digital conveyancing users group

No CT - abolish certificates of title

2011-11-17T18:07:00.003+11:00

No CT - full stop

First Principle
In the brave new world with no paper titles, to rely upon, you cannot sell unless you are properly identified as the person who has the right to deal with the title. The issue of Identity moves to the forefront.

How to eliminate the paper certificate of title?

Identity: First, title holder(s) must obtain a Proof Of Identity certificate "POI certificate". This should be done by certifying bodies such as the local Post Office and not necessarily done by the lawyer or conveyancer ~ dont burden us with this responsibility
Key: The title holder must obtain a "Private Key" from the Land Titles Office; upon production of their POI certificate - and - the surrender of their paper title if its a clear unencumbered title
Insurance: every title holder has option of buying title insurance when they obtain their Private Key ($100) - this deals with the naysayers who continually raise the issue of fraud.

Settlements and Transfers

Vendors / Transferors

Must use a registered conveyancer
Must produce the Private Key and their POI certificate
Transferor cannot settle without conveyancer logging the Private Key into the NECS or whatever its called (or handing it over over at a physical settlement if there is such a thing anymore)

Purchasers / Transferees

Upon registration of the transfer of land a Private Key is issued to transferee.
When they come to sell or transfer, repeat above

The first step to electronic conveyancing is the elimination, in toto, of the paper or duplicate certificate of title, no exceptions. That is, there is no such thing as electronic conveyancing unless paper titles are abolished

Link to NSW certificate of title solution

Last rites for state's white elephant project

2011-08-19T13:42:00.001+10:00

AT long last, the end is in sight for one of the most wasteful and counter-productive projects ever dreamt up by a state government.

Victoria's utterly useless electronic conveyancing system, ECV, is about to be devoured by a truly national e-conveyancing system.

Ownership of ECV's intellectual property has been transferred to the company that will own the national system.

That company, NECDL, intends to merge the Victorian system into a network that will span the nation.

With the end of ECV in sight, Victorian taxpayers should be dancing in the streets. This system has been bleeding public money for years and has failed to deliver anything that remotely resembles electronic conveyancing.

It has been little more than a make-work scheme for consultants and an excuse for plenty of paper-shuffling and interstate travel by bureaucrats.

Solicitors and the big banks wanted nothing to do with it.

When the current Victorian government was in opposition, it had labelled ECV a "$50 million white elephant". But that probably understates things.

In 2009, figures contained in a regulatory impact statement indicated ECV could cost the Victorian government $80m in development costs by 2013-14, much of which was to be spent on contractors and consultants.

The decision to eliminate this system comes after repeated warnings from the big banks that they would only deal with an e-conveyancing network that spanned the nation.

The state's solicitors had also declined to use ECV because the Legal Practitioners' Liability Committee was worried that it would increase their potential liability.

So without the banks and solicitors, ECV could not be used for conveyancing. But it did succeed brilliantly in one area. It delayed for years the development of a truly national e-conveyancing system.

The previous Victorian government had sunk so much money into ECV that it could not accept the reality that it was on the wrong side of history. Before a national system could take root, the state-based system had to go.

The deal that will finally bury ECV is a masterpiece in bureaucratic face-saving.

ECV's intellectual property was independently valued but both the current Victorian government and NECDL say the results of that valuation are "commercial in confidence".

Unless that changes, Victorian taxpayers will never know the size of the financial gap between the valuation and the cost of building the system. Victoria has almost certainly lost money, but the beauty of the deal with NECDL is that those losses have not been crystallised.

In return for the intellectual property, Victoria has emerged with 33.7 per cent of NECDL. Other major shareholders are the governments of NSW, Queensland and Western Australia. But Victoria is the biggest shareholder.

The national system, which is expected to begin operating late next year, will be known as PEXA or Property Exchange Australia.

It is intended to deliver annual efficiency gains of $240m that will be shared between consumers and all those involved in the $1.4 billion conveyancing industry.

The cost of conveyancing for a typical home is expected to fall by between $120 and $130.

What a pity the intransigence of the previous state government meant those savings were not available years ago.

Chris Merritt | Legal Editor | The Australian | 19 Aug 2011

WTF - Special Condition in Contract of Sale

2011-08-13T09:27:00.003+10:00

Hey this dude is way beyond the curve. Found this special condition contained in a Contract of Sale .....

"If by the Settlement Date, electronic conveyancing has been introduced within Victoria (not on a trial basis), the Vendor may advise the Purchaser that it wishes to settle electronically. If the Purchaser elects not to settle electronically, it shall pay to the Vendor at settlement, $200, being the Vendor's estimate of the additional expense in not settling electronically"

UK Electronic conveyancing transactions 'still raise concerns'

2011-07-08T13:11:00.000+10:00

Consumers are still raising concerns about the use of electronic signatures and transfers being used in conveyancing transactions, the Land Registry has claimed.

Offering its response to the consultation paper E-Conveyancing Secondary Legislation - part 3, the body said it would proceed by using electronic lodgement and despatch.

"As a result, we are writing off development expenditure relating to electronic charges, signatures and transfers and making a number of other accounting adjustments in the annual report to better reflect the current status of our services," explained Malcolm Dawson, chief land registrar and chief executive.

6 July 2011

UK Land Registry puts e-transfers 'on hold'

2011-07-02T10:04:00.000+10:00

National registry for England and Wales to concentrate on automating delivery systems after stakeholders express concern about electronic transfers

Land Registry has scrapped plans to use electronic transfers with e-signatures and to extend the use of electronic legal charges. This follows a consultation that concluded that customers were "unconvinced" by the process.
The agency launched the consultation in March last year to see whether its stakeholders, primarily conveyancers, lenders, financial institutions, regulatory and representative bodies and other property professionals, were receptive to the idea.
Malcolm Dawson, chief land registrar and chief executive of Land Registry, says in the new document that it found customers had faced a number of problems when using the service, and had serious security concerns.
"These problems have contributed to people's doubts about proceeding further down the e-conveyancing road at this time, especially when that journey is taking us towards the cornerstone of the whole electronic system: e-transfers," he says.

"This consultation has told us that many of our customers and stakeholders are unconvinced that the time is right to offer e-transfers. They would want to see e-charges and e-signatures sorted out first and they have not yet been persuaded that e-transfers are desirable or achievable in a time of low property sales and increased risk of fraud."
The e-transfer proposals would have made it possible to carry out the main conveyancing steps in the sale and purchase of a house electronically instead of using paper documents.
Dawson reveals that the agency will now focus on automating its delivery systems, so that customers can send in electronically documents that have been prepared "in a traditional way". Although the document does not explain this further, it implies that it will be able to process paper documents that have been scanned.
"This outcome will, I am sure, disappoint those who were enthusiastic about moving straight to a fully electronic conveyancing system. But, after listening to a wide range of people, we believe that the solution we're now proposing is practical, sensible and in tune with the times," he adds.
In the agency's annual report and accounts for 2010-11 also published on 30 June, Dawson explains that although customers had particular concerns about e-signatures and transfers, the percentage of transactions delivered electronically continued to increase in 2010-11, with over 70% of lenders using its electronic discharges services.
"Our current range of e-services is testament to our technological successes," he says, adding that it is still important to acknowledge the problems that customers had encountered.

The Guardian 2 July 2011

State-Sanctioned Larceny

2010-10-15T06:59:00.001+11:00

Buy a home and Brumby pockets a five-figure sum. Stamp duty is a plain ripoff.

I HAVE always been amazed at how passively Victorians accept the outrageous impost of stamp duty when buying their homes. In which other circumstance would any normal individual willingly sign over tens of thousands of dollars to a government for nothing in return - not even a stamp?

Of all the oppressive and inequitable ways in which state politicians raise money, I would rate the exploitation of problem gamblers in pokie dens as the worst, and stamp duty on home purchases a close second.

Last financial year, John Brumby's government collected about $3.6 billion in duty on property transfers. Based on current stamp duty rates, anyone buying a house in Melbourne at the June quarter median price of $559,000 faced an additional bill of $28,610 to cover Brumby's share.

Most victims of this fiscal larceny are middle class. Many are mortgaged close to their financial limits just to cover the house purchase. Stamp duty adds tens of thousands of dollars to their mortgages - and years to the length of time they must toil to pay it all off.

Many of these people are also second or third-time mugs. Sometimes, through no fault of their own, people have to move house - to cater for extra children, perhaps, or to scale down after a divorce. On each occasion, the state helps itself to an additional five-figure slab of their savings.

Why do we put up with this? Why isn't this outrage higher on the list of issues people will consider when casting their votes at the state election on November 27? And why isn't there a riot outside Brumby's office when he indicates, as he did this week, that large stamp duty cuts are off the table?

One explanation for our collective acquiescence on stamp duty is what might be called the wealth illusion. When prices rise, owner-occupiers tend to feel richer - even though they still only have a house and a mortgage. As long as people feel like they're ahead, the mandatory payment to the state of a premier's ransom can be dispatched to the ''hey, who cares?'' bin.

But this explanation flies only as long as property values head north. If prices were to go into reverse - as some economists believe they will, and as has already occurred in many developed countries - some Victorians would wind up with houses worth less then their loans. Thirty grand or so lost to stamp duty wouldn't seem so trivial then.

There are additional problems in the way stamp duty is perceived. When public debate flares on the subject, backyard ''experts'' sometimes bob up proffering superficially persuasive theories on why stamp duty might not actually hurt you. Please ignore these people and be in no doubt: when the state relieves you of $28,610, you really are being relieved of $28,610.

Emotional factors involved in property transactions may also contribute to public apathy. In the afterglow of a house purchase, a huge bill for stamp duty might not seem so unconscionable when it turns up some weeks later amid all the excitement of moving in to the new digs.

But I wonder how people would feel if they had to pay stamp duty up front? What if Brumby gave up what he normally does on Saturdays and spent the day showing up at auctions and demanding tens of thousands of dollars on-the-spot from successful bidders? That might focus their minds. And it certainly wouldn't win the Premier any friends.

The case for Brumby to slash stamp duty is not just about fairness to individuals. As property values have soared over the past decade, and as the government has cynically used this to rake in extra billions in stamp duty, the state finances have become dangerously exposed to any reversal in property prices.

In his comments this week hosing down expectations of stamp duty relief, Brumby protested that the state already had a narrow revenue base. ''The question is, how do you pay for it?'' he said.

Let me offer a couple of suggestions. I have written before of a potentially large revenue stream available to any government with the courage to convert suburban freeways into state-owned tollways. The current situation, in which some are tolled and some aren't, is illogical and discriminatory.

Modest tolls on freeways - lower than those on private roads such as CityLink - would be a far more decent, equitable and sustainable way to raise money than preying arbitrarily on gambling addicts and home buyers. The tolls could also act as a congestion tax, perhaps levied at higher rates in peak times. A logical starting point would be to toll the new Frankston bypass.

Another alternative source of cash - admittedly a challenging one politically - could be to persuade the Gillard government to think again on its Henry tax review options and consider a small increase in the main source of state revenue, the GST.

In the meantime, by insisting there are no practical alternatives to his punitive rates of stamp duty, Brumby presents a gift-wrapped political opportunity to his opponent, Ted Baillieu.

The Age . Tom Ormonde . 15/10/10

Streamlined identity checks required to prevent property fraud

2010-09-30T14:52:00.001+10:00

Electronic checks and balances throughout the property sales transaction process need to be enforced to better protect the seller from a fraudulent sale, according to the Australian Institute of Conveyancers’ Tasmanian division president Helen Kent.

Referring to a recent news story about a Perth property investor whose Perth property was sold through a scammer in Nigeria while he was overseas, Kent said this could have been prevented if the proposed electronic conveyancing system was in place.

She said it’s particularly relevant for interstate or international investors who don’t necessarily deal with agents, banks, conveyancers and solicitors face-to-face but can have their identity checked through a streamlined verification process.

“The real estate agents may hate it because it’s an additional form for them to fill out but they’re the first port of call for vendors and in the case of the Perth investor it was where the fraudulent sale process first started,” said Kent.

“It’s all very well to see an email saying ‘I’d like to sell my property’, but agents also need to take responsibility in verifying identities.

“The electronic client authorisation form has been in the pipeline for quite some time,” she said.

But Kent now demands that the electronic form development process speed up to provide better protection for vendors.

Another related issue that needs to be addressed is the record of signatures, she said. “Presently the only document where a purchaser’s signature is recorded is at the Land Titles Office on the mortgage papers, as purchasers in Tasmania aren’t required to sign the transfer document.”

She said in the case where a property owner pays cash for a property there is no record of that property owner’s signature.

“This should also become part of the electronic process so it can be easily accessed online (by the appropriate people) for verification purposes,” said Kent.

She also encourages investors to ensure their title is in a safe place where their will or other valuable documents are kept.

“This is just another necessary safeguard measure vendors must take. Purchasers and property owners may also safeguard themselves against fraud by taking out title insurance,” she said.

The Perth investor’s scenario should be a wake up call to all involved in the sales process that they must always check identification, said Kent.

The same applies to property managers when a ‘so-called’ property owner wants them to manage a property.

Kent said in a situation recently, a tenant fraudulently represented himself to the property manager as the owner of the property he tenanted so he could sub-lease the property to students for a higher price than he was paying.

Fortunately he didn’t get away with it and was caught out, but this situation is happening, said Kent.

Source Australian Property News

Helpline runs hot with gripes about estate agents

2010-09-18T04:12:00.001+10:00

Jason Dowling the age
September 18, 2010

EVER thought a property you were interested in was underquoted? Not happy with a real estate agent?

You're not alone. More than 10,000 calls were made last financial year to a helpline for those concerned about the conduct of Victorian real estate agents. Consumer Affairs dealt with 661 disputes involving agents, leading to settlements totalling $223,284.

In one case, a consumer paid a holding deposit on a block of land and the block was later sold to another buyer who paid a full deposit.

Other cases include a buyer who was told a property had a lock-up garage when it only had a carport, and a property falsely advertised as having reverse-cycle heating and cooling.

In July, Consumer Affairs conducted a blitz on underquoting that led to two prosecutions. A separate analysis of complaints to Consumer Affairs about misleading pricing ''found possible breaches in nine cases''.

Formal warnings were issued to six agents advertising less than the vendors' recorded asking/reserve price - letters were also sent to two agents ''to educate'' on price advertising.

Civil action was taken against Stockdale & Leggo (Craigieburn/Roxburgh Park) alleging misleading price advertising of three Craigieburn properties. ''One property was advertised as 'private sale: $290,000 plus', despite the authorised sale price being $330,000,'' the Consumer Affairs annual report stated.

Despite the breaches, Real Estate Institute of Victoria spokesman Robert Larocca said agents generally do the right thing.

He said the number of Consumer Affairs inquiries relating to real estate agents had declined, while the number of house sales had increased.

The Nigerians are coming - title fraud in WA

2010-09-14T12:18:00.002+10:00

Aja Styles
September 13, 2010 - 5:55PM

Property sales should be better policed in the wake of a scam that resulted in Perth man Roger Mildenhall having a property sold without his knowledge, the Real Estate Institute of Western Australia has admitted.

Mr Mildenhall was living in Cape Town when his Deanmore Road duplex in Karrinyup was sold without his knowledge for $485,000 in June by Nigerian-based scammers purporting to be him.

The scammers then tried selling his Hale Road home in Wembley Downs, which was full of his furniture and two cars, but were foiled when a neighbour alerted Mr Mildenhall to the sale.

REIWA chief executive, Anne Arnold, has called for more secure documentation methods, particularly over land title transfers, to be overseen by the state government.

"The Certificate of Title is a tradable commodity, just like cash, so it's probably time for Landgate to look at more sophisticated security measures on the actual document, such as a microchip as we have on our passports," Mrs Arnold said.

"This scam was very slick, but the key point at which it could have been detected was during the settlement process.

"The fact that the scammers were able to either forge a Certificate of Title or trick Landgate into issuing a new certificate of title, means we really need to look at much greater levels of security around the actual document itself.

"Under the Act, agents are required to search the title at the time of listing a property, but the bona fides of the seller are not required to be checked. In most cases agents are dealing with clients that they know so it's not an issue."

She said it was her understanding that once the Certificate of Title has been registered by Landgate, the transaction was complete and the property has changed hands, so it was unlikely that Mr Mildenhall would be able to recover the property.

Mrs Arnold said REIWA would be working closely with the Real Estate and Business Agents Supervisory Board to review current protocols, but doubted that identity checks on sellers would have prevented this particular case from occurring.

She said that agents were finding that an increasing number of properties were being sold online and on instructions to agents via emails, faxes and phone calls, with little or no face-to-face interaction with sellers.

"While these methods are very convenient for interstate and overseas buyers and sellers, it is now more important that everyone involved in the transaction takes steps to authenticate the process and, in particular, the seller's ownership of the property", Mrs Arnold said.

"This has been a 'perfect storm' of events by a very sophisticated outfit which seemed to have a great deal of knowledge about this owner, his property, his overseas movements, and the legal process in WA for selling homes."

Commissioner for Consumer Protection Anne Driscoll agreed that the processes should be reviewed thoroughly.

"It is important that every phase of the sale and transfer process that was undertaken in this instance is reviewed, to ascertain what went wrong," she said.

"This no doubt this will give some clarity about what should/could have been done to prevent it.

"In the interim the two regulatory Boards responsible for the real estate and settlement industries have issued email warning to all licensees in WA asking that they be particularly vigilant to confirm the identity of owners of property and that any signatures on legal documents are verified before proceeding with a real estate transaction.

"Separate to this issue work is being done to develop standards for proposed electronic conveyancing systems. A key area of work is to establish a robust Client Identify Verification Standard."

WA Today

ECV joins national standards body LIXI

2010-08-27T08:58:00.000+10:00

In a further step towards the establishment of a national e-conveyancing system, the Victorian Department of Sustainability and Environment has joined LIXI.
The National E-Conveyancing Development was set up earlier this year to develop a national e-conveyancing system (NECS).
The establishment of such a system would offer lenders considerable cost savings when settling a mortgage.
Past projections have noted that a fully operational NECS would reduce the average cost of a major bank settling a loan from the mortgage preparation step to the registration step by about $68, representing a $46 million cost saving across the lending industry.
LIXI has been working with industry partners and other state titles offices for the past two years on the specification of the data standards to ensure that the internet-based transactions are compatible around the nation.
LIXI chief executive, Erik Fenna, said the news was positive for the industry.
“As a member based standards body, LIXI welcomes the opportunity to ensure that national data standards meet the requirements for the whole industry,” Fenna said.
“The successful take up of electronic conveyancing by industry requires common standards for communication across the states, regardless of the system ultimately being used.
“The inclusion of DSE with their ECV system of full online lodgement and settlement is an essential step toward the successful design, development and implementation of national electronic conveyancing.”
Chris McRae, executive director Land Victoria, in DSE said: “DSE is a keen supporter of national electronic conveyancing and I am confident that our membership of LIXI will assist in reaching that goal.”

SOurce http://www.australianbankingfinance.com/news/

Conveyancing Excellence

2010-08-06T16:12:00.003+10:00

Matt Duker and Brett Hayton have combined their conveyancing practices and formed a new incorporated legal practice Conveyancing Excellence Pty Ltd trading from 300 Centre Road Bentleigh. Brett Hayton is the principal.

Check out the new website Conveyancing Excellence

A new phase for the National Electronic Conveyancing agenda

2010-07-01T11:15:00.001+10:00

NECDL TAKES OVER THE DRIVING SEAT

On 1st July National E-conveyancing Development Ltd (NECDL) assumed responsibility for progressing the national e-conveyancing system in Australia.

It was always envisaged that when the requirements for NECS were pretty well settled a new entity would take over responsibility for provisioning the system. That time has now come and NECDL is the entity formed early this year in accordance with COAG determinations to make national e-conveyancing a reality. We told you about NECDL and the transition of our role to it in Issue 43. It is a company owned equally by the Governments of Queensland, New South Wales and Victoria and governed by a board of directors nominated by its owners and key industry stakeholder associations.

You can follow the path that has brought us to this point on our website. It hasn’t always been a smooth ride but the constructive input and enthusiastic cooperation from stakeholders, large and small, has enabled us to give NECDL a sound basis to work from. For that we thank you most sincerely.

The Chairman of NECDL, Alan Cameron, believes that this point marks the transition to a new and fruitful stage in delivering a national e-conveyancing system for Australia. He said the company aims to develop an e-conveyancing system that is national, secure and sustainable that picks up from the substantial development work we have done. Marcus Price, who has joined the company as its CEO with a project management and IT background, will lead this stage.

Recognising the work done so far, Mr Cameron said: “There are many strong believers in the benefits of a national e-conveyancing system, but none more so than Simon Libbis who has led NECO. Simon has driven the thinking around the many issues that face such a system and delivered what is now a substantial body of knowledge on e-conveyancing. He has been well supported by many stakeholder groups and particularly the National Project Team.”

“I would like to personally thank Simon for his tenacity and vision as Executive Director of NECO. I would also like to pay tribute to the National Project Team for its important contribution”, Mr Cameron said.

Marcus Price has advised that he is well under way with the next phase for the work which involves a much stronger commercial focus. He is, however, at pains to point out that the company is not starting again but picking up from where work has got to so far.

Talking about the company’s intention, Mr Price said: “NECDL’s business plan for its initial phase will include an assessment of the current intellectual property on hand from all sources – including that held by Victoria – as well as the regulatory environment needed to sustain e-conveyancing across Australia.

“It is expected that the plan and its key findings, including a governance and funding model, will be available in October 2010 and we will be seeking your feedback”, he said.

Recognising that ongoing industry and interest group consultation is critical to any program in this area, the company will be providing an update on its progress to all stakeholders via a web-cast on 20 July 2010 (12 noon AEST). It is one of several updates the company plans to deliver by web-cast over the next few months. Full details of how to access the web-casts will be sent to you shortly. In the meantime, you might like to put this first date in your diary. The web-casts will also be available on demand if this date and time doesn’t suit you. Any questions or comments you have can be directed toinfo@necd.com.au.

NECDL is well positioned to reach the next milestone of the journey - provisioning of the system. We wish it every success in its endeavours and trust that you will continue your support for this important national initiative. This will ensure that in the near future we will have a truly national electronic system that delivers benefits to all participants in the conveyancing process and contributes to securing a seamless national economy for Australia.

Banks face crackdown on High Exit Fees

2010-06-27T17:27:00.002+10:00

Banks which charge unfair mortgage exit fees face a crackdown from the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC).

From July 1, ASIC will also have the power to go after institutions which seek to rebadge current exit fees as upfront entry fees.

Treasurer Wayne Swan and Financial Services Minister Chris Bowen said these new powers would make it easier for borrowers to switch to a competitor offering a cheaper rate, providing a major boost for competition in the mortgage market.

"Currently, some banks are using mortgage exit fees to lock customers into their home loans," Mr Swan and Mr Bowen said in a statement on Sunday.

"Exit fees can be so high that there is no incentive to switch to another lender, even if they are offering a substantially lower interest rate.

"The Government is determined to make the banking system work for families, not against them, and these tough new powers are a major step to delivering on that commitment."

From July 1, ASIC will have the power to take action against any bank for charging an early exit fee considered unfair or unconscionable.

Consumers will also be able to challenge early exit fees that are unfair or unconscionable.

Mr Swan and Mr Bowen said ASIC was most likely to take action against banks trying to profit from exit fees or establishment fees rather than fees which merely recover a fair level of costs.

Any mortgage exit fee found by a court to be unfair will be declared void, with ASIC able to seek refunds for customers.

ASIC released guidance on Sunday on how it proposes to tackle unfair terms.

Following consultation with the industry, ASIC will now develop a specific framework on regulation of early mortgage exit fees.

"The global financial crisis has created some significant challenges for competition in the mortgage market," they said.

"These can't be solved overnight but the Gillard government is determined to take action wherever possible to boost competition and improve protections for Australian families."

