Australia

An analyst says a formal public inquiry into the sector may be on the cards.

They also increased their direct property lending by 50%.

It will be lead by King & Wood Mallesons partner Scott Farrell.

The aim is for them to be 'unquestionably strong'.

Banks say the move is an 'outrageous cash grab'.

But they have agreed the levy won't threaten the financial system.

Stella Choe's appointment as Head of Corporate Banking for Australia and New Zealand is effective immediately. In this role, Stella will report locally to Tony Osmond and regionally to Gerry Keefe. She will also continue to lead the Financial Institutions group within the Corporate Bank for the time being. Stella brings a wealth of corporate banking experience to the role, having served in senior positions with HSBC, Morgan Stanley and J.P. Morgan in Asia, Europe and the United States. Stella joined Citi in 2014 as Head of the Corporate Bank, Financial Institutions group, Australia and New Zealand. She has successfully expanded the team, had relationship responsibility for some of our most important clients, helped to deliver strong growth in revenues, and supported her clients on a number of large transactions.

It will now be due in March.

The tax is a serious attack on the banks' commercial activities.

The banks could incur additional annual costs of $745m.

It would result in a new cost of $65m in the second half of 2017.

Doing so may raise up to US$4.6b.

Rising credit costs and slower credit growth are partly to blame.

CBA CEO said "there is no middle option to absorb costs".

The country's Big Four will have to pay up to $400m each every year.

The share of new loans with high loan-to-value ratio fell to 22.3% in December.