ANZ does not want to get a reputation for grabbing people's savings and stuffing their investments.
Anybody who has been watching TV and reading about the bailout fiasco can see the anger on the streets. Americans are walking the streets with placards saying "Stuff the banks". People are phoning their congressmen saying let the Bustards burn. I have spoken to my member of parliament and given him an earful of what I think about ANZ and the banking industry in general. AND he agreed, banks are under closer government scrutiny than ever before.
The people at ANZ will be aware of this. In these uncertain times ANZ does not want to get a reputation as a bank which will grab your savings at any opportunity. People are nervous. In Hong Kong there has been a run on a bank. Won't take much to start a stampede here. In America people are buying safes to keep their money rather than trust banks.
ANZ relies on our savings, even a modest run on ANZ would bring it to its knees in the current credit crunch. Any serious sustained bad publicity about ANZ's practices will cause it disproportionate harm in this climate. As you know, there are tragic stories about this fiasco that have been suppressed by the media. Once this gets into public domain ANZ will be very much under pressure.
ANZ will settle to save their skins.
ANZ Price at posting:
$19.15 Sentiment: Sell Disclosure: Held
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