Australian Bankers Association (ABA) chief executive Steven Munchenberg said Australia had the lowest entry fees for mortgages compared to the United States and United Kingdom.

"That means it is cheaper to get a mortgage here than in other countries," Mr Munchenberg said in a statement on Sunday.

"Banks achieve this by deferring some of the costs of establishing a mortgage and only charging those customers that change their mortgages in the first few years."

Early mortgage exit fees included the banks unrecouped costs associated with the establishment of the loan, Mr Munchenberg said.

"Exit fees may also include the credit providers average administrative costs and any loss to the credit provider arising from the early termination.

"For example, a credit provider may agree not to charge the full loan establishment costs at the start of the loan on the basis that it may recoup those costs if the loan runs beyond a certain term."

Deferring up-front fees such as legal service fees reduced the cost to customers of setting up new loans, the ABA said.

It was important lenders were consulted by ASIC, Mr Munchenberg said.

National Australia Bank (NAB) said it welcomed the tougher new laws.

It said it would be good for bank customers, increasing competition and giving customers a fairer deal and the ability to access better rates.

NAB Group chief executive Cameron Clyne said while the full details of the new laws had not been reviewed by the bank, it was generally supportive of the measures.

"If these new laws banning unfair mortgage exit fees encourage greater competition and give Australians more power to walk down the road and find a better deal for their mortgage then that's a great thing for all Australians," Mr Clyne said.

The Age 27 June 2010

Home Information Packs have been suspended

2010-05-21T15:41:00.001+10:00

The Government has announced the suspension of Home Information Packs with immediate effect from 21 May 2010.

Homes marketed for sale on or after 21 May 2010 will no longer require a Home Information Pack (HIP).

The Energy Performance Certificate (EPC) will be retained. Sellers will still be required to commission, but won't need to have received an EPC before marketing their property.

Lawyers line up ANZ and Perpetual

2010-05-20T10:21:00.000+10:00

VICTORIAN property lawyers are demanding an urgent overhaul of ANZ's mortgage procedures following the bank's recent move to outsource home loan settlement functions to Perpetual.
In a damning letter sent to the bank last month, the Law Institute of Victoria's acting president Caroline Counsel highlights deficiencies in ANZ mortgage processes which she claims have "substantially undermined" the certainty of property sales.
The bank has since apologised to the LIV.
In the February 4 letter leaked to BusinessDaily, Ms Counsel states that ANZ and Perpetual have committed only limited resources to booking property settlements which has led to confusion and frustration for conveyancing lawyers and their clients.
"Law Institute of Victoria members have reported that there have been instances when the Perpetual representative has not attended settlement at the allocated time," Ms Counsel told ANZ in the letter.

"Settlement in such cases has, of course, not occurred at the allocated time, and this has necessitated the inconvenience of re-booking settlement."
ANZ outsourced settlement responsibilities to Perpetual Mortgage Services last year as part of a wider effort to bring its mortgage administration and settlement systems in line with industry standards.
However, the move has been disastrous with communication problems between the bank and Perpetual leading to delays for home buyers and sellers completing transactions.
The institute's list of complaints include:
SALE failures caused by Perpetual not meeting settlement deadlines.
"UNDULY long" waiting times for lawyers seeking information over the phone from the bank and Perpetual.
FAILURE by Perpetual to provide details of payments due by property buyers within 48 hours of agreed settlement dates.
Ms Counsel told the bank that Perpetual's inability to provide payout numbers before settlement days meant that settlements had to be postponed in many cases because there was not enough time for cheques to be drawn by purchasers.
"When settlements fail as a result of ANZ's processes, there are additional financial and emotional burdens imposed on parties," Ms Counsel told the bank in the letter.
"The LIV urges ANZ to address settlement process issues, as they substantially undermine the certainty of transactions for parties."
In a replying letter sent on February 24, ANZ's head of mortgages, Michael Bock, acknowledged that the deficient settlement procedures had caused inconvenience for solicitors and parties involved in property transactions.
"It is clear from feedback from the profession that the changes we introduced to our settlements process have caused frustration and, in certain circumstances, significant inconvenience for some solicitors, conveyancers and clients - and we sincerely apologise," Mr Bock told the LIV.
"We are working hard to fix these problems ... We understand your concerns, and ANZ is committed to making the necessary changes to ensure we meet your needs and clients' expectations for timely and efficient settlement of all purchases and discharges."
Mr Bock stated that ANZ had established a special team of senior executives to drive improvements to the group's mortgage processes.
The urgent change program will try to simplify settlement procedures by increasing phone contact staff and investment in new technology.

George Lekakis
From:Herald Sun
March 10, 2010 12:00AM
Link to source article

LIV chief executive Michael Brett-Young said conveyancing solicitors also experienced settlement issues with other banks but the problems were more profound at ANZ.

"We've had more complaints from our conveyancing solicitors about ANZ and we are confident that the other banks are meeting requirements to achieve timely and smooth settlements for clients," he said yesterday.

A Perpetual spokesman declined to comment on the LIV's concerns about its performance under the outsourcing deal with ANZ.

Westpac Comes Last For Service: Survey

2010-05-06T10:12:00.001+10:00

Westpac has ranked as the worst bank for customer service in a survey, one day after announcing a record profit.

More than four-in-ten respondents to the Finance Sector Union Better Banking survey, or 42 per cent, said Westpac service was unsatisfactory, more than any other bank.

The poor showing by Westpac comes after the company announced a record $2.98 billion first-half net cash profit yesterday. Westpac also outraged consumers in December by hiking rates on its mortgages 20 basis points over the 25 basis point increased announced by the Reserve Bank.

''Westpac's decisions to move too far on interest rates, provide inadequate staffing, send Australian jobs offshore… are reflected in the public's perception of them,'' said FSU National Secretary Leon Carter.

''Unfortunately all banks engage in these sorts of tactics,'' said Mr Carter, who also highlighted large executive pay packets and rising fees as contributors to the banking sector's public perception problems.

Westpac's dissatisfaction ranking compared with 33 per cent for Commonwealth and 30 per cent for ANZ. Westpac-owned St George garnered 27 per cent of respondents complaining of subpar customer service.

Overall, the study shows that 28 per cent of customers are dissatisfied with their banks, the FSU said.

The report also showed 16 per cent of respondents were ''very uncomfortable'' with their debt levels, while 29 per cent consider themselves ''uncomfortable'' with debt. Australians have continued to wade into the housing market through the period of the global financial crisis, pushing the average mortgage in Australia to nearly $300,000.

Borrowers are paying nearly $300 more a month on an average 25-year, $300,000 mortgage repayment after the Reserve Bank this week raised rates for the sixth time in eight months.

The Better Banking survey, conducted by the FSU, is based on the responses of 2744 customers nationwide.

the age 6.5.10

Identity Verification System 'A Failure'

2010-04-23T00:44:00.000+10:00

A $28 MILLION Howard government plan to create a high-tech system to help stamp out identity crime has been plagued by technical difficulties and has failed to achieve its aims, according to the Australian National Audit Office.

The national document verification service, announced by the Coalition in 2006, is a computer network which is supposed to link federal and state government agencies that issue key identity documents such as birth certificates, passports and driver's licences.

It is meant to be used to check the veracity of documents presented by people as proof of identity when applying for services or benefits or government clearances at a wide range of agencies.

But a report by the audit office found that despite the Attorney-General's Department spending $17 million to establish the service and linking it to dozens of agencies, the system is not being used because of concerns over its accuracy and timeliness. The report said that since coming into operation in October 2007, the service had been used only 10 times a day on average to check documents presented at participating agencies. By contrast, the department had built the system to handle 250,000 requests a day.

The report said several major document-issuing agencies had not joined the service until well after it had started.

The Victorian births, deaths and marriages and driver's licence authorities had still not joined nor had the Western Australian driver's licence agency.

There were also technical glitches deterring agencies from using the system. Over its first two years in operation, the service had not identified a single fraudulent document and 38 per cent of its responses had been errors - including ''false negatives'' where the system reported that a document could not be verified even though the document was genuine.

''The delivery of timely and accurate responses … has been an ongoing issue for the national document verification service,'' the report says.

''Notwithstanding [testing of a prototype] and over two years of implementation, the project is still resolving practical implementation issues and is rarely used. It is unlikely in the immediate future that use of the national document verification service will significantly contribute to strengthening Australia's personal identification processes.''

The audit office recommended that the Attorney-General's Department should devise ways to fix the problems including ''considering the future of the national verification document service itself''.

The government established the service as part of a package of measures agreed to at a counter-terrorism summit between former prime minister John Howard and state premiers in 2005.

the age

Thieves - Owner Corporation Certificate rip-off

2010-04-14T13:13:00.001+10:00

I write as to a concern that I have in regard to the provision of Certificates issued by Body Corporate Management companies same being necessary for a proposed sale of a property covered by an operative Body Corporate.

I fully appreciate that the State Government effected statutory changes to the operation of Bodies Corporate primarily for the protection of the property owner.

Relatively recent changes were to some extent to ensure that Management companies had proper procedures in place and these alterations I do not have any problem with whatsoever.

My concern is as follows and I set out a particular circumstance that effects me personally.

I happen to retain ownership of a residential apartment at Docklands, Melbourne.

Due to the structure, the building is covered by three separate Bodies Corporate.

I am contemplating a sale of the subject property and when I contacted the Management Company I was provided with a varying range of fees for provision of Certificates depending on the timing of issue and the urgency of same.

The base fee for a 14 day certificate is set at $150-00.

In my case, I am charged for three certificates being a total of $450-00.

With respect, Mr Minister, the fees are an absolute disgrace given the levels associated.

The certificates are effectively a "single page document" (for each of the Bodies Corporate) and from a timing perspective, would take all of one minute to generate via a computer system.

I dont at any time have a problem with companies being remunerated for fair and reasonable work performed be it on a time basis or a service basis although having today checked with a number of other Body Corporate Management companies, the fees are fairly standard and the excuse given is that these were set by Government.

It is suggested that a more preferable method of Fee charging be adopted either being a "fair and reasonable" fee or possibly as a percentage of the annual Body Corporate fees paid in regard to the unit which would actually reflect the level of workload involved by the Management company.

By way of example, if one pays say $1000 pa for fees, may be a 5% fee be charged for the certificate being $50.

Signed by a pissed off client (name withheld)

Addressed to Tony Robinson MP

Date: 13 April 2010 9:18:23 PM
To: tony.robinson@parliament.vic.gov.au
Subject: Re: Bodies Corporate - Fees

ANZ insists third-party mortgage services are fully compliant

2010-03-17T08:51:00.000+11:00

PERPETUAL'S mortgage services arm yesterday rejected claims that its operations do not comply with licensing rules.

It insisted legal work it performed on behalf of financial institutions was being done by qualified lawyers. The company's mortgage services subsidiary, Perpetual Mortgage Services, which provides mortgage processing and settlement services to some of the country's leading lenders, has come under scrutiny from property lawyers and conveyancers following a bungled outsourcing deal with ANZ. Perpetual spokesman Michael Woods yesterday defended the business against the attack from the Australian Institute of Conveyancers (AIC) and the Law Institute of Victoria. "Perpetual Mortgage Services Pty Ltd does not engage in legal practice," Mr Woods said in an emailed statement to BusinessDaily. Start of sidebar. Skip to end of sidebar. Related Coverage Perpetual under fire on ANZ deal Daily Telegraph, 2 days ago ANZ under fire over mortgage settlements Perth Now, 6 days ago Rush to withdraw slowing The Australian, 1 Dec 2009 ANZ reroutes mortgage processing The Australian, 8 Jul 2009 New pain for ANZ to top $300m Herald Sun, 8 Jul 2009 End of sidebar. Return to start of sidebar. "Perpetual provides mortgage processing services for customers. To the extent that these services involve legal work of any kind, it is carried out by . . . qualified Australian lawyers." Thousands of ANZ customers have suffered delays and additional costs on settling property sales since December when ANZ hired Perpetual to settle transactions involving the bank's customers. AIC president Pauline Barrow is concerned that a legal minefield is appearing as more banks outsource settlement and other mortgage functions to third parties such as Perpetual, arguing that they are not licensed to handle legal work on behalf of banks. Ms Barrow believes Perpetual's mortgage servicing arm needs to operate as a registered legal practice or conveyancing business to comply with state laws across Australia. If the AIC's concerns are valid, ANZ's relationship with Perpetual may have implications for its ability to comply with outsourcing standards set by the Australian Prudential Regulation Authority. ANZ spokesman Paul Edwards said the bank's "arrangement with Perpetual is fully compliant with APRA's outsourcing standards." Ms Barrow said conveyancers who were required to adhere to licensing rules were concerned about dealing with organisations that were not licensed. "We're having to deal with a third party when we should be dealing directly with the bank," she said. Mr Woods acknowledged that many ANZ customers had suffered as a result of problems with the new settlements systems since December. "Perpetual is aware that as a result of changes made by ANZ to centralise its mortgage processing, which included the engagement of Perpetual to provide mortgage processing services, some ANZ customers have experienced delay inconvenience," he stated in the email.

"ANZ has apologised for the difficulties. Perpetual is working with ANZ as part of the bank's program to improve its settlement performance and is confident these initial service issues are being quickly overcome."

Herald Sun

George Lekakis

From:Herald Sun

March 16, 2010 9:57AM

Lawyers line up ANZ

2010-03-17T08:47:00.001+11:00

VICTORIAN property lawyers are demanding an urgent overhaul of ANZ's mortgage procedures following the bank's recent move to outsource home loan settlement functions to Perpetual.

In a damning letter sent to the bank last month, the Law Institute of Victoria's acting president Caroline Counsel highlights deficiencies in ANZ mortgage processes which she claims have "substantially undermined" the certainty of property sales.

The bank has since apologised to the LIV.

In the February 4 letter leaked to BusinessDaily, Ms Counsel states that ANZ and Perpetual have committed only limited resources to booking property settlements which has led to confusion and frustration for conveyancing lawyers and their clients.

"Law Institute of Victoria members have reported that there have been instances when the Perpetual representative has not attended settlement at the allocated time," Ms Counsel told ANZ in the letter.

"Settlement in such cases has, of course, not occurred at the allocated time, and this has necessitated the inconvenience of re-booking settlement."

ANZ outsourced settlement responsibilities to Perpetual Mortgage Services last year as part of a wider effort to bring its mortgage administration and settlement systems in line with industry standards.

However, the move has been disastrous with communication problems between the bank and Perpetual leading to delays for home buyers and sellers completing transactions.

The institute's list of complaints include:

SALE failures caused by Perpetual not meeting settlement deadlines.

"UNDULY long" waiting times for lawyers seeking information over the phone from the bank and Perpetual.

FAILURE by Perpetual to provide details of payments due by property buyers within 48 hours of agreed settlement dates.

Ms Counsel told the bank that Perpetual's inability to provide payout numbers before settlement days meant that settlements had to be postponed in many cases because there was not enough time for cheques to be drawn by purchasers.

"When settlements fail as a result of ANZ's processes, there are additional financial and emotional burdens imposed on parties," Ms Counsel told the bank in the letter.

"The LIV urges ANZ to address settlement process issues, as they substantially undermine the certainty of transactions for parties."

In a replying letter sent on February 24, ANZ's head of mortgages, Michael Bock, acknowledged that the deficient settlement procedures had caused inconvenience for solicitors and parties involved in property transactions.

"It is clear from feedback from the profession that the changes we introduced to our settlements process have caused frustration and, in certain circumstances, significant inconvenience for some solicitors, conveyancers and clients - and we sincerely apologise," Mr Bock told the LIV.

"We are working hard to fix these problems ... We understand your concerns, and ANZ is committed to making the necessary changes to ensure we meet your needs and clients' expectations for timely and efficient settlement of all purchases and discharges."

Mr Bock stated that ANZ had established a special team of senior executives to drive improvements to the group's mortgage processes.

The urgent change program will try to simplify settlement procedures by increasing phone contact staff and investment in new technology.

LIV chief executive Michael Brett-Young said conveyancing solicitors also experienced settlement issues with other banks but the problems were more profound at ANZ.

"We've had more complaints from our conveyancing solicitors about ANZ and we are confident that the other banks are meeting requirements to achieve timely and smooth settlements for clients," he said yesterday.

A Perpetual spokesman declined to comment on the LIV's concerns about its performance under the outsourcing deal with ANZ.

George Lekakis

From:Herald Sun

March 10, 2010

Perpetual flawed process impacts 3 banks

2010-03-16T10:25:00.000+11:00

Three more banks could face investor concern over flawed mortgage outsourcing deals with Perpetual Ltd that give rise to confusion over who has the legal authority to complete the transactions.

An analyst says that Perpetual could lose as much as 10 per cent of its revenue if all three banks, National Australia Bank, AMP Bank Ltd and Bendigo and Adelaide Bank - in addition to ANZ Banking Group Ltd - drop their business with the fund manager over the flawed contracts.

Perpetual on Monday confirmed that National Australia Bank's (NAB) HomeSide mortgage lending unit, AMP Bank and Bendigo and Adelaide Bank outsourced the processing of mortgage applications to its mortgage services business.

Credit Suisse analyst Arjan Van Veen said in the unlikely event the banks broke their outsourcing contracts with Perpetual over the issue, Perpetual's total revenue would drop by 10 per cent.

Perpetual spokesman Michael Woods on Monday confirmed to AAP that HomeSide, AMP Bank and Bendigo and Adelaide had business relationships regarding mortgage services with each of the three lenders.

Mr Woods said Perpetual has been in talks with all four banks over claims made by the Australian Institute of Conveyancers (AIC) that Perpetual's staff are not legally qualified to act for banks for the purpose of completing mortgage settlements.

"To the limited extent, these services in terms of what we're providing to the ANZ that involve legal work of any kind, it is carried out by appropriately qualified Australian legal practitioners," he said in an interview on Monday.

Mr Woods was responding to concerns voiced by the AIC president Pauline Barrow that the outsourcing deals had caused confusion among property lawyers and conveyancers over whether banks or third-party administrators like Perpetual have legal authority to complete mortgage settlements.

"If they're acting for the ANZ then we need to know under what authority do they act," Ms Barrow told AAP.

"Is it an agency, or (do) they act under Power of Attorney? Where does the risk lie?

We don't know how that role is being performed."

"Whilst we're dealing directly with ANZ, then the risk remains with ANZ. But whilst we're dealing with a third party we have to question whether or not they have the ability to undertake the work they're doing because they're in a settlement process."

Ms Barrow said HomeSide, AMP Bank and Bendigo and Adelaide Bank had outsourced mortgage processing to Perpetual while other banks had outsourced the back office function to SAI Global's Espreon settlement services and brokerage unit.

"(They) have expanded the work they undertake to include legal work, (but) we're not sure whether or not they're working outside any acts or legislation."

Commonwealth Bank and Westpac Banking Corporation process mortgage settlements in-house, she said.

Ms Barrow said the banks involved in the dispute had not formerly consulted the AIC on the processing changes and were not following chain of title, which caused significant delays in mortgage settlements through faulty documentation.

NAB spokeswoman Gillian Griffiths declined to comment on the matter, while AMP Bank's Amanda Wallace confirmed it outsourced new mortgage preparation and settlements to Perpetual and was happy with its service.

"Like any outsourcing deal, we have service standards in place that we continually monitor and we're happy with the level of service Perpetual is delivering," she said.

"We're not seeing any issues."

Bendigo and Adelaide Bank and SAI Global did not respond to calls.

Source ninemsn

By Alison Bell

Orchestrating a harmonious system

2010-02-19T08:38:00.002+11:00

Orchestrating a harmonious system

by MM Park, J Wallace, and IP Williamson

published Victorian Law Institute Journal, vol 83(5) pp 50-53 (May 2009)

ABSTRACT: the authors consider those changes to the Victorian Torrens system necessary or desirable to assist in bringing about an Australian harmonised (or even a uniform) system of land title registration.

Article

NECS and Web Services

2010-02-17T08:32:00.001+11:00

In this NECSpress we tell you more about work being done to define the requirements for system-to-system communications in NECS.

Industry stakeholders have made it clear that for NECS to be of value to them its functions must be accessible by Web Services from the outset. Web Services is the means by which NECS is integrated with the in-house case management and documentation systems used by conveyancing industry participants. It is an alternative to a person using a web browser to access NECS and it is expected that the majority of transactions completed using NECS will use Web Services.

NECS is an industry system that relies for its viability on being suitable for use by a wide range of independent users with different systems. Those systems include purpose-built systems and proprietary systems supplied and maintained by third parties, many of which are already using Web Services to communicate with other external systems.

Implementation of Web Services in an environment of many independent users and systems requires standardisation of both the content of messages exchanged between systems (Data Standard Requirements) and the means by which the messages are exchanged (Web Services Requirements). Without such standardisation NECS would have to be provisioned to service a large number of existing different Web Services implementations and message content interpretations which would significantly affect its viability and implementation time, and make it a very fragile system in operation.

Standardisation of the content and means of exchange of Web Services messages requires all parties to collaborate in developing standards that all parties can implement with the minimum amount of alteration, re-testing and re-commissioning of existing systems. This work cannot be done without extensive stakeholder involvement and input.

Data Standard Requirements

Standardisation of the content of messages is the purpose of the National Electronic Conveyancing Data Standard (NECDS) being developed with the Lending Industry XML Initiative Ltd (LIXI). Read about this work here.

A Working Group of LIXI members under the direction of a specially convened Management Group has developed draft requirements for the NECDS and most recently a single, controlled vocabulary for terms used in the NECS environment, including wherever possible their synonyms used in the various States and Territories. If you are a LIXI member you can access the requirements documentation here and the NECS Vocabulary here.

Late last year the National Office with the assistance of Ajilon Australia Pty Ltd reviewed the draft requirements and supplemented them with a Message Use Case Specification. The requirements documentation consists of separate Operations and Administration & Maintenance requirements for NECS/Land Registry and Industry/NECS transactions and the Message Use Case Specification covers all four requirement sets. All of these documents are available for review and feedback here.

These documents are drafts and are currently being reviewed by stakeholders. Following the review, it is expected that a first draft of the XML schema for NECS/Land Registry transactions will be commissioned.

Web Services Requirements

Standardisation of the means by which messages are exchanged between systems will allow NECS to communicate efficiently and reliably with the wide range of systems used by industry and government participants. Defining the most suitable requirements for Web Services in the NECS environment allows industry participants to get their systems ready for communicating with NECS. Read more about the reasons for this work here.

In February 2009, the National Office commissioned Saratoga Professional Services Pty Ltd to consult with industry participants and define the technical and commissioning requirements for Web Services connecting NECS to external systems. Saratoga undertook extensive stakeholder consultation and developed requirements set out in the report dated August 2009 available here.

In November 2009, the National Office commissioned Ajilon Australia Pty Ltd to extend and clarify the Web Services requirements necessary for the NECS environment. Ajilon’s report dated February 2010 is available here.

If you are interested in the definition of Web Services in environments characterised by a diverse range of independent users and systems and would like to comment on any of the work done to date, we would like to hear from you here.

Verisign makes outlandish claims about EC's performance

2010-02-05T08:05:00.007+11:00

Verisign, an American company providing digital signing technology to Land Victoria's Electronic Conveyancing project has published a case study. There is not just the usual positive spin, but the case study makes some specific outlandish claims which are either just porky pies or I would be happy to personally challenge ECV / Verisign to a public demonstration to prove you cannot lodge a caveat electronically in 4 - 7 minutes.

The case study, page 4, verbatim says -

We’ve introduced electronic caveats — the process of issuing a financial lien on a property—the online processing of these is substantially faster than the legacy process; 4 to 7 minutes versus the time taken by an individual to travel to the office and wait in a queue to manually lodge the paper documents.”

My personal experience as a subscriber is that you cannot lodge an electronic caveat in any less than 20 minutes. Here's a link to the screen shots for an actual case study of lodging a caveat ECV style. Dont be put off by the 57 screen shots, because that is what it takes. The last time I lodged a caveat electronically, it took precisely 26 minutes. Whilst you are counting the screen shots, ask yourself why am I digitally signing this transaction no less than 3 times?

