OPINION: Matt Comyn has returned from the US bursting with insights on the pain in the tech sector, the challenges facing BNPL, and the crypto conundrum.
Commonwealth Bank chief executive Matt Comyn has arrived back from his trip to the United States bursting with insights about the macroeconomic environment, the mounting pain in the technology sector, and the US banking industry’s challenges after a series of meetings with US banks, CEOs, venture capitalists and investors.Matt Comyn says Australia is in a much stronger position economically than the United States.
CBA thinks the bond market has it wrong, and sees local interest rates hitting 1.35 per cent by the end of 2022, before rising to just 1.65 per cent in the middle of 2023 – that’s about 125 basis points below market pricing. “I don’t think it’s going to be a problem – clearly labour markets are still extremely strong. But I think consistent with a number of indicators we’re seeing, it’s probably a time to be slightly more cautious.”with senior VC figures suggesting the environment for start-up fund-raising is the worst since 2000 , with large tech companies contemplating staffing cuts of between 10 per cent and 30 per cent.
“Large companies in all industries have to be able to innovate and develop their propositions faster than start-ups or fintechs can actually discover distribution or customers. And it’s much harder to find customers if you can’t fund. So, I think maybe the balance has shifted slightly in the last three to six months.”Comyn and his team are also thinking hard about crypto after last year’s pilot that allowed a small group of customers to trade a small number of currencies.