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Naked among Cannibals: What Really Happens Inside Australian Banks

This book is very much in the genre of Tom Wolfe's "Bonfire of the Vanities" and Bryan Burrough's "Barbarians at the Gate" - all packaged with a distinct Australian flavour.

The story documents the twilight years of a high profile Australian Bank (State Bank of New South Wales) until its eventual privatisation in 1994. From 54 expressions of interest, a solitary bidder emerged, extracting a plethora of guarantees and caveats from an enthusiastic vendor and effectively reducing the sale price to one more akin to a Thanksgiving sale at Wal Mart. Compared to more recent sales, it's easy to sympathise with Hand's conclusion that this was "the biggest Bank heist of all time". Indeed, within 5 years, the purchaser (Colonial Mutual) had onsold the Bank (and itself in the process) for over 10 times the purchase price.

But the story is much bigger than State Bank in isolation. Hand meanders around Australian Banking in general during the 1990s, coining the term "mating call" to illustrate Australia's unofficial banking cartel. And yet the story is more than a factual guide to contemporary banking - it's also about changing social attitudes and community values. The chapter named "From revered to reviled" illustrates bankers simply ignoring their demise in community stature, actively absolving themselves of social responsibilities in the name of "shareholder value".

The diversity of anecdotes range from young-gun dealers cheering disastrous employment statistics when it suits the portfolio to the multimillion dollar executive payouts as rural branch closures gather pace. One gem is an assessment of the Bank's bizarre attempt to market a variety of new fees as being of benefit to customers. Overall, the book is factual, well researched and entertaining, offering a balanced commentary and avoiding the easier path of sensationalism. The book is also critical of the government's splashing of public monies around simply to bolster their own fortunes.

Hand has a very entertaining writing style with a strong social conscience, offering meaningful anecdotes and insightful commentary. He has a great strategic perspective of Banking that that makes it so easy to see the woods from the trees. I just think it's a great rollicking yarn with a significance that will grow rather than diminish over time.

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