasury. The ''Reserve Bank Act 1959'' expressly prohibits persons from issuing bills or notes payable to bearer on demand and intended for circulation.〔(【引用サイトリンク】url=http://www.abs.gov.au/ausstats/abs@.nsf/Previousproducts/1301.0Feature%20Article21966 )〕 In 1910, the Australian pound was issued and was the legal tender in Australia. The Commonwealth Bank was established in 1911 by the federal government and by 1913 had branches in all six states. In 1912, it took over the state savings bank in Tasmania and did the same in 1920 with the state savings bank in Queensland. As with many other countries, the Great Depression of the 1930s brought a string of bank failures. In 1931, Commonwealth Bank took over two faltering state savings banks: the Government Savings Bank of New South Wales (est. 1871) and the State Savings Bank of Western Australia (est. 1863). In 1991, it also took over the failing State Bank of Victoria (est. 1842). From the end of the Great Depression banking in Australia became tightly regulated. Until the 1980s, it was virtually impossible for a foreign bank to establish branches in Australia; consequently Australia had very few banks when compared with such places as the United States or Hong Kong. Moreover, banks in Australia were classified into two distinct categories, known as ''savings banks'' and ''trading banks''. Savings banks paid virtually no interest to their depositors and their lending activities were restricted to providing mortgages. Many of these savings banks were owned by state governments. Trading banks were essentially merchant banks, which did not provide services to the general public. Because of these and numerous other regulatory restrictions, other forms of non-bank financial institutions flourished in Australia, such as building societies and credit unions. These were subjected to less stringent regulations, could provide and charge higher interest rates, but were restricted in the range of services they could offer. Above all, they were not allowed to call themselves "banks". From 1920, the Commonwealth Bank performed some central bank functions, which were greatly expanded during World War II. This arrangement caused some discomfort for the other banks, and as a result the central bank functions were transferred to the newly created Reserve Bank of Australia on 14 January 1960. The banking industry was slowly deregulated. In the mid-1960s, the distinction between trading and savings banks was removed and all banks were allowed to operate in the money market (traditionally the domain of merchant banks), and banks were allowed to set their own interest rates. From the 1970s, banks have sought to reduce operating costs by adopting new technologies. The use of the Bank State Branch (BSB) identifier was introduced in the early 1970s with the introduction of MICR on cheques to mechanise the process of data capture by the banks as well as for mechanical sorting and bundling of the physical cheques for forwarding to the payer bank branch for final cheque clearance. Since then, BSBs have been used in electronic transactions (but is not in financial card numbering). The rollout of Automated teller machines (ATMs) commenced in 1969. Foreign exchange controls were abolished and the Australian dollar was permitted to float from December 1983. The boom and bust of the 1980s was another turbulent time for banks, with some establishing leading market positions, and others being absorbed by the larger banks. The Australian government's direct ownership of banks ceased with the full privatisation of the Commonwealth Bank between 1991 and 1996. There was also increased competition from non-bank lenders, such as providers of securitised home loans. Following the Wallis Committee a Report, in 1998 the oversight of the banks was transferred from the RBA to the Australian Prudential Regulation Authority (APRA) and the Payments System Board (PSB) was created, which would attempt to maintain the safety and performance of the payments system. At the time, consumer credit in Australia was primarily loaned in the form of installment sales credit. The arrival of hundreds of thousands of readily employable migrant workers under the post-war immigration scheme, coupled with intense competition amongst lenders, discouraged proper investigation into buyers. Concerns about the possibly inflationary impact of lending created the first finance companies in Australia.〔 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Banking in Australia」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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