Guidelines for banking in Australia

Australia is huge country having an assorted range of regional, city, state and international banks and financial institutions Mainly it has got four banks the Commonwealth Bank of Australia, the Australian and New Zealand banking group (ANZ), the National Australia Bank (NAB) and Westpac.  The Maquarie Bank looks after serious investor. There are other community banks like St. George that are popular as they are flexible and innovative.  Then there are also Industry based Credit Unions that are an alternative to the major banks. They have the advantage that you don’t have to be the member of the industry to join these banks.

In Australia electronic banking is very popular. All the banks have online banking facilities. It provides great comfort to the customers as the customers can access all information of their account online only. You can also take advantage of transferring money, pay bills and more. The banks facilities provided by the credit unions have less sophisticated and less established electronic banking facilities.

To lure more customers to their bank, there are many new schemes so that new immigrants open their account in that bank and for this provide a range of special services for newcomers. Bank like AMR also offers expert third party help in many functions like tax, asset protection and estate planning. If you want to open an account in Australia before reaching there it is possible to do so. In this you have to go to the branch of the bank in the country where you live, and providing 100 points of ID

The services provided by the bank are of diverse nature. They are almost the same as provided in any developed country like the short-term wholesale finance, and securities underwriting and placement. There are certain specialist banks giving help in resource and industry development.

If a foreign bank that wants to conduct banking business in Australia may operate either through an authorized branch or an authorized locally-incorporated subsidiary. Those banks who are authorized foreign bank subsidiaries can take on full range of banking business in Australia, however there is a rider to it and it is that they cannot take less A$250,000 from the public and so they cannot be involved in retail banking.

If a foreign bank that does not wish to conduct banking business in Australia but wishes to have an Australian representative office to provide liaison services to Australian customers in relation to its offshore banking services must obtain consent from APRA. It will also be required by APRA to register with ASIC as carrying on business in Australia.

Basically the services provided by the banks in Australia are at par with any other international standard bank. They will provide all the amenities and services that a  customer needs.