After lodging a few caveats electronically, our legal practice has reverted to the old fashioned of lodging paper caveats, which by our experience takes just 2-3 minutes. Print, check, sign, lodge by post.

The case study goes on to make other unsubstantiated claims, such as the potential cost savings of $235 to $395 per transaction. If caveats are any guide, which they are, and caveats are the simplest Land Registry transaction to perform, I am simply overwhelmed by the cost savings / time savings claim.

Brett Hayton
Hayton Kosky Lawyers

Do we really need to speak the same language?

2010-02-02T16:42:00.000+11:00

Business-to-business integration (B2Bi) is old-hat. A robust technology to allow the systems of two (or more) business to be integrated. An archetypal example is a direct purchase order/invoicing system between business customers and their suppliers. In these transactions, orders and invoices are being exchanged automatically and electronically, the relevant data fields being extracted and populated into the relevant ERPS and other databases on each side. Simple stuff and relatively easy to achieve, once both parties agree on the channels and the document structures that are sent to each other (the ‘language’).

The challenges with this approach arise when you have many-to-many relationships in a business ecosystem with lots of different suppliers and customers. Some solutions arise by mandate – the sheer market grunt of one or a few big players that dictate to everyone else what the rules are. But without such a driving force, you either need everyone to agree on some common standards for describing things like purchase orders and invoices, or you have to engineer custom parsing B2B interfaces for each relationship. Or, you just live with the friction and continue processing a subset of your orders via email or fax.

In the case of ‘common standards’, the example of purchase orders and invoices seems achievable universally, because they are items that are, in their most raw forms, common to every business. While such standards might exist in certain industry pockets (RosettaNet for the chip manufacturing industry comes to mind), there is no universal standard for ecommerce transactions. Furthermore, the challenge becomes even more interesting (to us, at least!) when you go beyond the ‘simple’ of purchase orders and invoices to the ‘complex’ – other types of business forms processing.

The home loan and conveyancing industry sectors, groups with which we’ve had some involvement already, are ecosystems in which the electronic exchanges are far more fiddly and fraught than online purchase order processing. The National Electronic Conveyancing System (NECS) will attempt to address some of the efficiency needs in Australia. In this case you have seven or eight state jurisdictional land titles offices, each with their own similar-but-different language for describing business activities, such as transfer of land title ownership. One NECS approach could be to mandate that all state offices use the same language for common transactions. But this would require massive and disruptive changes within those agencies, some of which have been processing documents their own way for over a hundred years.

A more palatable alternative is to let the agencies continue to maintain their own language and create an 8-way dictionary - a giant look-up table, or “universal translator” that supports not only human readability, but (eventually) software integration as well. While a thorough and robust solution would accommodate modern semantic techniques and standards, it is a simple concept and certainly achievable.

Reprint from
FRICTIONLESS BUSINESS ECOSYSTEMS - NICTA

Is property going social?

2010-01-27T20:22:00.001+11:00

I’ve got a feeling something interesting is happening to the way real estate operates online in the UK. Anecqdotal evidence is emerging that social networks like Facebook and less conventional startups are perhaps starting to find the chink in the armour of the traditional property listing market here.

In particular, Facebook Marketplace is starting to be used by niche poperty agencies like Pimlico Flats, more successfully than the usual online suspects like Craigslist and Gumtree. That latter site has had problems with other aspects of its site like, having to dump dating because of spam and scams. The same problems are plaguing Craigslist in the UK, and this is something that Pimlico Flats picks up on in a blog post on the subject. The ability to verify Facebook users turns out to weed out the scammers.

At the same time, although Findaproperty and Rightmove remain strong, less conventional sites like Globrix, Nestoria, Zoopla (see below) and even niche social networks like Asmallworld are being used.

Zoopla, which is venture backed, is now innovating with realtime auctions.

Today it’s partnered with US auction site Real Estate Disposition to launch real-time online bidding for property auctions. Property agents will get a 0.25% of the purchase price (in addition to normal commission. About 150 homes (worth £15m) will get auctioned beginning on February 11 and auctions will be weekly thereafter – note that less than two homes a week are sold by the average estate agent branch in the UK.

TechCrunch
Mike Butcher on January 26, 2010

Impasse broken in national e-conveyancing system

2010-01-22T10:53:00.000+11:00

A PUBLIC company has been established to develop a national electronic conveyancing system, in a major breakthrough in the long-running battle for a uniform approach that will save hundreds of million of dollars.

The company, to be called National E-Conveyancing Development Ltd (NECDL) will be chaired by Alan Cameron AM, a lawyer and a former chairman of the Australian Securities & Investments Commission.

Three state governments, NSW, Victoria and Queensland, are owners of the company and have contributed $5 million in equity. Last year, the federal government rejected a request for $20m to establish the company.

"There were always those in the background saying this will never happen," said Simon Libbis, the executive director of the National Electronic Conveyancing Office.

One of the problems has been making sure every interested group -- the lawyers, states, conveyancers and bankers -- agreed on the best approach.

"Being a public company, it has clear obligations," Mr Libbis said.

Last year it was reported the proposal was at risk, after years in the making. The benefits of the scheme include cost reductions for both buyers and sellers.

One of the key issues the company will resolve is the extent to which Victoria's already established infrastructure can be used to help create a new system that will satisfy all stakeholders, Mr Libbis said.

NSW Land Minister Tony Kelly has been a strong supporter of the initiative and said yesterday he was "very pleased" with the latest developments.

"I know this will cause great savings for anyone buying and selling a home," Mr Kelly said.

He was confident the system would succeed now "everybody has a stake on the board" as there had been earlier tensions between the groups.

While NSW, Queensland and Victoria were involved at this stage, Mr Kelly said this represented more than three-quarters of development in Australia and that the system would be fairly easy to extend to the other states once the scheme was up and running.

The savings in having a national electronic system have been estimated by industry groups to be $250m a year.

It is also possible the establishment of the company will help state governments qualify for $550m in commonwealth funding for undertaking 27 major reforms that have been endorsed by the Council of Australian Governments.

Apart from Mr Cameron, six other non-executive directors will sit on the board, representing a variety of interests.

They are Rowan Munchenberg, the executive general manager at Commonwealth Bank; John McIntyre, former president of the NSW Law Society; Geoffrey Adam, chief executive of the South Australian division of the Australian Institute of Conveyancers; Leigh Sanderson, former deputy director-general and general counsel of the NSW Department of Premier and Cabinet; David Smith, executive director and commissioner of the Queensland Treasury; and Chris McRae, executive director, Land Victoria, of the Victorian Department of Sustainability and Environment.

Susannah Moran | The Australian

New E-conveyancing entity formed

2010-01-21T15:52:00.003+11:00

NSW, Qld and Victoria have officially formed the new national e-conveyancing entity called National E-Conveyancing Development Ltd (NECDL).

NECDL has been established and funded by the governments of Queensland, NSW and Victoria to progress the work previously being guided by the National Steering Committee. The company is chaired by Alan Cameron AM, a lawyer and former Chairman of the Australian Securities and Investments Commission, who brings extensive business and governance skills to the company critical to its task. The other six non-executive directors are:

• Rowan Munchenberg, representing the Australian Bankers’ Association, is Executive General Manager for Service Delivery of the Commonwealth Bank of Australia

• John McIntyre, representing the Law Council of Australia, is a former President of the Law Society of NSW and a current member of its Property Law Committee

• Geoffrey Adam, representing the Australian Institute of Conveyancers, is Chief Executive of the SA Division of the Australian Institute of Conveyancers

• Leigh Sanderson, representing New South Wales, is a former Deputy Director-General and General Counsel of the NSW Department of Premier and Cabinet

• David Smith, representing Queensland, is Executive Director and Commissioner of the Queensland Treasury

• Chris McRae, representing Victoria, is Executive Director, Land Victoria of the Victoria Department of Sustainability and Environment.

NECS will continue its work through a transition phase.

further information eCommerce Report

Hayton Kosky voted "best conveyancing lawyers"

2010-01-14T14:29:00.005+11:00

Hayton Kosky Lawyers have polled #1 property lawyers by the readers of Your Investment Property magazine.

Your Investment Property is read widely by property investors and each year YIP has a readers poll voting in categories such as

Property Investment Advisor of the year
Buyers Agent of the year
Mortgage Broker of the year

Hayton Kosky won the award as "Property Law Specialists of the Year" in recognition of the service the firm provides to investors, being a combination of upfront advice to investors before they sign a contract; use of technology in delivering the service; and recognition that this is still a people business and could not be done with out the back up of dedicated staff.

The award is no small feat given there are literally thousands of law firms and conveyancing companies across Australia

Your Investment Property magazine

Electronic titling systems

2010-01-02T17:05:00.000+11:00

A recently published research paper by Benito Arruñada does a comparative study on electronic titling systems, covering: functioning systems of New Zealand and Ontario; proposed Australia and UK.

Abstract

Initiatives in electronic conveyancing and registration show the potential of new technologies to transform such systems, reducing costs and enhancing legal security. However, they also incur substantial risks of transferring costs and risks among registries, conveyancers and rightholders, instead of reducing them; entrenching the private interests of conveyancers, instead of increasing competition and disintermediating them; modifying the allocation of tasks in a way that leads in the long term to the debasement of registries of rights with indefeasible title into mere recordings of deeds; and empowering conveyancers instead of transactors and rightholders, which increases costs and reduces security. Fulfilling the promise of new technologies in both costs and security requires strengthening registries’ incentives and empowering rightholders in their interaction with registriesr.

Introduction

Electronic automation has made possible new ways of contracting, registering and settling transactions. In essence, technology has enabled the automation of many tasks performed by conveyancers when preparing and authenticating contracts and communicating with each other and with the registries. Many registries’ tasks have also been automated, including not only communication and archiving but also some routine compliance checks.

The least problematic changes are the use of information technologies for archiving and accessing information, by keeping the register in digital form and providing online access to the elements of the register that are open to conveyancers, parties or the general public. A second step is to make it possible for users and/or professionals to lodge documents at the registry electronically. In principle, these documents could be the digital version of those in the paper system. However, to fully exploit the potential of the new technologies, electronic lodgment is often accompanied by substantial standardization of documents and transactions. To this effect, the structure of the transactions has to be carefully examined and forms preapproved by the registry.1 For these standardized transactions, parties themselves or their legal representatives complete the forms in an electronic workspace by entering the specific data on the transaction they want to contract and register (e.g., the identity of the buyer or mortgagee, the name and incorporators of a new company), often “pre-populating” them with data from registry’s databases that identify each property and its owner or identify each company in subsequent filings. If necessary, documents in the workspace can be electronically shared by parties and their representatives for review, amendment and approval, which is useful in conveyancing. After all parties have granted their consent, the document is submitted electronically for registration. The most ambitious systems also provide for transferring funds between parties.

The most problematic issues relate to: (1) who is allowed to lodge documents at the registry; (2) the nature of the review performed by the registry staff before registration; and, encompassing both of these aspects, (3) how the new system ensures that rightholders have granted their consent.

First, to speed up reform, reduce opposition to reform and, allegedly but doubtfully, enhance security, the new system may reserve access to professional conveyancers, by granting them exclusive lodgment access to the registry. For example, in New Zealand, Singapore and British Columbia, only conveyancers may lodge documents electronically. Alternatively, the system may be open to other participants, at least to those who register for that purpose. This is the case of Ontario and the English 2002 Land Registration Act which allows “do it yourself conveyancing”.

Second, lodged documents may be subject to a variable mix of automatic and human preregistration checks for compliance. Most systems have instituted electronic lodgment but retain manual review by registrars before registration. The idea of allowing conveyancers not only to lodge their instruments electronically but also to alter the register after automatic controls by an “electronic registrar” but without manual intervention by the registry staff (often called “agency registration”) is generally rejected or only applied to simple transactions. Thus, the pioneer Electronic Land Registration System in Ontario maintains ultimate control by registrars, and the same solution has been adopted in British Columbia and Singapore (Low, 2005). The system under development in England also introduces validation by the registry prior to execution and completion. The New Zealand Landonline system is exceptional in that conveyancers directly alter the register subject only to automatic checks for some impediments to registration, such as caveats and pending dealings, with no manual intervention by registry staff prior to registration. Thus, it provides the paradigm case of agency registration.

Third, reforms introducing electronic conveyancing differ in how they ensure that rightholders have granted their consent to the transaction. Expediency has led some reformers also provide for transferring funds between parties. not only to allow but to actually require conveyancers to sign the documents electronically on behalf of their clients; clients sign only the authorization documents to be kept by conveyancers. (Interestingly, in some countries conveyancers were happy to sign on behalf of their clients while in others they were opposed to bearing the risks of such representation. A major factor here seems to be previous practice, as both solutions are in place in paper-based systems.3) Alternatively, the system may require the digital signature of rightholders on any document, lodged, which is safer. This may allow parties to dispense with witnesses, including conveyancers, for authenticating purposes. Security may also be enhanced by having the system notify rightholders and even request their consent before registering any relevant alteration in their rights.

The rest of the paper examines in more detail some systems of electronic conveyancing and registration at different stages of development with a view to obtaining guidance on these issues. It focuses especially on the New Zealand experience which, as a lone example of agency registration, is an exception to the general policy of retaining manual control of registration.

Link to the paper

SAI to move to 100% in Espreon

2009-12-20T06:47:00.000+11:00

Source: News Bites

SAI Global Ltd is seeking to compulsorily acquire the remaining 0.8% of Espreon Ltd, following the company reaching 99.2% of ownership after the acquisition of Vectis's 36.4% shareholding in Espreon.

The consideration for the 34.5 million Espreon shares acquired from Vectis comprised a cash payment of $11.7 million and 3.3 million new SAI Global shares.

STOCK DASHBOARD: December 18, 2009

Online Property Auctions - yet to take off

2009-12-09T08:59:00.003+11:00

Online property auctions mean new ways of selling, novel challenges for the players, and questions for the regulators, but it could be the way of the future.

Melbourne on Saturday is like nowhere else in the world. That is when two of the city's most enduring cultural activities play out — Aussie rules and home auctions.

But just as AFL has had to compete with the rising popularity of soccer, Melbourne's enduring love affair with auctions could be challenged by a new concept.

Online property auctions have long been predicted as the next step for real estate, an industry in which buyers, sellers and agents have embraced internet marketing.

Property has been sold in Australia for some time through web-based negotiation systems such as eBay, which currently has 15 mostly rural homes for sale, including a $665,000 house in Penrith, NSW.

The new year will bring at least three new online home auction players onto the market, including one based in Melbourne. All will take a different approach to selling, raising a host of questions for regulators. But will any of them take off?

There is no doubt the industry is yet to harness the full selling potential of the web. However, attempts to catch up with the booming online trade for retail goods have so far fallen short of revolutionary.

In February, West Australian property site GeeWizAuctions.com claimed its first sale when a modest home in suburban Perth attracted several bids over a five-week cyber-auction.

Agent Laura Grimes of Supersell Realty said her "low-ball opening bid created huge interest" and while the property failed to reach its reserve price, she negotiated afterwards to get the sale.

"There was a huge saving in costs for the seller," she said. The site at present has 13 properties for sale, all from the same agency. It follows Queensland-based 2bid2.com.au that launched last year and operates in a similar way.

Both sites sign up vendors through real estate agents. But unlike GeeWiz, an auction on this site runs for just an hour, starting when a registered bidder makes a first offer.

With Brisbane's property market all but dead, the advantage for vendors is that hard-to-sell properties can stay listed indefinitely while they wait for an offer.

Several well-known agencies have a scattering of properties available on the site, including Ray White, LJ Hooker and Elders.

He said there was no greater risk of dummy bidding than at a public auction, with bidders required to view the property and register their details.

However, Real Estate Institute of Victoria chief executive Enzo Raimondo said the trend towards online was being tempered by user caution in what is often the biggest transaction of their lives.

"If you buy a house online or at an auction you should be confident that the same laws and protections apply," he said. "At this point they don't.

"The Sale of Land Act and the Estate Agents Act do not cater for physical and online sales . . . which is why the REIV asked the State Government to review its laws some 19 months ago."

Consumer Affairs Victoria is conducting a review. The REIV (the peak body for real estate agents) is particularly scathing of a website being formulated in Canberra called Uber Estate.

It will be the first to allow sellers and developers to list without the intermediary of an agent. Bidders will verify their identity through the same software used by online gambling sites.

"There's no chance of anyone being dodgy or fraudulent," founder Mark Higgins said. "It gives you as the seller total control in a way that's more transparent than anything you see on the weekend."

He said that while bidders must be Australian, the online format would be accessible to interstate and expatriate buyers.

Online-specialist agent Paul Osborne said Uber Estate would struggle because web portals such as domain.com.au excluded private sellers.

So it seems Melbourne's Saturday pastimes of a street auction in the morning and footy in the afternoon are safe for now.

Online auction sites mentioned

GeeWizAuctions.com WA

2bid2.com.au Qld

Uber Estate ACT

The Age

Author: Marika Dobbin
Date: December 7, 2009

Why does electronic conveyancing work in NZ and not Australia?

2009-11-26T19:53:00.011+11:00

This comparative table explains a lot of things

In summary, New Zealand's electronic land registry system works.

Australia has the problem that it has 8 separate land title systems, rules and governing legislation. The banks work cross all borders. They cannot afford to buy into 8 electronic systems and also cope with 8 legacy manual systems.

For any government system of electronic conveyancing to work in Australia, the barriers to electronic conveyancing must be removed,

Elimination of the paper Title

The first barrier is the paper duplicate certificate of title. In NZ this was abolished in 2002, 4 years prior to introducing the e-Dealing system in 2006. It is an imperative the Australian jurisdictions introduce uniform legislation for the total elimination of the duplicate paper certificate of title. Wasn't this the system that Torrens had in mind in the first place in 1858? Yet what we have seen so far from NSW and Victoria is suggested hybrid systems of titles (a mix of paper and electronic). From the government's perspective, if the strategic goal is to automate the update of the Land Registry, first, the paper title must go.

Rationalisation of multiple jurisdictions

A single Land Register? Now this will never happen and e-conveyancing from a government point of view will always be hampered by

multiple jurisdictions, rules and legislation
multiple land registries
politics of change

Creating a single land register makes sense, but it can be assumed "it wont happen in our lifetime". The Law Council of Australia is promoting the harmonisation of land laws in Australia, but State politics being what it is, again it looks like it wouldn't happen without a national referendum giving the Commonwealth power to be responsible for land management. The State's power to manage land is tied in with its powers to tax land and collect duties for land transfers.

The approach of a single State going it alone has proved one thing, this didn't work. Victoria tried this and was brought to its knees when the major banks withdrew their support.

However, where there is precedence there is hope. There used to be six separate State based stock exchanges, whereas they were all replaced by the one Australian Stock Exchange and the States acceded control of companies legislation to the Commonwealth Corporations Law. We can only live in hope.

Settlement

Its a straight forward observation but Government is responsible for running Land Registries and land registers. Governements have never been involved in settlements. Why the change?

In NZ, settlements are still organised between conveyancers and lenders. New Zealands e-Dealing system still respects the boundary between industry and government functions.

Yet in Australia there still persists this strategic goal to combine the settlements with registration. Yet this approach is flawed on several levels. Logically this approach cannot work unless every lender and every conveyancer was using the system. A 10% uptake is not enough. Government would need to mandate the system. So why the change? The lesson is government needs to remain focused on registration, not settlements.

Lessons from New Zealand

We can therefore see why New Zealand's phased approach has worked.

Single register
No duplicate title
E-dealing. (settlements not part of the system)
Mandate

More importantly, NZ had the foresight to deal with the elimination of the paper title as the first priority issue, which they successfully did in 2002, 4 years prior to introducing the e-Dealing system in 2006.

Elimination of the duplicate certificate of title is the greatest barrier to electronic registration systems. It is pointless for government to build an electronic registration system unless the duplicate is abolished. In Victoria, we have had a preview of the pCT and eCT, which is a hybrid system of paper and electronic titles. It just does not seem to make sense, just like the concept of being half pregnant.

Australia needs to focus on the following priorities

Elimination of the duplicate certificate of title
Introduce the standard xml title search
Government restricts its side to registration matters
Industry to develop its own collaborative systems between lenders and conveyancers

The vision is industry has its own framework of collaborative systems (shared workspaces, visibility of loan statuses and settlement booking systems). In addition, industry's strategic goal ought to be Unattended Settlements. An industry system of Unattended Settlements would therefore seamlessly dovetail with government e-registration systems.

So you have to give credit to the kiwis. They have shown the aussies a thing or two about making electronic conveyancing seem easy. As it should be.

originally published as a 247legal hayton kosky newsletter

ANZ to shed staff as it restructures mortgage processing

2009-11-24T10:15:00.000+11:00

ANZ is to shed 248 back office positions as it restructures its mortgage processing operations nationwide.

The job losses will come as the bank rationalises its network of mortgage centres in Sydney, Brisbane, South Australia, Western Australia, Northern Territory and Tasmania. About 150 jobs will absorbed by external providers contracted to take over certain document processing activities.

Others jobs will be relocated to Melbourne, while approximately 40 roles are expected to be exported to the bank's offshore processing centre in Bangalore, India.

In March, the bank ran into a political storm after it appeared to confirm speculation that it was to shift 500 jobs from its Melbourne back office and technology hub to its offshore development centre in Bangalore, which currently employs 3000 staff.

Responding to the political sensitivities, the bank in June committed to spend $10 million on a new support package for staff affected by offshoring.

Call-Centre Workers Suffer High Stress

2009-11-20T03:14:00.001+11:00

WORKERS in the fast-growing call-centre industry face high, and unique, levels of stress, a survey shows.

More than 250,000 people, or about one in 40 employed Australians, work in call centres and more than a third are always or often stressed at work.

RMIT academic Ruth Barton, who conducted the survey for the Australian Services Union, said high stress resulted in high turnover of staff and absenteeism.

Among factors causing stress were unrealistic performance targets, abuse from customers, high call volumes, repetitive work, concern their jobs would go overseas and excessive monitoring from management.

Dr Barton said the industry was unique as workers had little control over the pace of their work. That could even extend to feeling under pressure not to go to the toilet. About 1500 call-centre workers were surveyed.

BEN SCHNEIDERS - The Age 19 Nov 09

Monash professor to head property laws review

2009-11-11T14:49:00.000+11:00

VICTORIAN Deputy Premier and Attorney-General Rob Hulls has nominated the person to head a state-wide review of property law.

Monash University associate professor Pam O’Connor will oversee the first stage of the property law review that is set to update the state’s “archaic property laws and cut the mountains of red tape that surrounded them”, Hulls said.

“The Property Law Act is one of the most complicated, outdated and archaic pieces of legislation in Victoria and it is crying out for review,” Hulls said.

“The first stage of the review will also look at easements and covenants, which involve things like rights of way, sewerage and drainage, and affect most homeowners.”

Dr O’Connor’s appointment comes after Mr Hulls announced in August that the Victorian Law Reform Commission would be asked to review the state’s property laws and sought expressions of interest for the part-time Commissioner.

Hulls said the Property Law Review was a bold first step in the journey to overhaul Victoria’s property laws, which have for too long tied up people in red tape.

Dr O’Connor is associate dean at the Faculty of Law at Monash University, where she teaches property law.

“Dr O’Connor has demonstrated she has a strong conceptual grasp of the tasks required to fulfil this position, the strategic vision required to perform the review and combined with her broad knowledge of property law she is a very capable inaugural Commissioner of this review.”

11 November 2009 | by The New Lawyer

Accused Cash-For-Documents Scammer Bailed

2009-10-26T14:51:00.000+11:00

A woman accused of faking documents in Melbourne’s biggest international student cash-for-certificates scam has been released on $100,000 bail.

Chinese born XiaoYi Huang of Carnegie faced Melbourne Magistrates Court accused of presenting fake documents on behalf of international students applying for skilled migration visas to Australia.

