Banking Day reports:
"Former ANZ Bank CEO John McFarlane has warned that successful Asian growth by an Australian bank will require a big-hit acquisition.
In a speech to FinSIA, reported in The Australian, McFarlane said banks could not generate strong growth from local low-risk opportunities.
But Asian growth remain ''difficult'', he was reported as saying.
"Planting flags will have no result ... You have to buy a domestic leadership position in those markets. But you have to buy when Australia is strong and Asia is weak, and we have never had that."
Mr McFarlane reportedly also said that ''Asia is cyclical'' and that an Australian bank would eventually get the opportunity to buy a major asset there.
Under McFarlane's successor, Mike Smith, ANZ has made Asian growth a centrepiece of its strategy."
