Which high-profile bank CEO, who has lived a charmed corporate life, is starting to lose some of that well-promoted and developed lustre? The internal information factory (aka gossip machine), inside of this bank, which happens to be undergoing a “reverse takeover”, seems very focused upon predicting, and betting upon the demise of the next senior exec.

The best set up of all times inside a financial services organisation, linked to the recent interest rate hikes, led to a senior exec (admittedly a sycophant) from within the “takeoveree”, to be recently “promoted” to HR and “special projects”, from their line role.

The laughter and cynicism around the water bottles and coffee machines can be heard all the way to top floor in the Sydney CBD, but sadly not to the board room. More to follow.

It’s not only temporary skilled worker numbers that are down, but overseas student numbers. A great many of the inner city apartments in Sydney and Melbourne are occupied by overseas students studying at universities, TAFE and private colleges. Indian student numbers are already down 48% (although the Indian students tend to live further out of the city).  See this story in The Age.

There are many a landlord of an inner city apartment who is collecting rent from seven or eight students crowded into a two-bedroom apartment. As the Aussie dollar goes up, visa regulations tighten, bad PR in India, and some vocational qualifications are removed from the list of DIMEA-preferred occupations, the numbers will change.

Twice in the past week the CBA has alerted me that my key card “may have been compromised”, advised me to change my PIN, and peremptorily re-set my daily withdrawal limit to $200.  The first time I got the message via SMS; I called the bank to confirm, and did as required.  The second time they sent the message via post — meaning that a few days had gone by between the presumed compromising act and my ability to fix it.

When I called CBA to confirm that I need to change my PIN again, they said “some customers haven’t been receiving the text messages.”  So, here I go, off to the ATM for another PIN change — and I hope I can remember the PIN this time.