The petite and pretty 24-year-old allegedly tried to pass off false education qualifications, work references and skills assessments to the Department of Immigration on behalf of her clients.

She was arrested on Friday, and her Queen Street offices raided by members of the Australian Federal Police Identity Security Strike Team and federal immigration officers.

Huang was charged with five offences relating to sham visa applications, including possessing 75 blank templates, that were allegedly to be used to create bogus documents.

Huang appeared in court for a brief hearing, with an interpreter, before being granted bail, which was unopposed by the prosecution.

Magistrate Amanda Chambers released her on bail with a $100,000 surety, and a set of special conditions requested by the prosecution.

Huang was ordered not to interfere with prosecution witnesses except for her business partner. She was ordered not to leave Australia, to surrender her passport and not to apply for another, and not to be involved in the preparation of any visa applications.

She is due to face court again in February.

The Age Mex Cooper with Chris Johnston

Dont you love Mont Blanc photos

2009-10-12T17:05:00.001+11:00

Safe Settlement Disbursements - NECS

2009-10-02T11:07:00.000+10:00

Financial settlements in NECS will involve electronic transfers of cleared funds. Because settlement is fast and made with cleared funds, it is critical that disbursement payments end up in the right accounts. For disbursement payments to financial institutions, government agencies and even NECS, this is not a problem as the account details (BSB No. & Account No.) are known in advance and can be pre-set in NECS and verified before first use in a settlement.

However, when disbursement payments are to be made to the vendor or a nominee of the vendor whose identity and account details only become known during the transaction, special precautions are necessary to ensure the funds go to the right accounts. A slip keying in account details could mean that an unrelated party gets a sudden deposit of substantial cleared funds in their account. This risk has been identified as a major concern for many industry practitioners and a disincentive to use electronic conveyancing.

The way this risk is to be dealt with is that the Subscriber arranging the disbursement payment on behalf of their client is to have a number of options. They will be able to choose between:

• paying the funds into a pre-set Trust Account from which they can pay the recipient subsequently by cheque or electronic funds transfer
• setting up the recipient’s account details in advance and ensuring their correctness before using them in a settlement
• having the recipient’s financial institution confirm the account details prior to settlement.

The first of these options might suit when delayed receipt of the funds is not important. The second option might suit when the recipient is a regular client of the Subscriber and likely to be frequently receiving disbursement payments from NECS settlements.

The third option is the one likely to be used most often. The recipient will be required to contact their financial institution, be identified as the financial institution’s customer and advise the financial institution of the pending settlement. The financial institution will enter NECS and confirm the account details entered by the Subscriber so that at settlement the payment can be confidently made directly into the financial institution’s customer’s account. In the event that the receiving financial institution does not confirm their customer’s account details prior to settlement, the funds will be paid into a suspense account at the financial institution from where the intended recipient can claim them after being successfully identified by the financial institution as the account holder.

These arrangements will provide all users with the means for ensuring settlement disbursements end up in the right account and transacting parties with confidence that their monies won’t end up in someone else’s account for an unscrupulous person to make off with.

NECS newsletter Oct 09

Xerox Buys Affiliated Computer For $6.4 Billion - NYTimes

2009-09-30T08:05:00.001+10:00

Ursula M. Burns, the chief executive of Xerox, declared on Monday that the company’s plan to buy Affiliated Computer Services, an outsourcing services company, for $6.4 billion would be “a game-changer” for Xerox.

That could be standard business hyperbole, of course, and only time will tell whether the deal proves to be a winner for Xerox. But the game is indeed changing for big technology suppliers catering to corporate customers as they shift to depend less on products and more on services.

And technology companies, like Xerox, are often buying services companies to accelerate the transition. Only last week, for example, Dell announced that it would buy Perot Systems for $3.9 billion. Last year, Hewlett-Packard bought another large technology services company, Electronic Data Systems, for $13.9 billion.

The shift to services is being fueled by financial and strategic considerations and by the evolution of technology itself. Services businesses tend to be steadier sources of revenue and profit than product businesses, which are more susceptible to peaks and valleys of economic cycles. Services businesses also foster closer relations with corporate customers and often yield higher profit margins.

The cost and complexity of computing, analysts say, has led many corporate customers to conclude that owning and operating their own hardware and software is an expensive, distracting burden. So customers are pressing suppliers to not just sell them technology but to make it work for them to streamline business tasks like procurement, customer tracking, record handling and product design.

“For a lot of these companies, there is a real blurring between what is a product and what is a service,” said Christine Ferrusi Ross, an analyst at Forrester Research. “The concept of what a product company is anymore really has to be rethought.”

Xerox and other technology companies that are expanding their reach in services are following a model that I.B.M. pursued more than a decade ago and General Electric even earlier.

They recognized that to compete in an increasingly competitive global marketplace, companies needed to move into higher-value services, which are less vulnerable than product businesses to being undercut by low-cost manufacturers abroad.

Technology advances are making it easier for suppliers to provide computing as a service, delivered over the Internet from remote data centers in the so-called cloud computing model. Software can move off desktop personal computers to become a Web-based service, like Google’s e-mail, word processing and spreadsheets, and the online customer-relationship management software of Salesforce.com.

The digitization of all kinds of business records and documents also opens the door to automating business tasks and mining business data for everything from customer-service problems to sales opportunities.

The share of corporate technology budgets spent on hardware and software, which are capital expenditures, has been declining in recent years. That percentage fell to 28 percent this year, from 36 percent in 2004, according to estimates from Gartner, a research firm. The rest is spent on operational expenses, including services.

The trend is not a matter of rising labor costs at corporate technology departments, because headcounts have not increased, said Peter Sondergaard, senior vice president in charge of research at Gartner.

“The shift toward external services is quite pronounced,” Mr. Sondergaard said.

Analysts say the weak economy promises to accelerate the tilt toward spending on services as companies resist bigger capital budgets or adding workers to their payrolls.

In an interview, Ms. Burns said the Affiliated Computer deal was largely a matter of following her customers. “They want us to intelligently knit together all this stuff — the information that makes their businesses run,” said Ms. Burns, who took over in July with the retirement of Anne M. Mulcahy.

Xerox said that the combined company would have $22 billion in revenue and that nearly 80 percent of that total would be recurring revenue based on services and equipment contracts. The company’s services business would triple, to $10 billion.

In an interview, Lynn Blodgett, chief executive of Affiliated Computer, said that his company would certainly benefit from tapping into the Xerox worldwide sales force. But he also emphasized that it would benefit from the Xerox research in imaging and text-recognition technology. Affiliated Computer handles and processes back-office documents like loan-processing papers for banks and Medicaid claims for health care providers and states.

Xerox, Mr. Blodgett said, has technology that can begin to scan patient claims, for example, searching for patterns in the data that could suggest the best therapies for managing chronic diseases like diabetes. “It allows you to look at claims and reach conclusions,” he said. “It’s technology we just don’t have.”

The Xerox cash-and-stock offer was valued at $63.11 a share, based on the closing price of Xerox shares on Friday. Shares of Affiliated Computer, which closed at $47.25 on Friday, rose 14 percent on Monday, to $53.86. Xerox shares fell 14 percent, to $7.68.

Affiliated Computer, based in Dallas, was founded in 1988 to handle data-processing chores for banks and has grown steadily since. Today it has $6.5 billion in revenue and 74,000 employees.

Indeed, the company is sizable, with 20,000 more employees than Xerox, and analysts say the challenge of integrating the two companies may have contributed to the fall in Xerox shares. “Xerox has not done a lot of big merger deals, so one concern is that A.C.S. may not be easily digestible,” said Peter Falvey, managing director of Revolution Partners, a small investment bank that specializes in technology companies.

Affiliated Computer has also been a subject of inquiries by the Securities and Exchange Commission and grand jury proceedings in recent years, focusing on stock option grants and the accuracy of some customer records. The inquiries and repeated changes of chief executives and chief financial officers over the last five years prompted Disclosure Insight, an independent research firm, to rate the company a high risk. There are no current investigations, said Kevin Lightfoot, a spokesman for Affiliated Computer. “It’s all been put behind us,” he said.

Analysts say other services companies that might be takeover candidates in the wake of the Xerox-Affiliated Computer deal include Computer Sciences Corporation, CGI in Canada and a few Indian outsourcing companies like WNS and Patni. Several of the largest remaining independent technology services companies like Accenture or the leading Indian outsourcers like TCS, Infosys and Wipro, analysts say, are probably too costly and unwilling to be acquired.

“The merger trend isn’t over, but you are running out of companies that are small enough to reasonably acquire and yet large enough to make a difference,” said Rod Bourgeois, an analyst at Bernstein Research.

30/9/09

Chinese buyers fuel top-end property boom

2009-09-19T00:37:00.000+10:00

NICK Johnstone is a man on a mission. Next week, the Brighton estate agent will fly to Shanghai with the aim of selling 30 of Melbourne's most expensive homes to Chinese buyers.

It will be the first time a Melbourne agency has attended the China International Luxury Property Show, but it is just one example of a phenomenon that has transformed Australia's residential market.

''Australia is the flavour of the month amongst the Chinese investors,'' Mr Johnstone, 41, said yesterday. ''They love property and there's plenty of money over there so they're good clients to have.''

While Chinese buyers have fuelled the top-end real estate revival, they are also courting controversy, with some local house hunters complaining they are being priced out by foreigners who have no intention of living in their new properties.

A few critics go further, arguing Chinese money is now putting upwards pressure on interest rates.

But you will not catch Mr Johnstone of J. P. Dixon complaining. He has made at least 40 per cent of sales this year to the Chinese. Other agents in the east and south-eastern suburbs have reported the same level of demand.

''We've had several buy properties sight unseen, just over the internet and phone.'' Mr Johnstone said. ''A lady from Shanghai, whose son goes to Wesley College, bought four houses in Brighton from us in two months, worth $20 million.

''They buy them to land bank, not to rent them out. The houses just sit vacant because they are after the capital growth.''

The floodgates opened on foreign investment in March when the Federal Government relaxed its rules on property ownership.

The changes made it easier for foreign companies and temporary residents, such as 12-month business visa holders, foreign students, and their parents, to invest.

Last month, Treasurer Wayne Swan announced a further relaxation of Australia's foreign investment screening to ''help boost Australia's growth''.

But the big spend-up is being fuelled by more than just Australian policy change.

Armadale entrepreneur Barry Jan, who runs property shopping tours from China to Australia, said the Communist Party had had an about-face on citizens investing their wealth overseas. ''People are investing now in case they can't get their money out later,'' he said.

Kew property adviser Monique Wakelin said many Chinese had come to see Australian property as a stable hedge against global economic tumult and the potential devaluation of the yuan.

''They are looking for avenues to protect at least part of their wealth, and A-grade Melbourne residential property fits the bill.'' The confluence of events has seen Chinese money inflating prices for top-end homes by at least 10 per cent in a matter of months, according to Boroondara agent James Connell from Marshall White.

''Chinese people have effectively kick-started our economy and underpinned all our housing values in inner Melbourne,'' he said.

Keen to cash in on the boom, Marshall White, J. P. Dixon and other big agencies such as Jellis Craig are hastily establishing connections with offshore accounts, lawyers and businessmen to funnel a stream of buyers into Melbourne.

Also in hot demand are Mandarin-speaking Melbourne real estate agents and property lawyers.

Meanwhile, Australia's largest developers - including Australand, Central Equity, Simonds, Becton - are setting up offices in China and Hong Kong to spruik off-the-plan developments.

And an industry of ''Australian property and migration'' exhibitions has burgeoned in the cities and mining towns, such as Taiyuan, attracting hundreds of people.

Yet all the evidence put forward about the property revolution is so far anecdotal because there is no measure being kept on the amount of investment by temporary residents in residential property.

The Government's March law change abolished mandatory reporting of such acquisitions in a bid to ''enhance flexibility in the market''.

What is certain is that in the past financial year before the change, foreign investment in Australian residential property increased by a third to $20.4 billion from the year before. Victoria attracted 21 per cent of that investment, according to the Foreign Investment Review Board's annual report released last month.

MARIKA DOBBIN
September 19, 2009
The Age

Plan to reduce mortgage expenses

2009-09-15T07:13:00.000+10:00

Karen Dearne | September 15, 2009 | The Australian

THE long-awaited National Electronic Conveyancing System could save lenders up to $46 million in mortgage settlement costs a year, the LIXI Industry Forum heard last week.

After years of political wrangling, the NSW, Victorian and Queensland governments have begun talks aimed at forming a company to run the proposed real estate exchange platform.

The platform will be based on data standards developed by the Lending Industry XML Initiative (LIXI) for online processing of property transactions such as home loan applications, approvals and conveyancing.

LIXI chief executive Erik Fenna said a survey of members on the costs of settlement and the benefit of electronic integration -- assuming NECS was completed and had full take-up -- identified cost savings to lenders of about 15 per cent.

"There would also be benefits for consumers, but we weren't looking to measure that at this stage," he said.

"This is never going to happen if lenders don't buy into it, and they won't unless they see a benefit for themselves."

Survey participants estimated that the average cost to lenders to settle a mortgage with a large bank was about $450, and using an electronic system would reduce that cost by about $68.

"Across the industry, that represents $46 million in the past financial year, so there is substantial money to be saved," Mr Fenna said.

While LIXI has no role to play in the design or operation of NECS, LIXI members -- banks, credit unions, brokers, mortgage aggregators, insurers and solicitors -- were insisting on a single national data standard for the system.

"They've made it abundantly clear that there can only be one standard for communication and integration with the settlement platform," he said.

"NECS has approached us, and we will be working together on that."

Mr Fenna said LIXI might also become involved in the development of standards for processes normally considered internal to banks.

"Banks are surprisingly similar in what they do, from a core platform perspective," he said. "Their competitive advantage is in their products, the interest rates they can offer and quality of service.

"But where banking systems are talking to external systems, or where banking systems are modular and use contracted outside resources, then standards become very valuable."

While banks can get a first-mover advantage through custom-building systems to provide new products and services, "the drawback comes down the track when you go to rebuild them, and find you have a load of customised things that you then need to maintain".

Banks now saw competitive advantage in being first to market with mobile banking platforms, for instance.

"In our view, mobile banking is becoming a commodity, and the interface between mobile and transactional banking platforms could be standardised," Mr Fenna said.

Jobs go at Westpac due to St George merger

2009-09-08T08:45:00.001+10:00

By George Lekakis | Herald Sun | September 04, 2009

WESTPAC has sent hundreds of employees packing this year as the group pushes ahead on the merger of back-office systems and technology platforms with its newly acquired St George subsidiary.

Finance Sector Union national secretary Leon Carter told The Herald Sun that at least 600 jobs had been made redundant, mostly in NSW in document processing and other administrative areas, and that thousands more jobs were on the line as Westpac advanced the integration of mortgage processing, accounts management and a host of other business functions.

Westpac chief executive Gail Kelly has signalled on several occasions this year that back-office jobs would be cut from the group as the integration program was implemented, The Herald Sun reports.

Mr Carter said the union had sought assurances from Westpac that no roles would be axed at the mortgage processing centre in Adelaide and a call centre in Launceston, but the bank had not responded.

"The bank has refused to give us any such assurances on these jobs," he said. "We are very concerned about the security of those jobs in Launceston and Adelaide."

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I worked for St George and won a $50 dragon dollar cheque, when I left, they would not honour the check, and that was personally given to me by Antion (the big cheese) I don't ...
(Read More)
Mike Williams of Sydney
Bank spokesman David Lording confirmed that redundancies had occurred this year, but said the union had overstated the number.

However, he would not say how many staff had been made redundant. "It's smaller than that (600)," he said. "We think the union may have misinterpreted data that we have provided them."

Mr Carter stood by the 600 redundancies figure, saying that most of the affected staff had left the bank.

"It's not a good look for a bank that makes a multi-billion dollar profit," he said.

"One of the frustrations we've got with them is they won't tell us what the timetable is for the integration program which we can see will bring more pain for our members."

Westpac has confirmed publicly that it is exploring options to relocate some processing activities to offshore providers in India as part of the integration.

Mr Lording said the bank had hired frontline customer service staff this year.

"We've put on over 500 bankers during the course of the year and while we have made some adjustments to back-office roles we have no across-the-board job reductions at Westpac," he said.

"We've had no head-count reduction targets."

The staff cuts at Westpac come at a sensitive time for the union and the bank following the expiry of a three-year industrial agreement in June.

Negotiations between the parties on a new deal are scheduled to begin in October, but could be complicated by potential industrial disputes over redundancies.

The St George subsidiary this week embarked on an aggressive marketing campaign across Australia with its senior management claiming that it would open up to 20 new branches in the next 12 months.

However, a St George spokesman would not say whether the network would be increased by that number on a net basis after also confirming that "some existing branches would be relocated".

"We've conducted a review of our branches and found that some could be in better locations," the St George spokesman said.

Talks begin on national e-conveyancing system

2009-09-04T06:31:00.001+10:00

Chris Merritt | September 04, 2009 the auztralian

THREE state governments have opened talks with lawyers and bankers aimed at establishing a company to run the long-promised national electronic conveyancing system.

The proposed company would be owned initially by the governments of NSW, Victoria and Queensland but those close to the talks say equity would later be offered to other jurisdictions.

Senior officials representing the three founding equity holders have distributed documents outlining the proposed corporate structure.

The company's board would consist of representatives of each of the three state governments as well as representatives of the legal profession, the major banks and non-lawyer conveyancers. An independent board member would be appointed to chair the new organisation.

If the talks succeed, it could help all state governments qualify for $550 million in commonwealth funding for undertaking 27 major reforms that have been endorsed by the Council of Australian Governments.

The national e-conveyancing system is not a priority under the COAG agreement, but its successful completion would help persuade the federal government to make the $550m reward payments to the states.

NSW Land Minister Tony Kelly, who helped drive the latest initiative, said his government supported "a truly national scheme that all stakeholders can access and use easily, wherever they might be, whatever state they might be in".

"The system will work best only if all the states come on board, which is why we have been working closely with the other states, in particular Victoria and Queensland, to make this happen," he said.

"To realise savings to industry participants and the community, it is essential that the system be integrated with the systems and standards used by the lending and conveyancing industries today."

Mr Kelly said technology had provided an opportunity to modernise "one of the most traditional, most basic transactions at the core of both business and family life, so it is important to get it right".

"To do that, we have to bring along all the industry peak bodies to ensure that the lawyers and bankers are secure enough with the system and its governance arrangements that they encourage their members to use it.

"This would mark a huge technology shift in conveyancing business practices and processes but I think there is the collective will to make that shift.

"Certainly the technology is here but it has to be cost-effective and it has to meet industry requirements," Mr Kelly said.

The initiative by the three states comes soon after Finance Minister Lindsay Tanner and Deregulation Minister Craig Emerson rejected a plea for $20m in federal funding to establish the e-conveyancing company.

Les Taylor, who chairs the steering committee that has been planning the new system, had warned that unless the company is established, there is a risk that the savings from the project will be "lost for at least a generation".

Those savings have been estimated by industry groups to be worth $250m annually.

Estate agent jailed for two years

2009-08-31T08:52:00.000+10:00

A Melbourne real estate agent was jailed this week for two years after duping an elderly man in to sell his property to him for less than half the value.

real estate business

Tassie - A healthy island state for innovation

2009-08-29T11:33:00.001+10:00

ENTREPRENEUR: Morris Kaplan | August 29, 2009

TASMANIA is well endowed with natural beauty and resources; it is also a hub for innovation and entrepreneurship with companies such as Tassal and Tasmanian Alkaloids on the global stage.

Local entrepreneur John Elkerton who is co-founder and chief executive of burgeoning e-health provider Healthcare Software, says there are advantages in being a business in Tasmania.

"I live in the bush with wallabies and echidnas in the back garden yet I can walk to my Hobart office in 30 minutes," he says. "It's a nice way to live and do business. I think as a smaller player we can be more strategic."

He says e-health, a nascent industry that enables the transition away from paper to electronic records, offers vast potential for his fledgling business.

"Most people assume that whenever they seek medical assistance then people who are to treat them have access to their previous medical record," Elkerton says.

"The reality is that the clinician can only ever see the records that accumulate at that point. A GP only has their record; a hospital only has your record for your stay at that hospital. Such poor communication results in less than ideal treatment choices. In an emergency situation, say you had an allergy to morphine and you're on holiday and have an accident and they give you morphine. That's a potentially life-threatening situation. It's a stark reminder of the lack of a unified record, amazing in this day and age."

Established in 2005, Healthcare Software has developed a clinical suite of software for hospitals to manage medications, patient referrals, discharge summaries, electronic prescribing, as well as lab and radiology results.

The software takes away the "old school" method of pen and paper, and streamlines communication between the hospital, community care providers and healthcare professionals.

The company, whose applications have already been implemented in 17 major hospitals throughout Tasmania and South Australia, is looking to increase that to 35 by this time next year.

Elkerton and his 12 staff are focusing their efforts on entering other states, as well as branching out internationally into New Zealand and Singapore. "Healthcare in Australia still revolves around pen, paper and human memory," he says. "Medication errors cause more deaths every year in Australia than the road toll.

"Our product significantly increases patient safety by reducing medication errors and adverse drug reactions."

Privacy hurdles and the fact technology hasn't fully arrived in health are certainly a cause for disquiet, but the mix is a veritable petri dish for an entrepreneur: a problem looking for a solution.

Elkerton's "problem" emerged during his 13 years in clinical (hospital) pharmacy in Australia and Britain.

"My work was all paper-based," he says.

"There was a folder with a patient record in it. Patient leaves hospital; commonly, the pharmacist's clinical record is destroyed or lost. I thought surely there must be some value in having an application that brought together all the information that a clinician or pharmacist required as well as being the point to further document and access for the future.

"It was a common paradigm then that hospitals were bypassed by the 90s IT revolution. Even today, an admission into hospital will result in a substantial bound-paper record of your stay in hospital."

Elkerton says the opportunity presented itself as a simple set of numbers.

"A medium-sized hospital may have a dozen of more clinical pharmacists doing the basic bottle labelling as well as being out on the ward talking to the doctors, nurses; educating patients. It piqued my interest. If there were so many people in this role, surely there would be an appetite for a solution which would support their activity."

He says his early days in business were focused on developing software.

"I dealt with the full range of health professionals, (but) I knew my weaknesses," he says.

"I was aware of my lack of business experience but I was passionate about the work and its potential to mitigate risks. You build it wrong the first time, but you build it right the second time.

"In 2005, I partnered with an IT software developer to build a commercial software package. It was a symbiotic relationship. It was 2 1/2 years of development. Apart from a small investment from a Tasmanian incubator fund, it was very lean times for the business. We were lucky to have the (incubator) funds. That kept us going for a while, then we secured a grant from AusIndustry to be able to commercialise and present product to market in 2007-08. The reality is that to develop enterprise software is hugely expensive. It takes a long time and lot of resources to get it there. No one had actually gone down the path of committing to such a substantial undertaking.

"First, it was clinical pharmacy; now we're across all aspects of medication management. The underlying theme ... is of naivety. IT business is not for the faint-hearted; it's a big numbers game.

"IT is hard, especially when you are selling software and health IT is even harder. The sale cycles are so long. The critical success factor for a small to medium-sized IT company in Australia is about gaining contracts. We've been doing this, invariably involving tenders.

"You're up against the mega companies. When we go into bat we are against multinationals. It all adds up to a substantial challenge."

A national electronic health record is a long-term aim of the federal government and opportunities in the IT industry abound.

"This is emerging as a big industry," Elkerton says.

"You've got an ageing population; you have an unsustainable growth of health as a percentage of GDP. It's heading for a train wreck unless we can develop some 21st-century modes for managing health. We have great IT and a very well advanced health system, but we can do better. Denmark is doing well; while the UK has invested a lot of money. We try to stay on that cutting edge of being the latest and the greatest."

Paper records need binning

2009-08-29T11:31:00.000+10:00

THE transition away from paper to electronic records is referred to as e-health and is becoming one of the hottest topics in health and IT.

For good reason. A recent report commissioned by the Rudd government highlighted the high occurrence of death and injury caused through medical error and miscommunication between care providers and patients.

It is estimated more people die as a direct result of these errors than are killed on Australia's roads each year.

To meet the vast demands of the health sector, solutions have been developed for all segments of the industry, providing support from administration to clinical areas.

These solutions are provided through a variety of sources, from the more traditional method of an on-site stand-alone server to the emerging trend of web-based platforms, which enable greater flexibility in the delivery and management of patient care.

John EIkerton, chief executive of Healthcare Software, says if you are a typical middle-aged Australian, you will have had several hospital visits, consulted more than one GP and collected prescriptions from any number of community pharmacies.

"So where is your medical record?" he says. "In most cases, each of these locations will hold a fragment of your record and to date there is no widespread collation of these details.

"The question is: how can the hospital, GP or other carer make the best decisions for your health when they cannot get a complete picture of a medical history?"

While businesses rely mostly on computerised records, this is not the case in our hospitals where documentation of patient results and treatment is still primarily paper-based.

Morris Kaplan The Australian 29 aug 09

We're on the home straight

2009-08-21T20:58:00.005+10:00

Winner of the grand national electronic conveyancing cup is ....

NECS may well be heading into the home straight, but it would appear the rest of the horses are still not even on the track or only just heading into the starting gates.

The State Governments are still arguing do we enter no duplicate title or do we bet on the rising star being the xml title search?

The Commonwealth Government says they are putting up the prize money but at 100 to 1 no one takes them seriously.

Lawyers are nowhere to be seen. They're still riding on faxes with a copy in the mail. Hardly to be seen is scan and email.

The Banks should be riding on collaborative solutions but they appear to have entered their pony into the Hong Kong Jockey Club Stakes or was that Bangalore?

With NECS heading into the home straight, it is really looking like a one horse race.

Like any memorable Melbourne Cup race (think phar lap 1930, jean shrimpton 1965, damien oliver 2002, makybe diva 3 back to back wins) you need all the horses in the starting gates at the same time and a close finish.

Its no point watching NECS heading up the home straight for an uncontested win. If unattended settlements is the finish line, everyone has to start getting serious.

Training starts at 4am and here are the tasks -

State Governments
Abolish the duplicate certificate of title (or at least publicly state their position on the issue)
Introduce a standardised XML Title Search

Lawyers and Conveyancers
Start using scanning technologies

Banks
Introduce and use collaborative web 2.0 solutions in conjunction with conveyancing practitioners, valuers and mortgage insurers. If banks need convincing on the merits of collarboration, a recent quote from New York Times interview with John T. Chambers, chairman and chief executive of Cisco Systems is on the mark. Q. What’s changed in the last few years? A. Big time, the importance of collaboration. Big time, people who have teamwork skills, and their use of technology. If they’re not collaborative, if they aren’t naturally inclined toward collaboration and teamwork, if they are uncomfortable with using technology to make that happen both within Cisco and in their own life, they’re probably not going to fit in here.

The reality is that old ways of conveyancing will eventually die. However, lawyers and conveyancers will move at different speeds, so industry and government should be focused on matters that will still value the old but transition them to the new. There has to be a transition from old paper technologies which have been in use in the current form more or less for the past 150 years and probably for the next 10 plus years. This means incremental changes which we have already seen such as the change from paper searches to online title searches.

Back to the racing analogy, we know where finish line is and that is unattended settlements. This is not a short sprint, but like the Melbourne Cup the race covers a distance of 3,200 metres. Just to qualify for the Melbourne Cup there are a number of lead-up races which I will cover in future newsletters.

247legal August Newsletter

Client Identity Verification - NECS

2009-08-21T18:30:00.001+10:00

In the electronic environment of NECS the transacting parties will not generally sign Land Registry instruments. Instead they will authorize a Subscriber to do so on their behalf. It is, therefore, essential that the Subscriber is satisfied about the identity of their Client.

The standard of Client Identity Verification is a critical risk mitigation measure in NECS. It gives all of the participants in a NECS transaction confidence about who they are dealing with. After considering the existing options for a CIV standard the National Project Team came to the conclusion that there needs to be a purpose-built standard for NECS. The standard will need to facilitate electronic property transactions, be compatable with current banking industry practice and expected future legal and conveyancing industry practices under the Anti Money Laundering legislation, and satisfy the Land Registries concerns for mitigating fraud and minimising compensation claims on their assurance funds.

More work is currently being done on determining the detail of the CIV standard for NECS and how it will be applied in particular circumstances.

NECS newsletter Aug 09

Tanner rules out e-conveyancing cash

2009-08-21T11:11:00.001+10:00

The Australian
Chris Merritt | August 21, 2009

THE appointment of Peter Harris to a senior role in the federal public service coincides with the government's refusal to provide $20 million in seed funding for the national e-conveyancing system.

Finance Minister Lindsay Tanner and Deregulation Minister Craig Emerson have outlined the government's position in a letter to Les Taylor, who chairs the national electronic conveyancing system steering committee.

Mr Taylor, a former general counsel of the Commonwealth Bank, had warned in May that unless repayable seed funding of $20m was provided for the national project, it was at risk of "complete failure".

In their response, Mr Tanner and Dr Emerson told Mr Taylor that the federal government had already agreed to give the states $550m as part of an agreement in which the states would undertake 27 projects, including a national e-conveyancing system.

That agreement includes payment of $100m in "up-front facilitation funding in 2008-09".

"Facilitation funding is not tied to any specific reform and its allocation is a decision for the states and territories," they wrote.

"It is the view of the commonwealth that this amount is sufficient to fulfil these obligations and no further funding will be allocated to facilitate delivery of the agreed reforms."

The agreement with the states shows that none of the $550m has been earmarked for the e-conveyancing system.

If the states fail to meet their commitment to establish the system, they could still receive their full reward payments from the commonwealth so long as they make progress in other areas covered by the agreement.

PS chief linked to $50m e-conveyancing failure

2009-08-21T08:51:00.002+10:00

Chris Merritt, Legal affairs editor | August 21, 2009

Article from: The Australian

ONE of the federal government's top public servants has been accused of having a vested interest in ensuring that Victoria's troubled e-conveyancing system becomes a template for the promised national system.

Peter Harris, who is about to take office as secretary of the Department of Broadband, Communications and the Digital Economy, was caught in a "hopeless" conflict of interest, according to opposition communications spokesman Nick Minchin.

"This chap will no doubt have a very significant vested interest in the Victorian system being seen as the template for a national system," Senator Minchin said. "It will reflect enormously badly on him if that is not the case, or if the Victorian system is made utterly redundant."

Before being appointed this week to the federal public service, Mr Harris ran the Victorian Department of Sustainability and Environment, which spent at least $50 million building a state-based e-conveyancing system.

If the long-promised single national system is rolled out, it would call into question the continued need for a separate Victorian system.

"I fear that (Mr Harris) will be hopelessly conflicted," said Senator Minchin.

"It is almost the situation where he would have to declare that conflict of interest and play no part whatsoever in the commonwealth's moves in this area."

However, a spokesman for Communications Minister Stephen Conroy said Mr Harris would be leading a department that had no involvement in the national e-conveyancing project.

Senator Conroy said Mr Harris had extensive public service experience and would be a valuable leader of the department.

Senator Minchin said he was also concerned about whether the troubled history of electronic conveyancing in Victoria meant Mr Harris might not be the best person to run the department during the rollout of the $43billion national broadband network.

While the state government says the system, known as ECV, has processed more than 600 "transactions", it has been boycotted by solicitors and the major banks. As a result, just one of the matters processed by ECV has been a full property settlement.

Senator Minchin said Mr Harris had been head of a state government department "that has had responsibility for what appears to be an unbelievable white elephant and bottomless pit of wasted Victorian government money".

"If you cannot manage the establishment of an electronic conveyancing system in Victoria without it becoming a major flop, then what does that say about the $43bn broadband network?" Senator Minchin asked.

State opposition frontbencher David Davis said Victorians were entitled to be surprised by Mr Harris's appointment.

"This IT white elephant has been overseen by DSE and Mr Harris at an expense of more than $50m and unfortunately not more than one full conveyancing transaction has been completed," he said.

Related article

Poor track record

IT is almost possible to feel sorry for Peter Harris. Before he has even taken office as the new secretary of the department of communications and the digital economy, Nick Minchin is laying into him.

But Harris has an unfortunate track record in Victoria as head of the department that oversaw the construction of the state's electronic conveyancing system, ECV.

It was on Harris's watch that his department churned through $50 million in public money building a conveyancing system that fails to meet the bare minimum requirements of the conveyancing industry.

The Law Institute of Victoria will not recommend it and the major banks will not use it. As head of the department of communications, Harris will not be responsible for electronic conveyancing. But he'll have a key role in the massive national broadband network. That project is so important that Minchin was entirely justified in turning the spotlight on what happened in Victoria.

'Soup nazi' hacked 130 million credit cards: prosecutors

2009-08-18T07:46:00.001+10:00

August 18, 2009 - The Age - AP

United States prosecutors have charged a Miami man with the nation's largest case of credit and debit card data theft.

Authorities said Albert Gonzales, 28, had broken his own record for identity theft by hacking into more retail networks to steal data from 130 million accounts.

Gonzales, already in jail awaiting trial for allegedly hacking into the computer networks of eight major retailers and stealing data related to 40 million credit cards, was indicted today in New Jersey, charged with conspiring with two other unnamed suspects to steal the private information.

Prosecutors say Gonzales, who is also known online as "soupnazi," targeted customers of convenience store giant 7-Eleven, and supermarket chain Hannaford Brothers. Heartland Payment Systems, a New Jersey-based card payment processor, was also targeted.

Gonzales is awaiting trial in New York for allegedly helping hack the computer network of the national restaurant chain Dave and Buster's. The trial in that case is due to begin next month.

He faces up to 20 years in prison if convicted of the new charges.

The Justice Department said the new case represents the largest alleged credit and debit card data breach ever charged in the United States, beginning in October 2006.

Gonzales allegedly devised a sophisticated attack to penetrate the computer networks, steal the card data, and send that data to computer servers in California, Illinois, Latvia, the Netherlands and Ukraine.

The indictment also charges that Gonzales and his co-conspirators used sophisticated hacker techniques to cover their tracks and avoid detection.

Also last year, the Justice Department announced additional charges against Gonzales and others for hacking retail companies' computers for the theft of approximately 40 million credit cards. At the time, that was believed to be the biggest single case of hacking private computer networks to steal credit card data.

AP

Man jailed after using Limewire for ID theft

2009-08-13T07:37:00.002+10:00

A Seattle man has been sentenced to more than three years in prison for using the LimeWire file-sharing service to lift personal information from computers across the US. The man, Frederick Wood, typed words like 'tax return' and 'account' into the LimeWire search box. That allowed him to find and access computers on the LimeWire network with shared folders that contained tax returns and bank account information. ... He used the information to open accounts, create identification cards and make purchases. 'Many of the victims are parents who don't realize that LimeWire is on their home computer,' [said Kathryn Warma of the US Attorney's Office].

Original Story - PC World

Myer David Jones caught in $500,000 credit scam

2009-08-06T03:28:00.001+10:00

Steve Butcher
August 6, 2009

A STRING of leading Melbourne retail stores — including Melbourne’s premier outlets Myer and David Jones — have been victims of a $500,000 scam whose syndicate ringleaders recruited overseas students.

The stores, which included Dick Smith and JB Hi-Fi, were duped by fake credit cards the students used to buy hundreds of gift cards.

Melbourne Magistrates Court yesterday heard Ching Boon Goh, 25, produced the cards from an embossing machine, blank credit cards and stolen credit cards numbers from overseas. Goh, who added other identification to match the cards, recruited numerous Malaysian and other overseas students to attend the stores between October and January this year.

In documents tendered to court, Goh obtained about $226,000 from the students who bought gift cards, which are basically cash substitutes, valued between $50 and $500.

Goh then onsold the gift cards to other offenders, allegedly including Rubesch Thannanjeyan, for 70 per cent of their value.

example of identity fraud

CBA and Westpac corner mortgage market

2009-08-03T07:59:00.000+10:00

Nick Tabakoff | August 03, 2009

Article from: The Australian

AUSTRALIA'S "big two" banks, the Commonwealth and Westpac, have tightened their stranglehold on the national mortgage book by taking more than 85 per cent of new mortgage lending by the banking sector during the June quarter.

The extraordinary growth means the combined size of the mortgage books of the big two has now topped $500 billion for the first time.

A report obtained by The Australian has shown that of the $35.6bn of new mortgage lending achieved during the quarter, the merged CBA/Bankwest and Westpac/St George achieved an extraordinary 85.2 per cent, or $30.3bn, of the growth.

But the growing disparity between the haves and have-nots of the banking sector has seen the head of the Australian Competition & Consumer Commission, Graeme Samuel, reiterate fears about the state of competition between larger and smaller banks.

He said yesterday there was "no one concerned with competition that would say the current situation is healthy".

The new figures released by financial intelligence firm CoreData show the merged Westpac/St George had the fastest-growing mortgage book during the quarter, with $15.2bn in new mortgage lending. CBA/Bankwest grew by $15.1bn.

The figures come days after Australian Prudential Regulatory Authority statistics showed the big four banks dominating deposits and home lending.

Westpac/St George was the aggressive mover for the period, with growth in its mortgage book almost doubling from the combined $7.7bn figure for the March quarter. CBA/Bankwest and Westpac/St George now have just under half of all outstanding mortgages in Australia by value. The enlarged CBA has 25.2 per cent of the market with $260bn, while the merged Westpac has 23.3 per cent with $241bn.

By comparison, National Australia Bank and ANZ combined have 25.5 per cent market share. NAB has a mortgage loan book of $133.9bn and the ANZ $130.4bn. NAB recorded mortgage growth of just 2.2 per cent in the June quarter, while ANZ's growth was 1.8 per cent. While NAB and ANZ record tepid growth, tier-two banks -- as well as foreign-owned banks operating locally -- are losing their small market share.

The big four raised their combined market share of residential lending to a record high of 74.1 per cent during the June quarter, up from 72.2 per cent in the March quarter. But at the end of the June quarter, the tier-two banks -- made up mainly of regionals such as Suncorp, and Bendigo and Adelaide -- had an 11.2 per cent market share, 0.3 per cent below the 11.5 per cent share they recorded at the end of March.

CoreData principal Andrew Inwood said the regional banks, in particular, needed to reinvent themselves after recently trying to match big banks in cutting mortgage interest rates.

"Competing with CBA on price is like trying to compete with Walmart on price," he said. "The regionals should be focusing on their ability to take care of customers in a way with which the big two can't possibly compete."

Estate agents have been accused of underquoting on property prices

2009-07-29T07:56:00.001+10:00

Herald Sun - Craig Binnie
July 18, 2009

FRUSTRATED home hunters have wasted countless weekends visiting properties that were out of their price range.

Estate agent Century 21 Wilson Pride was the worst price predictor of the big agencies according to a Herald Sun study of 74 auctions from last weekend.

The agency missed the actual selling price by an average of 19 per cent.

In one case the firm said the expected selling price of an Elwood flat was $325,000. It sold for $412,500.

Buyers advocate David Morrell said agents were messing with people's lives by giving extremely low price estimates.

"If someone is looking in the $300,000 price range they probably don't have a $400,000 budget," he said.

"So all that happens is they waste their time and the agent gets a bigger crowd to make themselves look good at the auction.

"This has got to stop."

Collins Simms was the second worst agent in the study. The agency erred by 17 per cent. Jellis Craig was third on 15 per cent.

Hocking Stuart was off by 11 per cent and Biggin and Scott was off by 14 per cent.

Prospective buyers are particularly angry when properties pass in after bids that are above the advertised price.

Last weekend, Hocking Stuart advertised a Prahran house at $1 million plus and passed it in at $1,020,000 on a reserve of $1,120,000.

Nelson Alexander advertised a house at Gowanbrae at $670,000-$730,000. It was passed in at $700,000 with a reserve of $750,000.

Bennison Mackinnon advertised a Port Melbourne house at $700,000 plus. It was passed in at $760,000, the vendors refused a later offer of $770,000 - $70,000 above the advertised price - and did not disclose the reserve.

Estate agents stress that predicting prices at auction is nearly impossible. But it is deliberate underquoting that angers buyers. Prospective buyers regularly offer the advertised price only to be told the owner will not sell unless it's well above that price.

But the agents continue to advertise the property at the lower price.

The Real Estate Institute of Victoria's chief executive Enzo Raimondo said Consumer Affairs Victoria needed to take action against agents who were breaking the law.

"They are the regulator," Mr Raimondo said. "They really need to do something, enforce them, get rid of some of the practices that aren't helpful."

Mr Raimondo said quoting a price range with an upper and lower price that accurately reflected the market price was a fairer way to quote.

Mr Raimondo said buyers, and agents who did the right thing, should complain to CAV when they saw cases of underquoting.

"Don't tolerate this sort of substandard behaviour," Mr Raimondo said.

CAV said yesterday it was on the lookout for underquoting, but Mr Raimondo mocked a claim by CAV that it had 80 investigators monitoring agents for underquoting and other offences.

"The last person they pinged for underquoting was someone we reported," he said.

CAV spokeswoman Heather Abbott said price-plus advertising was discouraged but was not illegal unless the price was below the price at which the agent knew the vendor was willing to sell.

She said it was up to buyers to research the market.

"CAV views this type of advertising as potentially misleading and complaints received in this regard are assessed and investigated in accordance with CAV policies," she said.

"Agents have been informed they must use their knowledge and skills when appraising property and ensure their advertising reflects a price, which they believe is the likely or estimated selling price.

"CAV will continue to take enforcement action against real estate agents where regulations have been breached.

"Prosecution is reserved for the most serious of cases.

"While agents have a responsibility to advertise a property at the vendor's asking or, in the absence of this price, the likely selling price, consumers have a responsibility to ensure they are informed."

Comment

I recently sold in Melbourne discussed selling price with agent. Price discussed was to be high 700 k low 800 K. First adv by the agent went in at 650 k plus. Rang agent and asked why? Reply was "you have to get people in" I complained. Next adv was 700k plus. Sold at 840K. I can see why people get frustrated, time wasted, inspection reports etc. Consumer Affairs Victoria needed to take action against agents who were breaking the law.

Posted by: Alan of Merimbula ex Melbourne 9:31am July 18, 2009

Raid on estate agents underquoting prices

2009-07-29T07:50:00.000+10:00

NEWS - By Craig Binnie
July 28, 2009

SIXTY estate agents' offices have been raided in Victoria by investigators in a major crackdown on underquoting.

More than 1000 recent property sales files were inspected and several agents are expected to face prosecution.

At least one agent tried to stop investigators accessing his files and others were said to be shocked at the scope of the investigation, the Herald Sun reports.

Consumer Affairs Victoria director Dr Claire Noone said the agent initially denied inspectors entry. "However, after being advised that failure to allow entry and inspection of files were both offences under the Estate Agents Act, CAV successfully gained entry," she said.

HAVE you been a victim of underquoting? Tell us below.

The raids follow the Herald Sun's campaign on agents misleading and using time-wasting advertising tactics that trick buyers into inspecting properties they cannot afford.

Up to 80 investigators are examining seized files seeking illegal and unethical price underquoting. Dr Noone said agents found to be systematically breaking the law would face disciplinary action and potentially lose their licences.

The raids centred on western and northern suburbs including Brunswick, Clifton Hill, Coburg, Craigieburn, Essendon, Pascoe Vale, Point Cook and Werribee.

Dr Noone said investigators collected details relating to the estimated selling price established by the agent, the vendor's price, the advertised price and the final sale price.

"Any agent engaging in dubious practices will be thoroughly investigated," she said.

The breadth of the raids stunned agents who have told the Real Estate Institute of Victoria that there was no need to abide by laws banning deliberate underquoting because nobody was enforcing them.

Last year CAV's compliance, monitoring and inspections of agents resulted in just five enforceable undertakings, five civil proceedings and two criminal prosecutions.

Dr Noone said the blitz aimed to ensure agents followed guidelines and the law.

The State Government is examining ways to clean up the real estate industry. Consumer Affairs Minister Tony Robinson is considering a ban on price-plus advertising such as $400,000+ because agents have misused it.

Estate agents raided by Consumer Affairs Victoria

2009-07-29T07:40:00.000+10:00

The Age - AAP - July 29, 2009

Investigators raided the offices of dozens of Victorian estate agencies in a major offensive against underquoting.

Sixty offices have been raided by Consumer Affairs Victoria (CAV) and files relating to more than 1,000 recent property sales were inspected, News Ltd reported.

One agent tried to prevent CAV inspectors from seeing sales files, CAV director Dr Claire Noone said.

‘‘However, after being advised that failure to allow entry and inspection of files were both offences under the Estate Agents Act, CAV successfully gained entry," she said.

The raids, which focused on agencies in Melbourne's north and west, were aimed at stopping unscrupulous agents from misleading clients and using dodgy advertising to tempt buyers to inspect properties they can't afford.

Up to 80 investigators are examining seized files.

Agents found to be breaching the law will face disciplinary action and could lose their trading licence, Dr Noone said.

Files Vanished, Young Chinese Lose the Future

2009-07-28T07:56:00.001+10:00

NYT - "If you don’t have it, just forget it! No matter how capable you are, they will not hire you."
WANG JINDONG, a college graduate in China, on the loss of a file containing his grades, evaluations and other personal information.

WUBU, China — For much of his education, Xue Longlong was silently accompanied from grade to grade, school to school, by a sealed Manila envelope stamped top secret. Stuffed inside were grades, test results, evaluations by fellow students and teachers, his Communist Party application and — most important for his job prospects — proof of his 2006 college degree.

Everyone in China who has been to high school has such a file. The files are irreplaceable histories of achievement and failure, the starting point for potential employers, government officials and others judging an individual’s worth. Often keys to the future, they are locked tight in government, school or workplace cabinets to eliminate any chance they might vanish.

But two years ago, Mr. Xue’s file did vanish. So did the files of at least 10 others, all 2006 college graduates with exemplary records, all from poor families living near this gritty north-central town on the wide banks of the Yellow River.

With the Manila folders went their futures, they say.

read more

States: more often a brake on good government than on bad.

2009-07-26T09:41:00.002+10:00

Paul Kelly, Editor-at-large | July 25, 2009

Article from: The Australian

IN an aggressive analysis, Liberal spokesman Tony Abbott reveals how much Kevin Rudd's 2007 public hospital takeover pledge shocked the Howard government and calls on the Liberal Party to abandon a century of history and embrace greater powers for the national government.

Abbott's argument is that John Howard, far from intruding on state powers, should have gone much further. Abbott's central proposition is that "the federation is broken and does need to be fixed". This is his conclusion from his experience as a federal minister and the main idea in his new book, Battlelines, that expounds a modern conservatism for the Liberal Party and seeks a new constitution for Australia.

For Abbott, Liberal Party attitudes on federalism are obsolete, divorced from public opinion and doomed to permanent policy failure. He is convinced that Rudd's new federalism also will fail and urges the Liberal Party to confront the crisis in Australian governance. Abbott argues the Howard government was locked into an unwinnable dilemma. It kept taking "hits for political problems that weren't its fault but which it had no way to fix". The public hospital dilemma, now facing the Rudd government, was the supreme example.

But there were many others. "Tackling the dysfunctional federation turned out to be a lost opportunity for the Howard government," Abbott says, alluding to serious disputes within the former government.

"One of the paradoxes of the 2007 election was the perverse way federal Labor benefited from state Labor's failures.

"When voters complained about poor public hospitals, public schools and public transport, John Howard correctly observed that these were state responsibilities. By contrast, Kevin Rudd capitalised on voters' anger by promising to work with the states to solve the problems that state government ineptitude had largely brought about."

For Abbott, Howard opened the door to the revolution. He says Howard approached gun laws, school curriculum and water policy in terms of "solving problems", rather than as an exercise in federal theory or constitutional niceties. Abbott's contempt for state governments that break deals, bolster trade union powers, run huge bureaucracies and refuse serious reforms is palpable. In Battlelines he wants Howard's philosophy to be taken to its next stage.

Abbott dramatises his argument by seeking a constitutional referendum that enables the national government to pass laws "for the peace, order and good government of the country". This means the national government could propose laws in any area free from the constraints of Section 51 of the Constitution. As Abbott says, his idea "wouldn't abolish the states" but would stop them from "jeopardising policy in areas where the national government was determined to intervene".

The mechanism would be similar to the "disallowance provisions" the commonwealth parliament has in relation to territory laws. Equipped with this power, the commonwealth would be better placed to impose policy directions on the states. Once the power existed, it would need to be used only in rare instances. This is a radical solution unlikely to win internal Liberal Party support or pass at referendum. Abbott says the message from Rudd's problems is obvious: fixing the federation is Australia's "biggest political problem" and will fall to the next Coalition government.

He argues the narrative from the Howard years cannot be avoided; in schools, health, water, mental health and disability services, "the states rarely delivered" despite federal funds. They are resistant to structural reform and neither bribery nor penalties works.

Abbott argues that economic prosperity under Howard only intensified public demands. People locked in traffic jams or waiting with distressed kids for hours in a public hospital just wanted their problems fixed. The pressure inevitably settled on the prime minister because people "expect the commonwealth to 'do something"'. He wants to purge the old-fashioned Liberal Party fixation with state rights and have a debate based on the experiences of the Howard era.

He says the people want "national leadership", not "constitutional purity".

Much of the present federalism debate is futile, Abbott asserts. Proposals usually mean giving the states more revenue powers or fewer spending responsibilities. He says: "The difficulty is that people are reluctant to give the states any more powers than they currently have and the states won't surrender anything without a trade-off. The only way to sort out responsibilities in areas where the two levels of government are both involved is to put one level of government in overall charge."

This would not be needed if competent state governments such as those of Nick Greiner or Jeff Kennett still existed. But those days are gone. The truth, Abbott says, is that the states are the 2nd XI of Australian politics and they "are much more often a brake on good government than on bad".

Abbott reveals that after Rudd's 2007 pledge to take over the public hospital system if improvements were not delivered, there was a Howard-Abbott-Peter Costello meeting in Howard's Sydney office to try to devise a response. Various alternatives were canvassed including "the 'mega' option of a full commonwealth government takeover".

Abbott says "in the end no decision was taken because there was no course of action which all three of us could agree".

"The truth was that the Howard government had become a prisoner of its record as all long-lived governments eventually do," he writes. "An immediate commonwealth (public hospital) takeover might have looked like responding to the other side. As well, it would have provoked the Liberal Party's 'anti-centralism' brigade, even though it was the states that had run hospitals from head office through giant unwieldy bureaucracies. At that stage anything dramatic would have been cast as an admission of public failure."

Compared with Rudd's bold headlines about a possible commonwealth takeover, the Howard government's takeover of a single hospital, the Mersey Hospital near Devonport, with the creation of a local board to run it, seemed a "second order change". Abbott wanted a radical assertion of commonwealth powers but never got it. The irony is that the Rudd government now seems unlikely to honour the expectations it created on public hospitals.

Aware of the criticism he will provoke, Abbott lays down two markers.

First, more commonwealth policy clout means less government bureaucracy, more privatisation and service delivery through private entities. Second, it means smaller government overall.

"There are very few problems in contemporary Australia that a dysfunctional federation doesn't make worse," Abbott says. "The state governments have a legal responsibility for issues which only the national government has the political authority and financial muscle to resolve. At present, the only effective way to improve public hospitals, for instance, or to allocate Murray-Darling water better or to establish a national school curriculum is for the commonwealth to bribe the states. All to often the states take the money but fail to deliver the outcomes.

"In large areas of our national life, no one is really in charge because the commonwealth funds the service but the state delivers it. Hence, in these areas, the state governments tend to wield power without responsibility while the commonwealth suffers responsibility without power."

Gates Faults U.S. on Data Privacy and Immigration

2009-07-25T19:06:00.001+10:00

By HEATHER TIMMONS - NYT - 25 July 09

NEW DELHI, India — In a far-ranging speech on Friday, Bill Gates criticized the American government’s policy on immigration and data privacy, predicted giant leaps in technology in the near future and explained why he had to shut down his Facebook page.

“Over the next decade, the entire way we interact” with computers will change, Mr. Gates, the chairman of Microsoft, told hundreds of government officials and information technology executives in New Delhi. Mr. Gates spoke of cellphones that would recognize people around them or be used to test for diseases, computers equipped with voice recognition and an Internet that was used for much more than Web pages.

While the recession has been a “big deal,” it has not slowed innovation, he said, in part because countries like India and companies like Microsoft are investing in education and research for a new generation of computer scientists.

Microsoft is angling to work on India’s national identity card project, Mr. Gates said, and he will be meeting with Nandan Nilekani, the minister in charge. Like Mr. Gates, Mr. Nilekani stopped running the technology company he helped to start, Infosys, after expanding it into one of the biggest players in the business. He is now tasked with providing identity cards for India’s 1.2 billion citizens starting in 2011. Right now in India, many records like births, deaths, immunizations and driving violations are kept on paper in local offices.

Mr. Gates was also critical of the United States government’s unwillingness to adopt a national identity card, or allow some businesses, like health care, to centralize data-keeping on individuals.

“It has always come back to the idea that ‘The computer knows too much about you,’ ” he said.

The United States “got off to a bad start” when it comes to using computers to keep data about its citizens, he said. Doctors are not allowed to share records about an individual patient, and virtual doctor visits are banned, he said, which “wastes a lot of money.” The United States “had better come up with a better model” for health care, he said.

He was also critical of Congress’s stance on immigration, and said he would like to see immigration exceptions for “smart people.” Canadian laws are more favorable, he said, because they allow immigrants to work if they are offered a high-paying job. Microsoft has created “a lot of jobs in Canada for that reason,” he said.

Asked whether he ever “unplugs,” abandoning e-mail messages, computers and his cellphone entirely, Mr. Gates laughed and said “I’m not a 24-hour technology person.” He said he read a lot “and sometimes not on a screen.” He added that he was not big on text messaging. “All these tools of technology let us waste our time if we’re not careful,” he said.

Mr. Gates said the buzzwords “social networking” applied to something that had been around for a long time — a way to communicate with numerous people at the same time.

He acknowledged that he once had a Facebook page, but every day “ten thousand people tried to be my friend.” He said he spent too much time trying to decide “Do I know them? Don’t I know them?” Ultimately, he said, “I had to give it up.”

Conservative lawyers struggle with Web 2.0

2009-07-23T16:20:00.005+10:00

Source: The New Lawyer | 23 July 09

As law firms strive to get closer to clients and better position themselves to bid for work in the global economic crisis, social networking has become the tool de rigeur.

Law firms and their professional service counterparts are increasingly focusing on networking and collective intelligence technologies as a way to maintain market position, a new report into how social networking is used in law firms reveals.

Firms are using "Web 2.0 to communicate with customers and business partners, as well as to encourage collaboration in the firm and help manage knowledge internally," the report, Social Networking for the Legal Profession, written by Penny Edwards and Lee Bryant from Headshift, states.

Lawyers are particularly well suited to social networking, the report suggests. It has "always been an important feature of the way they do business, and there are many characteristics of lawerly behaviour that map very closely to the features of online social networking".

The Headshift report suggests however that lawyers, "traditionally conservative" adopters of technology, have not had the time to consider the implications of these social and technological developments. Some dismiss them as "passing fads" and consider them "unlikely to have any material impact on the legal world".

The popularity of sites like Facebook, Twitter and YouTube just add to lawyers' perception that social networking is just for the online, out-of-work and younger generation of lawyers.

The development of legal content and expertise as a social endeavour, the relationship-based business development, on top of the nature of a "strong guild-like legal community", each enhance this compatibility, it states.

Technological advances and continued evolution is offering increased opportunities for re-engineering business, the 181 page report states. "New social technologies offer possibilities for radical change in the way things are done."

In August 2008, CCH surveyed 229 professionals from the legal and professional service professions to gauge the effects of Web 2.0 usage on the way professionals access, absorb and disseminate information.

The survey found that 31.4 per cent of respondents use social network sits for frequent personal use, while 42.4 per cent thought a social online community concept in a specific professional context would be valuable.

The CCH survey found that 20.1 per cent of the legal sector respondents use social networking sites for professional use frequently. Wikis are even more popular within the legal sector, frequently used for professional purposes by 33.3 per cent of respondents. Blogs, however, remain the most popular, being used professionally by 35.2 per cent of people.

The favourite tricks of real estate agents

2009-07-15T17:33:00.002+10:00

Marika Dobbin | The Age
July 15, 2009

Stuart Washington's recent blog about the dirty little secrets of financial planners got such a big response we thought we'd give it another crack, but this time looking at another group of suits in posh cars - real estate agents. Most real estate agents are decent folk. But there are grubby ones too, those who play property like a Monopoly game and love to cheat. Here are some favourite tricks.

Have you been on the receiving end of any tricks of the trade? Have your say.

Dirty little secret #1

There is an old adage among real-estate agents, ''quote 'em low and watch 'em go. Quote 'em high and watch 'em die". The practice of under quoting is widespread and has surged again in recent months. It is when potential buyers are told a price much lower than a property's true market value and the owner's reserve. Unfortunately, under quoting is rife because it works. Every weekend hopeful buyers are lured to an auction thinking they can afford, for example, $850,000-plus for a four bedroom house in Templestowe, Melbourne, only to be broken hearted when sells for $1.51m, as happened at 45 Taparoo Road last month.

Dirty little secret #2

The reverse of under quoting is over quoting, a ploy some agents use to win business. In this case, agents promise a vendor their house will fetch a price well above its market value, whether to convince them to sell or to beat others for the right to sell it. Once the contract is signed, the agent begins to groom the owner to accept a lower price. Adding even more insult to injury is the fact that many times property is actually sold for less than it is worth. This happens when the agent can not be bothered with the hard yakka to get, for example, an extra 5 per cent for their vendor. Such agents have a churn mentality, simply finding a price the owner will accept, selling the house and moving on to the next campaign.

Dirty little secret #3

Vendors can be cheated in another way too. Very naughty agents have been known to withhold good offers made before auction, even those well above the reserve, for several reasons. Sometimes, the offer comes through another agent at the firm and the original agent doesn't want to share commission. So, the bid is never put to the vendor or is put to them but at less than the real offer to be knocked back. Other times the agency wants to promote its brand by pushing ahead with the auction no matter what. It wants the vendor to spend the full amount on advertising because it is a lighthouse to attract other buyers and sellers to the business.

Dirty little secret #4

Now we get to the dummy tricks, used by agents who never outgrew their imaginary friends. Dummy offers are when agents claim to the vendor or buyer they have an offer that is purely fabrication. This tactic is used to make buyers increase their bid in a private sale or expression of interest campaign. It can also be used to groom vendors into accepting a lower price than they want. Remember, the agent wants to sell more than anything, to get their commission. If the agent has promised an unrealistic $1m for a property, a common trick is come back with a fake offer, say $800,000. The vendor will reject it but the process of talking down from their original expectation has started.

Dirty little secret #5

Dummy bidding is another old trick in the magic bag. While in the past it was normal for auctioneers to accept bids cast by street trees and passing pigeons when action was slow, these days it has become more sophisticated. Some very sneaky agents and vendors now enlist friends to cast fake bids that push prices up. Like under quoting, dummy bidding is popular because it works. And, it is almost impossible to prove, making it still very much a part of the real estate landscape.

Now the Top Five is done, but there is one last secret worth mentioning, possibly the worst kept secret of all. The visual trickery used in advertising photos is so endemic consumers are wise to it, in a big way. Lounge rooms are stretched, power lines removed and artificial sunlight beamed in, all thanks to some serious Photoshopping. A relatively new trick is the use of flashy display furniture that is actually made on a smaller scale than real furniture to tizz up an ordinary house and make the room look bigger.

Having revealed all of that, it is easy to see why real-estate agents have a collective reputation only slightly less murky than journalists. For what it is worth, I have dealt with many agents in the course of my duties and found most to be upstanding. Whether you can trust a journalist on that is up to you.

Thanks to buyers advocate David Morrell, from Morrell and Koren for his help with this list.

Marika Dobbin is The Age's Property Editor

Banks muscle out smaller rivals in loans market

2009-07-14T06:27:00.002+10:00

Peter Martin | The Age
July 14, 2009

AUSTRALIA'S banks have gained almost unrivalled dominance over the financial system, accounting for almost $90 of each $100 lent, an all-time high.

The market-share figures for May, covering personal loans, housing loans, commercial loans and lease finance came as Finance Minister Lindsay Tanner gave support to a new inquiry into the financial system.

Addressing international regulators in Sydney, Mr Tanner said the pace of financial innovation had now "outstripped the capacity" of regulators to keep up.

"The world has changed beyond recognition," he told the conference. "Whether we're talking about the United States or Australia, we need a regulatory regime that's appropriate for 2010 and beyond, not one that simply reinvents the past."

Australia's last inquiry into the financial system in 1996-97 took place at a time when competitors to the banks had a large and growing market share.

The May figures show the share of new loans issued by building societies, credit unions, wholesale lenders and finance companies fell to a record low 10.6 per cent, down from 15 per cent a year ago. The banks' share was a record 89.4 per cent, up from 85 per cent.

The banks' share of new mortgages climbed from 90 to 92 per cent and their share of motor vehicle and other lease finance jumped from 35 to 45 per cent.

Former Competition and Consumer Commissioner Stephen King said there was now a real question over the degree to which the Big Four banks "were keeping each other honest and were kept honest by facing competition".

"These figures show the smaller players are becoming less relevant as a constraint on the banks. We have a straight-out competition problem. The last 18 months have reversed a 20-year trend for the banks to face more competition," he said.

Professor King is one of the six public policy economists who last week petitioned Treasurer Wayne Swan, asking for a new inquiry into Australia's financial system.

"The last financial system inquiry was carried out against a background of the banks facing increasing constraints on their behaviour from emerging competitors, and that has turned around," he said.

"What the people who say we don't need an inquiry are ignoring is that the rest of the world is changing. In the UK and other countries the old rule book is being thrown out. We can't act as if we are an island."

On Sunday, Financial Services Minister Chris Bowen opened the door to a new financial system inquiry, saying he "would not rule out" such a review "at the appropriate time".

Mr Swan is believed to be open to the idea of an inquiry after the dust has settled on the financial crisis.

Mr Tanner said Australia's regulators had been vigilant in overseeing Australia's financial sector, but that it was clear that new international rules were needed.

New lending for housing hit a record high in May. The figures showed a sharp jump in borrowing for investment properties, suggesting that more investors were "positively gearing" to take advantage of high rents and low interest rates.

COAG needs dose of political Viagra

2009-07-13T07:59:00.001+10:00

Mike Steketee | July 11, 2009

Article from: The Australian

WOULD you like to earn a lazy $2.4 billion? That's a year. It's Kevin Rudd's latest get-rich-quick scheme. On second thoughts, hold the quick part. And, unfortunately, it would have to be shared with 22 million other Australians. Still, in these straitened times, why look a gift horse in the mouth?

After his latest meeting with premiers and chief ministers last week, the Prime Minister announced another breakthrough in his project to fix the federation. The breakthroughs at the Council of Australian Governments came so thick and fast that this one barely rated a mention in the media. Rudd and Transport Minister Anthony Albanese said the meeting had agreed to "historic" reforms to streamline transport regulations that "have the potential to boost national income by as much as $2.4bn a year". There would be a single national regulator for trucks, covering areas such as inspection standards, safe driving hours, weight limits and registration.

The Australian Maritime Safety Authority would become the national regulator of all commercial vessels operating in Australian waters, not just those that travel between states, as now. And there would be a national rail safety system.

What good ideas. Trucks have been travelling interstate for many years but still have to comply with all sorts of different rules when they cross borders. Trains don't stop at state borders either, at least not since the extension of the standard gauge, but nevertheless Australia has seven rail safety regulators and three rail safety investigators. Considering the US, with 50 states, has had one body responsible for rail safety since 1932 and there has been a European rail authority to harmonise the regulations of 23 countries since 2004, such a reform in Australia is, in the words of Rudd and Albanese, long overdue.

The cost of the tonnes of red tape, the duplication and the conflicting rules covering not only transport but scores of other areas add up to multiples of the $2.4bn on offer in transport. Clearing these thickets can provide a significant boost to productivity. According to Business Council of Australia president Greig Gailey, the progress COAG makes over the next 18 months in implementing such long-term reforms will determine Australia's prosperity for the next decade.

But before we get carried away with the euphoria, it pays to apply a reality check. Heads of government like to have so-called announceables following COAG meetings, but experience suggests these announcements should not always be taken at face value. The first niggling doubt emerges with a short sentence at the end of the Rudd-Albanese statement: "It is proposed that all reforms will be fully implemented by 2013." That suggests there are just a few wrinkles to be ironed out. More than a few, as it turns out.

What the COAG meeting actually achieved on rail safety last week was to put the reforms into reverse, with the potential, believe it or not, for Australia to end up with more safety regulators than it has now.

A meeting of commonwealth and state transport ministers in May signed off on a single national rail safety regulator to "provide a one-stop shop for all those operating in and on our rail networks", as the statement issued at the time said. Victoria subsequently had second thoughts when the state's transport bureaucrats raised concerns. Did Victoria really want a national body determining safety issues on Melbourne's trams and trains? What if that resulted in a demand that Victoria spend billions of dollars on its rail systems to comply with national rules?

The advisers were persuasive enough for Premier John Brumby to take the objections first to a meeting with his state and territory counterparts, and then to COAG last week. Instead of telling Brumby where to get off, Rudd meekly went along. As a result - and contrary to the misleading Rudd-Albanese announcement - COAG failed to agree on a single national regulator. In the words of the detail buried deep in the COAG communique, there will be "further consideration of the scope and form of the regulator following receipt of advice at the end of 2009 from the standing committee on transport on specific safety requirements within jurisdictions, especially in relation to urban systems and the interface with interstate and freight operations". You can bet the Victorian bureaucrats had a celebratory cappuccino after that one.

In plain English, what the communique means is that the Victorians want their own regulator for metropolitan rail. The other states may start thinking what's good for Victoria will do them nicely, as well. As Bryan Nye, chief executive of the industry body the Australasian Rail Association, puts it, under the Victorian proposals "we will end up with a bigger mess than we have now". Take a freight train carrying grain from rural Victoria to Geelong. Part of its journey is on the Melbourne metropolitan network, where it could come under the jurisdiction of the metropolitan regulator as well as the national one. "Sheer madness," Nye says.

Still, nothing much surprises Nye and others in the rail industry. Administration of the railways is a metaphor for everything that is wrong with the Australian federation. The reforms on rail safety are as blindingly obvious as a uniform rail gauge, but that doesn't stop them being next to impossible to achieve.

Federal and state governments reached agreement as long ago as 1996 on the need for "a cost-effective, nationally consistent approach to railway safety". In 1999, an independent review commissioned by governments recommended a single national rail safety regulator, a finding since echoed by the Productivity Commission and the National Transport Commission. In 2006, COAG identified as one of six hot spots warranting priority action the harmonisation of rail and road regulation, including safety. All governments are supposed to have passed national rail safety legislation two years ago but most missed the deadline and Tasmania and the Northern Territory have not yet gotten around to introducing their bills. The acts that have passed all include variations from the national model. For example, NSW decided it would require two drivers on interstate freight trains, meaning that an extra driver has to be sent to Victoria or South Australia to get on board before trains cross into NSW. It would be funny if it weren't so serious.

Fixing the federation is one of Rudd's professed priorities and he calls COAG "the workhorse of the nation". There has indeed been progress but it has been more in the process than in terms of achievements. As public servants present and former from Rudd down will tell you, the right structure has to be put in place and it is the result that matters.

But in some areas, such as managing the Murray-Darling Basin, time is running out and the delays are causing real harm. There has been no end to the benchmarks and goals and interim targets for tackling everything from indigenous disadvantage and homelessness to standardising business reporting, but precious little yet in real resources on the ground.

In transport, agreement on a single regulator for trucks is significant, as are new heavy vehicle user charges. But like many other issues, including uniform national occupational health and safety laws for businesses operating across state boundaries, the timetable has slipped. The operation of the new arrangements is often years away and compromises have cast doubt on the eventual result.

What COAG needs is a good dose of political Viagra. If that doesn't work, Rudd should drop the nice guy approach and flex some of the commonwealth's muscle. If Victoria is so keen on fencing off its metropolitan rail system from big bad government in Canberra, then Rudd may like to suggest that it do without the commonwealth funding as well, including the $3.2bn being kicked in for a new express line from Werribee to the city. Then we would quickly find out states' rights, too, have their limits.

Online real estate market poised for battle as Google moves in

2009-07-11T04:23:00.001+10:00

July 10, 2009 - 5:01PM The Age

It's shaping up as a battle of the online giants.

In one corner are the current champions of Australia's online real estate classifieds, realestate.com.au and Domain, and in the other corner is the challenger Google.

And there's no need for introductions.

While more than 90 per cent of Australians online use Google, the popular search engine is now looking to enter the property search market.

In Australia, that market is dominated by realestate.com.au and Domain. (Domain is owned by Fairfax Media, also the owner of My Small Business.)

Those sites received visits from 22 per cent and 14 per cent respectively of online Australians between March and May, according to Nielsen Online.

So far, realestate.com.au - part of REA Group Ltd and majority owned by News Limited - has only really had to worry about Fairfax's Domain nipping at its heels.

REA chief executive Greg Ellis, who is in his first year at the helm after former CEO Simon Baker's abrupt departure last year, has played down the threat to the realestate.com.au business and told AAP he welcomed the competition.

"It's a fairly rudimentary service," Mr Ellis said of the Google initiative.

"Google's a very good company, it is competition, but we welcome competition because it makes us stay focused for our customers and consumers.

"Our position in the marketplace is very strong - we are the market leader in online real estate."

Both Domain and realestate.com.au also rely to varying degrees on their links ranking well on Google's search results page to attract users to click through to their sites.

Ranking on page one is a virtual goldmine of "clicks".

Google keeps its magic formula to achieve those rankings - or what those in the business call search engine optimisation (SEO) - a closely guarded secret.

Now, with Google's entry into the online property classifieds game, Fairfax general manager of classifieds John Brand said it was like putting "Dracula in charge of the blood bank".

Mr Brand said they too welcomed the competition, but described Google as a search engine and not a property portal like Domain and realestate.com.au.

Domain also has both a print and online classified offering, which neither Google nor REA have, he said.

"At this particular point in time we'll watch very closely - time will tell - but from the agents' point of view we are a one-stop-shop that Google can never compete with," Mr Brand said.

Former REA boss Mr Baker said Google posed no real threat because its free listings would open the door to spam and fake listings.

"Just because it's Google doesn't mean it's going to win," Mr Baker said.

"The realestate.com.aus and Domains of the world, because they (real estate agents) pay to advertise, will have higher quality listings.

"Google will be able to drive traffic there, but they will drive traffic through to a combination of real listings and a combination of old listings, and a combination of some not real listings (spam and fake listings)."

Director of analytics at Nielsen Online, Mark Higginson, said the success of Google will depend upon the site's usability and its relationship with real estate agents, which is where realestate.com.au and Domain are clear leaders.

"Consumers initially only need to be able to decide between properties based on certain criteria, where it is, what does it look like, they're not going to buy a property based on pictures on a website," Mr Higginson said.

"So that's where realestate(.com.au) and Domain have that current advantage, by having the relationships with the real estate agents.

"And it's the real estate agents that sell properties - not the website."

Google now enables property searches through its Google Maps platform.

"We think people will really start to look at these listings a lot online within Google Maps and then click through to individual agency websites when they've found a property they're after," product manager Andrew Foster said.

Google has come into the market while it is in a downturn.

The realestate.com.au boss, Mr Ellis, said the downturn had driven real estate agents online to save money.

Mr Ellis describes the shift from print to online as a "seachange" that would normally have taken years to achieve.

So, is now a good time to buy into the property market?

The downturn in the economy has made housing more affordable, but Mr Ellis said the price of the property is not the issue, it's whether the buyer can afford it.

"But with inflation being relatively low and interest rates low, that would suggest it's a good time to buy," he said.

The federal government's stimulus package had also helped the under-$500,000 market with the extension of the first home buyer grant, he said, while the general economic stimulus has also allowed more money to go into the economy, which has offset the drop in consumer confidence.

"From an overall perspective, the evidence to date would suggest the stimulus has done a good job in weathering the economic storm," Mr Ellis said.

If consumer confidence and retail figures dropped, there may be an argument for another stimulus, he said.

The company has clawed back its international operations in Britain and New Zealand to focus on its Australian business and is planning to release a number of new products to the market.

Mr Ellis said the group had cut back its international operations but this had nothing to do with the global economic downturn.

"Our decision to focus on Australia was nothing to do with the global financial crisis ... (but) that there is a lot more profitable growth to happen in Australia," he said.

"We were spending too much time in the overseas businesses and not enough time in Australia.

"We've accepted now that we are not an international company - we're an Australian company with overseas operations."

Mr Ellis declined to comment on whether REA would withdraw from the United Arab Emirates but said the company remained committed to the businesses in Italy, Luxembourg and Hong Kong.

So, while REA refocuses on its Australian operations, Google's focus is clearly on moving into realestate.com.au's domain.

AAP

ANZ whispers: 'jobs gone'

2009-07-09T07:12:00.001+10:00

ANOTHER day, another round of job cuts at ANZ, where boss Mike Smith seems hell-bent on ensuring the bank's name stands for "Asia and New Zealand Banking Group".

Yesterday 248 staff were given marching orders in nearly every major city, bar Melbourne, as the bank consolidated its "mortgage fulfilment centres".

These staff do the work whenever someone is approved for a mortgage with ANZ. They collect documents, process deeds and ensure settlement occurs on the due date for what is usually the biggest and most emotional purchase a bank customer will make.

For the growing chorus of disgruntled executives at ANZ — the people who blew the lid on the latest cuts and forced the bank into an early media announcement — this decision is symptomatic of the culture that arrived with Smith. It's a culture, they say, that puts the core Australian business and customers in the back seat.

ANZ's chief media flack, Paul Edwards, was on leave for the announcement, which the bank didn't expect to leak to the media. Given the size of previous cuts — 800 middle-management jobs in December, and confirmation in March that 500 jobs had been outsourced to India — the latest figure of 248 staff gone was also deemed to be small.

ANZ staff tell Full Disclosure they have been instructed not to talk to the media, but the latest cuts have loosened some lips. "They keep telling us that no customer-facing jobs will go, that the majority of job losses will be backroom staff," said one. "I can understand moving jobs to Bangalore if there is a better outcome for customers, or at least no effect on the outcome, but how can processing a mortgage overseas, in a different time zone, be a better outcome?

"Different states have different laws. A mortgage is the most emotional purchase our customers ever make. Now, if there is a query from a person in Sydney, they will see their bank manager, who will talk to someone in Melbourne, who will deal with someone in Bangalore. Second, third, even fourth parties will be involved in the process."

The decision to centralise mortgage services was taken after an internal review. A high-level source at the bank said the review decided to outsource much of the work to Bangalore and specialists such as Iron Mountain purely on the basis of cost, not customer service.

There's no doubt the cuts have been deep at ANZ. Last month the bank announced a $10 million package negotiated with the Financial Services Union to retrain staff affected by job cuts, called the New Career Training Fund.

The media release issued by Edwards for that included a "note for editors" stating that "since 2003, employment at ANZ in Australia has risen by over 3500 full-time roles from 16,400 to 19,922 full-time staff as at the end of March 2009".

It was clever spin, befitting Yes Minister or The Hollowmen. Another way of putting it is, since September last year, the number of full-time jobs at ANZ has been cut from 20,364 to fewer than 19,700 and is the lowest level since 2003, with more cuts to come.

Since 2003, the number of people employed in Bangalore has risen from fewer than 500 to more than 3500.

Even at head office, institutional bankers complain about the cutbacks.

"An assistant manager leaves, a graduate steps in, and the position is filled," Full Disclosure was told. "It happens all over the bank and, while some of the kids might be good, they are just not ready for the responsibilities they are being given."

Rod Masson, director of policy for the FSU, says the workload given to inexperienced employees is major complaint from ANZ staff. "It's called 'survivor syndrome'," Masson says. "It's not just people complaining about doing more work. There's just as much concern about the impact job cuts have had on customers."

Next on the list for outsourcing, according to sources at ANZ, is the Private Bank, located in the famous old neo-gothic building on the corner of Collins and Queen streets. It services the bank's cherished high-net-worth customers. Again, no "customer-facing roles", as the bank likes to put it, will be cut.

"It's behind-the-scenes roles that will be sent to India," Full Disclosure was told — by the same sources that informed us of the latest job cuts. "Management is desperate for customers not to know, to be under the impression that nothing has changed, but it's all changing."

Even some of ANZ's more charitable programs are facing cuts. Its Given the Chance program was a partnership with the Brotherhood of St Laurence to give refugees a chance to launch a career. Last year four were given jobs — all with the mortgage services business that has now been axed.

"It's more than symbolic," said one senior banker. "If they want a career with ANZ, they're in the wrong country."

FULL DISCLOSURE / MARK HAWTHORNE | The Age
July 9, 2009

ANZ slashes another 248 jobs

2009-07-09T07:08:00.001+10:00

ANZ Bank has axed a further 248 jobs across the country as part of its strategy to slash the size of its Australian workforce.

Yesterday afternoon staff at ANZ's mortgage fulfilment centres in Sydney, Brisbane, Adelaide, Perth and Hobart were told their jobs would be outsourced.

The centres have been key to the bank's Given the Chance program, a partnership run with the Brotherhood of St Laurence to provide newly arrived refugees with work, raising concerns that several will lose their jobs.

Staff at the centres process documents and settle mortgages for thousands of customers who have financed a house purchase with the bank.

An ANZ spokeswoman said about 150 jobs would be outsourced to companies such as US-based Iron Horse, which specialises in processing such documents. A further 40 jobs will be moved to the bank's technology and operations centre in Bangalore.

The 45 staff working at the mortgage fulfilment office in Melbourne were told there would be "minimal" job losses as they would now have to settle mortgages from interstate.

A further 50 jobs will be created in Melbourne to cope with that increased workload, and some existing staff from interstate will be given the chance to relocate.

The Financial Services Union slammed the job losses.

"What we are seeing here is a very profitable bank in Australia that is failing its employees at a very difficult time, when they should be trying to provide some job security," union policy director Rod Masson said.

In December last year, ANZ announced that 800 middle-management jobs would be cut as part of its One ANZ restructuring program. In March this year the bank said almost 500 jobs had been relocated to Bangalore in the past year.

Since September 2008, the number of full-time Australian staff employed by ANZ has fallen from 20,364 to fewer than 19,700 — its lowest level since 2003. Since 2003, the number of full-time employees at ANZ's Bangalore outpost has increased from fewer than 400 to more than 3500.

According to a source at the bank, 10 people have been employed under the Given the Chance program in the past two years. Many of these now face the prospect of losing their job.

Mark Hawthorne | The Age
July 9, 2009

The sick feeling of finding out you don't exist

2009-07-05T08:10:00.001+10:00

Identity Theft

Cameron Stewart | July 04, 2009

Article from: The Australian

ADELAIDE schoolteacher Ginetta Rossi remembers feeling nauseous when told by authorities that she no longer officially existed.

Rossi, a primary school teacher of 20 years, was renewing her teacher's registration in Adelaide when she discovered that both her identity and her career qualifications had been stolen.

"They told me that their teaching records showed Ginetta Rossi had moved to Victoria the previous year," Rossi recalls.

"I told them I was Ginetta Rossi but they wouldn't believe me."

To make matters worse, when Rossi investigated further, she found that the woman who stole her identity was Renai Brochard, the partner of her former husband.

"I felt sick," says Rossi, who has agreed to speak publicly about her case for the first time.

"It would have been bad enough for someone off the street to steal my identity but this was my ex-husband's partner.

"I thought, 'who is going to believe me?"'

Rossi was a victim of what police say is the vogue crime of the new millennium: identity fraud. A staggering 124,000 Australians each year wake up one day to find that their identity has been stolen.

A further 383,300 also become victims of partial identity theft through credit card fraud.

Identity fraud, which costs Australians up to $4billion a year, is growing rapidly as criminals plunder our personal details from the internet, from rubbish bins, and from online chat rooms in order to adopt our identity. The problem has forced the government to launch new policies to fight the trend.

Attorney-General Robert McClelland told The Weekend Australian: "Identity security is central to Australia's national security, law enforcement and economic interests and vital in protecting Australian citizens from the theft or misuse of their identities."

Victims can lose their life savings or find debt-collectors on their doorstep for debts they did not accrue. Because it involves an invasion of privacy, it can also leave psychological scars.

In the case of Rossi, her loss of identity created ripple effects across two states. While police were investigating the identity theft, she was instructed not to tell anyone.

"I was freaking out thinking 'what if she has done something wrong using my name?'," she says.

Rossi's fears were well founded. By the time she discovered her identity had been stolen, Brochard - now registered in Victoria as teacher Ginetta Rossi - was causing havoc in an exclusive Melbourne private primary school.

Parents at that school, the Melbourne Montessori School, were complaining that the teacher of their six-year-old children did not appear to know the first thing about teaching.

But the school did not believe them for many months and continued to back the fake teacher. It was only when the real Rossi went to police that the whistle was blown on Brochard, who had been teaching at the $7000-a-year school for a full year. The saga ended last year when Brochard was convicted of deception and given a three-month suspended jail term.

But it continues to have an impact on the school, which became the subject of a full-scale review by the authorities and is awaiting a decision from Victorian authorities on whether it retains its registration.

Brochard, meanwhile, returned to South Australia and was employed by an Adelaide childcare centre that was not aware she was a convicted fraudster. She was sacked last October after her identity became known, prompting the South Australian government to order a review into how she was cleared by authorities to work at the Woodcroft childcare centre.

South Australian Early Childhood Development Minister Jay Weatherill this week declined to answer questions from The Weekend Australian about the outcome of that review. Brochard could not be contacted for comment.

Rossi says one of the most distressing aspects of losing her identity was convincing sceptical authorities that she was the real Ginetta Rossi.

"It was initially hard to get people to believe that I was who I said I was," she says. "I remember the look on the poor policewoman's face when I told her, 'I'm here to report identity fraud, I believe my ex-partner's partner has stolen my identity.' She must have thought I was a fruit-loop."

Brochard stole Rossi's identity by telling the Teachers Registration Board of South Australia she was Rossi and that she had lost her registration certificate and needed a duplicate copy.

Brochard then provided a false statutory declaration of her identity to convince authorities to give her a copy of the certificate, which they did.

She then moved to Victoria but when she applied to the Victorian Institute of Teaching to be registered in the state her fake application was shoddy. Brochard misspelled Ginetta on some registration documents and had whited out her name and replaced it with Rossi on her birth certificate.

Despite this, the VIT did not pick up the faults and agreed to register Brochard as a teacher.

Rossi was luckier than most victims of identity fraud in that Brochard did not steal her tax file number or gain access to her bank accounts. A report on identity crime by the Standing Committee of Attorneys-General last year said many victims lost not only their savings but also their personal credit ratings.

"Individual victims of identity crime spend an average of two or more years attempting to fix their credit report and restore their credit rating," the report says.

An increasingly common form of stealing people's personal details is through so-called "phishing emails", in which fake emails purporting to be from trusted institutions like banks ask people to provide personal details.

This week the Australian Federal Police warned of the circulation of a scam email that falsely claimed to be from the AFP and requested personal and financial information.

Arguably the fastest-growing area of identity fraud is via websites such as Facebook and chat rooms. Research conducted by the National Cyber Security Alliance reveals 74 per cent of social networking users divulge personal information such as email addresses, names and birthdays.

Saying goodbye to the Duplicate Certificate Title

2009-06-29T19:56:00.003+10:00

The biggest problem, and this appears to have been overlooked due to all the other distractions and debates, is the duplicate title. If you are going to replace paper based systems with paperless electronic systems, you need to get rid of the duplicate title. The first step in paving the way for electronic conveyancing is eliminate the paper duplicate certificate of title. To do this, you need policy, legislation and implementation.

I just cannot see how electronic conveyancing can be introduced and work successfully unless the duplicate has been eliminated. If it just too hard to abolish the duplicate title, I really think we are better off thinking about other things, like cars, long weekends and other fun things.

At the moment there is no clear policy on dealing with the duplicate. And certainly nothing that goes close to a uniform national approach from all eight jurisdictions. Queensland has come closest to abolition of the duplicate, but even there it is optional for a party to request a certificate. Only a current title search will reveal if a certificate of title has been issued.

In Victoria, the duplicate certificate of title has not been abolished, but the issue was addressed in the context of electronic conveyancing which as we know is living in a state of limbo. But if we were to wake up one morning and find ourselves using the ECV system, one has to look at the requirements and standards that conveyancers must observe. The key provisions deal with identity and clients need to be properly identified to prove they and only they have the right to deal with the land on the Register. The Transfer of Land Act was amended with the insertion of section 27AB Verification of Identity.

The Registrar is not required to register an instrument under section 27A if the Registrar is not satisfied as to the identity of any person by or on behalf of whom the instrument was executed.

Item 3.3 of the gazetted Registrar's requirements for subscribers to identify a client, being an individual are at least 100 points in accordance with Schedule 6.

Schedule 6 is in three parts. The first part is the straight forward 100 points proof of identity credentials. Checking the passport, birth certificate, drivers licence, medicare card, rate certificate etc.

As the Registrar correctly recognised, the 100 points standard is deficient unless the credentials are verified. This makes perfect sense to avoid identity fraud - either title fraud or mortgage fraud. Anyone can photoshop a drivers licence. Well not anyone but anyone with a crooked bent can. It now looks like the life of a conveyancer is not conveyancing but becoming a pseudo detective to catch the crook. The second and third parts of the identity check is to -

Part 2. keep a copy of the identity documents (although this could lead to breaches of personal privacy data if these documents were lost) and list the type of document, names, as in the extract published below

Part 3. detail the methods and sources of verification for Checks. In an exercise of futility I dutifully rang Vic Roads to ask how I would go about verifying a client's driver licence which equates to 40 out of 100 points. Kerry-anne of VicRoads was very helpful and liaised with her departmental manager and advised the following is required for any licence verfication check -

VicRoads has three requirements.

1. Consent from person in writing (privacy) for VicRoads to divulge information to lawyer / conveyancer
2. License Search Request: providing Name; Licence No; DOB; Address.
3. Search application fee of $7.80

Delivery methods

In person - done over the counter
By Mail - 5 working days (only 5 days!)

God help us if there were more than one individual registered on title.

So you see the conundrum. If we want to replace paper based conveyancing with electronic methods, we first have to abolish the duplicate title. If we abolish the duplicate, we have to replace it with a methodology of identification requirements. When you take a hard look at the issues of identity, you can come up with a system that has all the appropriate safeguards, but and the but is you can end up engineering a system that is worse than the current system we already have, know and works.

Caveats Online

2009-06-29T19:55:00.001+10:00

Electronic Conveyancing: "Saving you time, money and effort". Well that's the official spin from ECV. For the moment that is hollow rhetoric. It might save your client the odd $20 on statutory fees. But it is questionable when it comes to saving time and effort. This is demonstrated by the process for lodging one of the simplest of instruments – a caveat

How much time did it take above the manual system when lodging caveats online? I estimate it took over 20 minutes of additional time (which would be better spent on hold trying to book a settlement with the banks). In the old fashioned manner of paper and print, a simple purchaser's caveat takes just a few minutes to print, sign and post. The electronic alternative takes over 20 minutes. The couple of caveats we lodged online each took well in excess of 20 minutes to complete. One took 26 minutes, the other about 25 minutes. With repetition, you might just get it under 20 minutes, but I don't think I will be persevering too much longer because of the time factor. Unless it saves you time, using the system will translate into higher costs to the client. Still, if the matter was one of urgency, I would lodge electronically, but not otherwise. The irony is to lodge a caveat online, first I printed out the caveat to assist me in completing the fields online. In addition, the process is simply bewildering.

Authenticating Paperwork

2009-06-27T20:35:00.001+10:00

Schneier on Security
A blog covering security and security technology.

June 25, 2009
Authenticating Paperwork
It's a sad, horrific story. Homeowner returns to find his house demolished. The demolition company was hired legitimately but there was a mistake and it demolished the wrong house. The demolition company relied on GPS co-ordinates, but requiring street addresses isn't a solution. A typo in the address is just as likely, and it would have demolished the house just as quickly.

The problem is less how the demolishers knew which house to knock down, and more how they confirmed that knowledge. They trusted the paperwork, and the paperwork was wrong. Informality works when everybody knows everybody else. When merchants and customers know each other, government officials and citizens know each other, and people know their neighbours, people know what's going on. In that sort of milieu, if something goes wrong, people notice.

In our modern anonymous world, paperwork is how things get done. Traditionally, signatures, forms, and watermarks all made paperwork official. Forgeries were possible but difficult. Today, there's still paperwork, but for the most part it only exists until the information makes its way into a computer database. Meanwhile, modern technology -- computers, fax machines and desktop publishing software -- has made it easy to forge paperwork. Every case of identity theft has, at its core, a paperwork failure. Fake work orders, purchase orders, and other documents are used to steal computers, equipment, and stock. Occasionally, fake faxes result in people being sprung from prison. Fake boarding passes can get you through airport security. This month hackers officially changed the name of a Swedish man.

A reporter even changed the ownership of the Empire State Building. Sure, it was a stunt, but this is a growing form of crime. Someone pretends to be you -- preferably when you're away on holiday -- and sells your home to someone else, forging your name on the paperwork. You return to find someone else living in your house, someone who thinks he legitimately bought it. In some senses, this isn't new. Paperwork mistakes and fraud have happened ever since there was paperwork. And the problem hasn't been fixed yet for several reasons.

One, our sloppy systems generally work fine, and it's how we get things done with minimum hassle. Most people's houses don't get demolished and most people's names don't get maliciously changed. As common as identity theft is, it doesn't happen to most of us. These stories are news because they are so rare. And in many cases, it's cheaper to pay for the occasional blunder than ensure it never happens.
Two, sometimes the incentives aren't in place for paperwork to be properly authenticated. The people who demolished that family home were just trying to get a job done. The same is true for government officials processing title and name changes. Banks get paid when money is transferred from one account to another, not when they find a paperwork problem. We're all irritated by forms stamped 17 times, and other mysterious bureaucratic processes, but these are actually designed to detect problems.

And three, there's a psychological mismatch: it is easy to fake paperwork, yet for the most part we act as if it has magical properties of authenticity.
What's changed is scale. Fraud can be perpetrated against hundreds of thousands, automatically. Mistakes can affect that many people, too. What we need are laws that penalise people or companies -- criminally or civilly -- who make paperwork errors. This raises the cost of mistakes, making authenticating paperwork more attractive, which changes the incentives of those on the receiving end of the paperwork. And that will cause the market to devise technologies to verify the providence, accuracy, and integrity of information: telephone verification, addresses and GPS co-ordinates, cryptographic authentication, systems that double- and triple-check, and so on.
We can't reduce society's reliance on paperwork, and we can't eliminate errors based on it. But we can put economic incentives in place for people and companies to authenticate paperwork more.

This essay originally appeared in The Guardian.

Court win for apartment buyers leaves developers reeling

2009-06-25T08:48:00.003+10:00

VICTORIANS buying houses and units off the plan have secured new legal rights to demand their money back, under a landmark ruling that has sparked fears of a collapse of projects across Melbourne.

In a setback for an industry already reeling from the credit crunch, the Supreme Court of Victoria has found that off-the-plan buyers can tear up their contracts and get their deposits back when projects are not completed on time.

The ruling came in a case involving two luxury apartment buyers in Geelong who won the right to have their deposits refunded and contracts revoked because the developer took several months longer to finish the project than agreed.

Until this ruling, it had been standard practice for developers to put clauses into off-the-plan contracts allowing for the extension of completion dates.

Reasons for late completion could have included labour strikes, planning approval delays, shortages of materials or labour and weather.

But in a ruling this month, Justice Bernard Bongiorno said such clauses were invalid because they put the risk of delay onto home buyers, leaving them with no way out.

The decision is an unwelcome one for an industry already faltering in the credit crunch, with more than $2 billion worth of Melbourne projects delayed or abandoned since September because of a lack of finance.

A leading property lawyer estimated the decision had put 10 per cent of Melbourne projects at greater risk of collapse.

One of those involved in the case, Jennifer Clifford, said developer Solid Investments had asked for three time extensions to complete her $2 million apartment overlooking Corio Bay. "None of it was the developer's fault," she said. "Things just kept going wrong. I mean there were objections and they struck an underground creek.

"(But) why should we as the prospective purchasers just have to keep hanging on for who knows how long?"

The Edgewater project, in which businessman Frank Costa paid a record Geelong price of more than $3 million for a penthouse, was completed in March.

Edgewater developer Murray Stone, who is appealing against the Supreme Court decision, said the ruling "opened a can of worms" for the industry. "Any contract that now goes over the sunset clause becomes void," Mr Stone said. "Even if buyers want to settle the contract they can't. They have to enter a new contract and not get the stamp duty savings."

He said it was difficult for developers to simply make sunset clauses longer, say five years, because banks would not normally lend beyond a 30-month completion date.

"All projects will now be under an enormous amount of pressure and the banks will probably not loan."

Freehills property partner David Sinn, whose firm was not involved in the case but advises many developers, said it set a precedent that had the industry worried about project collapse.

"Any current development where they have pre-sold apartments and are struggling to get finance is now at risk of buyers terminating their contracts and getting refunds," he said.

The Age Marika Dobbin
June 25, 2009

Clifford & Anor v Solid Investments Australia Pty Ltd

Date: 2 Jun 2009

Citation: [2009] VSC 223

Jurisdiction: Victorian Supreme Court

This case concerns a dispute as to whether the purchasers of two lots on a plan of subdivision have lawfully rescinded the contracts. The contracts were conditional upon registration of the plan of subdivision of the development, and conferred the right on the purchasers to avoid the contract if the plan was not registered by a certain date. The contract also provided for the date for registration to be extended by the vendor under the terms of the contract. The vendor gave notice of the extension of the date. The purchasers gave notice of rescission of the contracts, asserting that the contract term was ineffective to permit the extension under Sale of Land Act 1962 s9AE. The vendor refused to accept the notice of rescission. The Court considered (para 23) Everest Project Developments Pty Ltd v Mendoza and Ors which "held that the purpose and social policy underlying ss 9AA to 9AH of the Act was the protection of that section of the public which comprised purchasers of lots on unregistered plans of subdivision." In this instance, the Court said that the same reasoning applies to s9AE(2), which specifies that if the parties wish to stipulate a period other than the statutory period provided by that section, that other period must be specified in the contract itself. The Court ordered declarations that the contracts were lawfully rescinded by the purchasers.

Link to Judgement

Commentary by Herbert Geer on Clifford case

E-conveyancing plan thrown a $2m lifeline

2009-06-19T10:42:00.000+10:00

The Australian
Chris Merritt, Legal Affairs editor | June 19, 2009

THE push to establish a national electronic conveyancing system gained fresh impetus this week when the NSW government allocated $2 million to the project.

The extra funding, which was made available in the state budget, comes soon after NSW, Victoria and Queensland were given the leading roles in planning the national system on behalf of the Council of Australian Governments.

It also comes soon after Kevin Rudd was warned that the project was at risk of collapse because no funds had been allocated to establish the company that would run the system.

NSW Lands Minister Tony Kelly said his government had long been a supporter of a national e-conveyancing system and the extra $2m would help pay for its contractual and logistical expenses.

The extra funding has been allocated to the Lands Department, but if the company that will run the national e-conveyancing system is established before July next year, the $2m from NSW will be redirected to support the new entity, Mr Kelly said.

"A single national electronic conveyancing system would be a significant step towards creating a seamless national economy and NSW is working with Victoria and Queensland for it to be operational from 2010," Mr Kelly said.

He said an independent study by KPMG had indicated that the potential annual cost savings in NSW from a single national e-conveyancing system (NECS) would amount to $50m.

"Costs for the average conveyancing transaction are expected to fall by $170, providing both home buyers and sellers overdue cost relief," Mr Kelly said. "The process efficiencies available to industry as a result of NECS include less data entry and document preparation, settlement and lodgment savings, courier and bank cheque savings, and lower process administration costs generally."

The extra funding for the national system comes soon after the Victorian government was asked to hold an independent audit into why its state-based e-conveyancing system had cost an estimated $50m to build yet had been used for just one completed property settlement.

State opposition frontbencher David Davis called for the audit after telling parliament that the state government was continuing to spend about $6m a year on its e-conveyancing system, which is known as Electronic Conveyancing Victoria.

Consultants had made "tens of millions of dollars" from the project, but there had been no return for the Victorian community, Mr Davis said. "It seems a very expensive approach given the very small number of transactions that have been achieved with that system."

In the 18 months since the system had been available for use, it had been used for one transaction and had not been endorsed by key industry groups such as the Law Institute of Victoria and the Australian Bankers Association, he said.

Mr Davis said the national approach to e-conveyancing, which had been endorsed by COAG, seemed like a significant step forward because it would provide a low-cost approach.

He said there was "enormous resistance" from other states and the federal government to the idea of using the Victorian system as the proposed national system.

"ECV would have to be massively adapted and would not necessarily work in a simple way," he said. "But the key thing here is that ECV has seen massive expenditure by the state government and has been a massive opportunity for consultants, who have made tens of millions of dollars."

The Victorian government declined to answer questions from The Australian about whether ECV had in fact cost $50m, as alleged by the state opposition.

The government also declined to say whether it would allow the expenditure on ECV to be audited.

Innovation Minister Gavin Jennings, who is responsible for ECV, said in a statement that the government was continuing to work with state and federal governments and believed ECV "provides the basis for a national approach to electronic conveyancing".

His statement said ECV had "successfully processed over 600 transactions".

When asked through his spokesman if all but one of those transactions concerned the lodgment of documents rather than property settlements, Mr Davis declined to answer. He also declined to provide a breakdown showing the type of transactions that had been processed by ECV.

"Victoria is an active participant in the COAG process and is continuing to work with all jurisdictions and industry groups in the development of a national EC system," the statement said.

While Victoria is one of the three states with a key role on the national project, the state government has a significant financial commitment to its own state-based system, a government document shows.

The same document shows the financial plan underpinning the government's expenditure on ECV could be at risk unless most property transactions go through the state-based system.

A regulatory impact statement, dated July 2007, for new fees on land transfer says: "... the government has provided over $29.4m toward the development of the electronic conveyancing project".

Although that figure only covers expenditure up to July 2007, the regulatory impact statement shows the government was expecting to spend a further $49.5m on the project between 2007-08 and 2013-14.

The figures contained in the regulatory impact statement indicate ECV could cost the Victorian government $80m by 2013-14. The document shows also it had been planning to spend a significant amount of that money employing contractors and consultants.

It says the state government "has indicated that the full implementation and ongoing operational costs should be recovered from users of the services of Land Victoria".

But it warns that the amount of revenue generated by ECV will depend on how many transactions are processed using the system and it says the expected take-up rate for ECV is 26.5 per cent of all property dealings in 2009-10, rising 69.8 per cent in 2013-14.

The year in which expenditure on ECV would be greatest was expected to be 2008-09 when the system was expected to have cost Victorian taxpayers $9.7m, the regulatory impact statement says.

The year with the smallest government expenditure on ECV was expected to be 2012-13 when the system was tipped to cost $5.7m.

Over the seven years covered by the regulatory impact statement, the biggest single item of expenditure was expected to be "application development and support", which was predicted to cost the state government $18.5m over that period.

This includes the costs of developing and supporting the software that underpins the system and of a contract with what the document refers to as an "application development and support service provider".

Salaries for public servants and contractors working on the project were expected to be $18.1m over the same period. According to the document, 10 contractors were working on ECV in various roles.

"Major items comprise project management, business operations, user acceptance testers and the roll-out team that will train potential users and provide support," the regulatory impact statement says.

Rumour or Fact

2009-06-15T13:41:00.001+10:00

AUSTRALIAN E-PROJECT ABANDONED
By Kelly Ng | 15 June 2009

FutureGov website

The Australian federal government has ignored a funding request and has withdrawn its involvement in a national online conveyancing system.

The National Electronic Conveyancing System (NECS) requires A$20 million (US$15.7 million) to establish itself and recruit executives. According to Les Taylor, Chair of the Steering Committee, industry participants – lawyers, bankers and conveyancers – will abandon the project if sufficient funding does not materialise.

The federal government allocated A$550 million (US$433 million) to the Council of Australian Governments (COAG) to reform and harmonise regulation across states. Some of this money was meant to fund the e-conveyancing project. However, of the A$100 million that will be paid out this year, none has been earmarked for this project, said Taylor.

NECS, was started in 2005 was supposed to be completed by next March, will allow practitioners to electronically transfer property ownership and make payment online. It is expected to reduce costs of buying and selling property by A$250 million annually because consumers will pay less legal and conveyancing fees.

The federal Government cuts link to ailing e-scheme

2009-06-05T04:05:00.000+10:00

Chris Merritt, Legal affairs editor | June 05, 2009
Article from: The Australian

THE federal Government severed one of its last links with the moves to establish a national electronic conveyancing system last week after being informed that the scheme was on the brink of collapse.

The decision to reduce the Government's involvement was taken last Friday by an inter-governmental committee that reports to Finance Minister Lindsay Tanner and Small Business Minister Craig Emerson.

That group, the business regulation and competition working group, decided to hand responsibility for the planned system to the governments of Victoria, NSW and Queensland.

The decision came a week after Kevin Rudd was warned that the project was at risk of "complete failure".

This warning was contained in a letter to the Prime Minister from Les Taylor, a former general counsel at the Commonwealth Bank, who heads the steering committee that has been planning the national e-conveyancing system since 2005.

Mr Taylor told Mr Rudd that unless $20million in repayable seed funding could be found to establish the company that would run the new system, lawyers, bankers and conveyancers were likely to abandon the project.

While the commonwealth has promised the states $550million if they undertake a series of micro-economic reforms, including e-conveyancing, no funds have been earmarked for the project.

Friday's decision to shift responsibility for the scheme to Victoria, NSW and Queensland was taken by government officials at a meeting that was not attended by ministers.

One of those familiar with the meeting said it was normal for responsibility for major national projects to be divided between the states.

However, Opposition legal affairs spokesman George Brandis urged the Government to take back the lead role on the project and end years of bickering between the states that have alienated the private-sector players in conveyancing. "It has been a shambles for more than a year now and the Attorney-General has shown a complete lack of leadership in trying to resolve the problem," Senator Brandis said.

"There is a very significant risk that because of the delay and lack of leadership from the commonwealth in particular, that this whole project might fall over.

"The optimal result of a seamless national system is going to be lost and we may well end up with a set of arrangements that are no better than the current arrangements."

He said the problems with e-conveyancing went much deeper than the lack of funding to establish the new system.

"The various participants cannot even agree on a model that they are prepared to work towards," Senator Brandis said.

"Until the state governments are able to reach agreement on that threshold question, there is no point in talking about funding for the system."

He said the lack of agreement between the states appeared to be associated with the fact that the Victorian Government had continued to develop a state-based e-conveyancing system while industry and other state governments wanted a national one.

Last October, it was revealed in The Australian that the Victorian Government was continuing to develop its system -- less than four months after Mr Rudd had announced that all states would be using a national e-conveyancing system by March 2010.

In a joint statement with Mr Tanner, Mr Rudd said last July industry groups had estimated that "a national electronic conveyancing system could reduce the costs of buying and selling property by $250million a year".

"Consumers will save money by spending less on expensive legal and conveyancing fees," the joint statement said.

They said the agreement to establish a national system "is only possible because all states and territories have agreed to co-operate".

The delayed start date of late 2011 will deprive house buyers and sellers of cost savings that on the estimates used by Mr Rudd and Mr Tanner are worth about $437million.

The later start date was put in place after all state governments failed last year to meet a series of deadlines for seven key decisions on establishing the new system that had all been listed in the July statement by Mr Rudd and Mr Tanner.

At the same time, the Victorian Government continued to develop its state-based system, which would be at risk had the states reached agreement on the matters listed in the July statement.

The deadlines that the states missed had been set after e-conveyancing was placed on the agenda of the Council of Australian Governments following a summit in February last year of the key industry groups.

That meeting was chaired by one of the most senior officials in the federal Attorney-General's department, Richard Glenn.

Mr Tanner and Mr Emerson were then given responsibility for a working group of officials that was to prepare options for the structure of the system.

But in March, it emerged that the federal and state governments had agreed to delay the new system and responsibility for the project had moved back to the states.

Senator Brandis said the hiatus over the national e-conveyancing system could be resolved if Mr McClelland ensured the project was given priority by the standing committee of attorneys-general.

Land Victoria - Request for an audit

2009-06-04T18:20:00.000+10:00

Land Victoria: electronic conveyancing

Mr D. DAVIS (Southern Metropolitan) -- My adjournment matter is for the attention of the Minister for Environment and Climate Change, who is responsible for the Land Victoria section of the Department of Sustainability and Environment. It concerns in particular Electronic Conveyancing Victoria, known as ECV, an electronic conveyancing system that seeks to replace paper transactions with electronic conveyancing. The Victorian government has expended a significant amount of money -- $50 million on recent estimates and more than $40 million 18 months ago -- and is continuing to spend around $6 million a year on the ECV project. The national approach that was endorsed by the Council of Australian Governments about a year ago was a significant step forward, because it would have provided a low-cost approach to conveyancing transactions around the country. Unfortunately Electronic Conveyancing Victoria, despite expenditure of more than $50 million, has only had one transaction in the 18 months it has been in operation. It seems a very expensive approach, given the very small number of transactions that have been achieved with that system. I am very aware that the Australian Bankers Association, the Law Institute of Victoria and other key groups, like the conveyancers, have not endorsed ECV and the electronic conveyancing approach in Victoria. What I now seek from the Minister for Environment and Climate Change, after the expenditure of at least $50 million of public money for a single completed conveyancing transaction, is an audit. I seek that he order a clear external audit that would achieve an understanding of how this money has been wasted and how the government proposes to put this into the national scheme. There is still enormous resistance from the other states and the national government to the simple approach of putting ECV in as the national system. ECV would have to be massively adapted and would not necessarily work in a simple way, but the key thing here is that Electronic Conveyancing Victoria has seen massive expenditure by the state government and has been a massive opportunity for consultants, who have made tens of millions of dollars with no return to the Victorian community, so I ask the Victorian environment minister to immediately launch an audit.

Hansard. Upper House. 3 June 09

Westpac sorry for security 'stuff-up'

2009-06-04T11:58:00.001+10:00

FULL DISCLOSURE / MARK HAWTHORNE / THE AGE
June 4, 2009

A SECURITY breach has allowed confidential Westpac shareholder information to be included in an official document published on the Australian Securities Exchange website.

A document Westpac released to the ASX in March contains the security holder reference numbers (SRN) and holder identification numbers (HIN) of up to 20 different accounts controlled by global investment bank JPMorgan and retired 65-year-old shareholder Peter Liddle, who resides in the Northern Territory. Such details could be used by share "bottom feeders" such as David Tweed to gain control of the shareholdings.

The addresses and account details of JPMorgan Nominees and Mr Liddle are hidden in white type in the PDF document, which was issued by Westpac company secretary Anna Sandham on March 13.

The details cannot be read — but if the words are highlighted and copied into another document, such as an email, they can be converted into black type.

Several business websites, such as wotnews.com.au, converted the PDF document into text, and in doing so published the SRNs and account details on the internet.

The letter was sent to holders of St George Bank shares and hybrid securities, offering the chance to convert them into new Westpac securities. The two banks merged last year.

A spokeswoman for JPMorgan said she was "astonished" to learn Westpac was responsible for the security breach, but assured the bank's institutional customers that their shares were safe. "These are nominee accounts and no transfer of the shares can be done without the approval of the actual account holder," said Claire Linton-Evans.

Such safeguards are not in place for retail shareholders such as Mr Liddle, who only discovered his account details were public knowledge when BusinessDay contacted him.

"I'm absolutely horrified to find that all of my personal account details can be read on the internet," Mr Liddle said. "I've already had that Tweed bloke trying to get his hands on my wife's Woolies shares once this year, and my SRN is on the internet. It's my 65th birthday today, and now I have to sort out this mess."

Westpac spokesman David Lording admitted that a "stuff-up" had led to the release of the information. "It was our mistake, it was our fault, and we have already apologised to the people affected," Mr Lording said. "We contacted them today and apologised, and will be implementing new procedures to ensure it doesn't happen again."

Mr Lording said he was aware the information had "originated" in an official release from the bank to the ASX. "Somehow the information was in that document. It was an inadvertent mistake, not a deliberate one, and we apologise to the shareholders affected."

I'm late for a settlement

2009-05-30T14:15:00.004+10:00

Conveyancing drift

2009-05-29T03:59:00.000+10:00

The Australian 29 may 09

THE late newspaperman Paddy McGuinness frequently advised reporters to "follow the money" in order to arrive at the root of any particular problem.

If that dictum is applied to the problems of building a national electronic conveyancing system, it is hard to avoid the trail of money laid down by the Government of Victoria.

If a national electronic conveyancing system is established, the Victorian Government will need to admit that much of the money it has spent on its state-based electronic conveyancing system has been wasted.

A national system -- by definition -- would operate in every state. And that would consequently render the Victorian system superfluous. Politically, that would be a catastrophe for the state Labor Government.

The state Opposition estimates that the Government has shelled out about $50 million on its e-conveyancing system.

Yet that potential embarrassment would disappear if the national system were somehow stymied.

Every year that a national system is delayed is another year in which buyers and sellers of houses are being deprived of cost savings that have been estimated to be worth $250 million.

Those benefits, however, are spread among a diffuse group of people in other states who might not be aware of what they have lost.

E-conveyancing edges closer to total collapse

2009-05-29T03:52:00.002+10:00

Chris Merritt | May 29, 2009 The Australian

THE push to roll out a national electronic conveyancing system is close to collapse because the nation's governments have not allocated $20 million to establish a company to run the new system.

Kevin Rudd was warned this week that without repayable seed funding for the new company, the national e-conveyancing project is at risk of "complete failure".

The Prime Minister received this warning in a letter from Les Taylor, who chairs the steering committee that has been planning the new system.

Even though the Council of Australian Governments has agreed that the states should establish a single national e-conveyancing system, Mr Taylor wrote that the savings from the project were at risk of being lost for at least a generation.

Those savings have been estimated by industry groups to be worth $250 million annually.

"I have to tell you that the real prospect that you and your COAG colleagues are facing is the complete failure of this important micro-economic reform project," Mr Taylor wrote.

A former general counsel of the Commonwealth Bank, Mr Taylor said lawyers, bankers and conveyancers were likely to abandon the project unless $20 million was provided to establish the company that will run the system.

The project could be saved "by a modest injection of seed funding by the Commonwealth", Mr Taylor wrote.

Mr Rudd's office told The Australian the federal Government had already provided significant funding through COAG in exchange for the states and territories agreeing to set up the new system.

A spokeswoman for Mr Rudd said the Government was committed to providing $550 million to the states and territories as part of COAG's "seamless economy national partnership agreement".

"In exchange, the states and territories agreed to reform and harmonise regulation across 27 regulatory hotspots, including the creation of a national electronic conveyancing system by the end of 2011," the spokeswoman said. "This includes an upfront facilitation payment in 2008-09 of $100 million, to be shared between the states on a per capita basis."

Mr Taylor's letter to the Prime Minister is the result of concern among the private sector groups involved in conveyancing that none of the money flowing to the states under the COAG agreement has been earmarked for the e-conveyancing project. Because the e-conveyancing company is not due to be established until September next year, it will be too late to have access to the Government's $100 million facilitation payment that will be made this financial year.

And while the COAG agreement provides a strong financial incentive for the states to make progress on 10 priority areas listed in the agreement, those priority areas do not include e-conveyancing.

If the states fail to meet their commitment to establish the project, they could still receive their full reward payments from the commonwealth so long as they make progress in the other areas covered by the agreement. Concerns have also emerged that the problems associated with the national system could be associated with Victoria's growing commitment to a separate state-based e-conveyancing system.

Victorian Opposition frontbencher David Davis said he believed the state Government had now spent about $50 million on its state-based system, which is known as ECV.

"It's a tragedy that a genuine national system has been spiked by the activities of the Victorian Government in preference for their $50 million white elephant," Mr Davis said.

COAG's endorsement of a single national system raised doubts about the future of ECV because the national system would operate in each state.

While ECV has been open for business for about 18 months, it has been boycotted by solicitors because of concerns by their professional indemnity insurer that it could expose lawyers to increased potential liability.

The major banks have refused to use ECV because they do not wish to encourage the development of state-based systems that would diminish the efficiency gains from e-conveyancing.

All the private sector players in conveyancing are concerned that COAG's decision to delay the establishment of the national system means years of preparatory work by the steering committee is in danger of being lost.

By delaying the start date for the project from March next year until the end of 2011, COAG has already wiped out cost savings for home buyers that, based on industry estimates, are worth about $437 million.

Mr Taylor's letter to Mr Rudd says private sector groups involved in conveyancing had made it clear to the steering committee at its last meeting that without a clear funding commitment, they did not believe their organisations would continue to support the project.

These groups include the Law Council of Australia, the Australian Institute of Conveyancers and the Australian Bankers Association.

The steering committee, which also includes representatives of state and federal governments, has been working towards establishing a national e-conveyancing system since 2005.

While its work has been hampered by disagreements between the state governments, Mr Taylor told Mr Rudd that many key requirements were well advanced.

"Unfortunately the point has now been reached where unless a firm commitment to provide the funds necessary to establish the corporation and to attract capable and skilled directors and executives is forthcoming, then I have to tell you that it is my considered opinion that the industry participants in the project will be highly unlikely to be able to continue their support of the project," Mr Taylor wrote.

"The fact is that if the banks and legal practitioners, in particular, walk away, the project will fail and the considerable value and progress created by the committee's work to date will be lost.

"If this is allowed to happen, then the prospect of electronic conveyancing delivering financial benefits to Australians, particularly greater housing affordability for young people will be lost for at least a generation," Mr Taylor wrote.

The Australian Bankers Association said the uncertainty over the capital base for the national system was a great concern.

"You cannot expect private sector organisations like banks to stand idly by and do very little while the states have gone back to their people to discuss funding," said ABA director of retail regulatory policy Ian Gilbert.

"Each bank will have to make its own decision but it's totally unrealistic to expect that people will be kept on hold, on ice, while the jurisdictions sort out questions of funding.

"This is not the way that the private sector would go about it. It would all be up front, organised and settled," Mr Gilbert said.

Law Council of Australian president John Corcoran said the legal profession was extremely disappointed by COAG's decision to delay the start date for e-conveyancing.

"It really took us back to square one," Mr Corcoran said.

Westpac backflip on India jobs shift

2009-05-18T21:01:00.000+10:00

WESTPAC has dispatched a strike team to India as part of an offshoring reconnaissance mission a week after the bank's chief, Gail Kelly, drew widespread praise for suspending the practice of sending jobs overseas.

The Australian understands the bank's top technology executives have travelled around India over the past two weeks to meet with about eight outsourcing companies.

Two outsourcers will be selected to perform a range of work and are set to benefit as Westpac spends hundreds of millions of dollars over the next couple of years to update core banking systems and integrate complex technology functions as part of the $12 billion acquisition of St George bank.

Several sources confirmed the Westpac contingent met with technology firms Accenture, IBM, EDS, Wipro Technologies, Tata Consultancy Services and Infosys, as well as one or two others.

A fortnight ago Ms Kelly announced she had put the brakes on Westpac's offshoring of Australian-based jobs, a decision prompted by the recession and expectations that unemployment could rise next year to 8.5 per cent.

"I've decided to suspend further offshoring until conditions improve," she said.

Westpac declined to comment on the visit to India or the bank's future offshoring plans.

Ms Kelly's commitment to keep jobs in Australia followed a three-year undertaking by Commonwealth Bank chief executive Ralph Norris not to send jobs offshore.

Westpac's stance also drew praise from Finance Sector Union national secretary Leon Carter who said the bank had sent 460 back-office jobs overseas, mainly to India, and was probably considering a similar fate for "1000 or more" other positions.

"This is an excellent outcome because maintaining jobs in Australia is of paramount importance," Mr Carter said at the time.

It is believed Westpac plans to set up a two-vendor panel which can be called on when necessary to perform a range of work.

The prospective outsourcing vendors were not provided a specific brief by Westpac but were asked to pitch for where they could offer technology services to the bank.

It is not clear whether there are plans to set up a "captive" outsourcing centre similar to ANZ's Bangalore facility which houses more than 3000 staff.

The winners will benefit from the merger of St George and Westpac, which is slated to cost $700 million when completed, with half of the spend expected to cover the integration of the banks' technology systems.

It is believed the outsourcers panel could be drawn on to complete the lion's share of this work as well as lucrative work to update Westpac and St George's core banking systems.

St George has already outsourced the support and maintenance of key legacy systems to Indian firm Infosys.

There has been a surge in local technology work over the past year, spurred by several legacy system overhauls and consolidation across the financial services industry.

An industry source said banks had been forced to look for resources overseas because of the limited technology talent pool in Australia.

Mahesh Sharma | May 18, 2009 | The Australian

30 minutes to lodge a caveat

2009-05-13T16:54:00.001+10:00

Electronic Conveyancing (EC), the first online caveat has been processed in Victoria by EC Subscriber and National President of the Australian Institute of Conveyancers (AIC), Pauline Barrow.

Pauline said EC was a “convenient and efficient online service (which) has resulted in the preparation, lodgement and registration of a caveat within 30 minutes.”

Source EC News 13 May 2009

LIXI - major focus on NECS

2009-05-05T09:06:00.001+10:00

LIXI continues to contribute to the development of the National Electronic Conveyancing System (NECS). The work currently under way will ensure that the data transactions are designed well in advance of the roll out of NECS and conform to the requirements of LIXI members. NECS is proceeding rapidly with requirements development and has encouraged LIXI to be proactive with the requirements for the data standards. All members are encouraged to participate in the requirements gathering process. The NECS transaction standards are a major deliverable for LIXI over the next 18 months – on the scale of the original credit application language – and is a key focus for us this year.

May 09 LIXI newsletter - Erik Fenna CEO - introduction

ANZ moves to Bangalor India

2009-04-30T09:52:00.001+10:00

[ email message ]

Unfortunately this is where the issue lies, our settlement prep dept is in Bangalor India, this is why they do not guarantee the 10 day turn around time, but will try to get this done within that timeframel, I will keep on their backs.

I will get approx 3 days notification therefore it should give you ample time to book in settlement,

Thanks Bruce and apologies for the delay,

(name withheld)

Business Banking Manager
Australian & New Zealand Banking Group Limited