CBA hit with $7.5 million fine for spamming | Boeing's turbulent path | AusSuper's desperate for AI exposure

This is what the Flux. I'm Brett and I'm justin and it's Friday, the eighteenth of October.

Super exciting to be here in our new studio at net Wealth HQ. Really fancy stuff around here.

I'll like it. Now.

Get this. The Australian economy just keeps on keeping on. More than sixty four thousand people found jobs in September, according to the Australian Bureau of Statistics, and now, Juzzy boy, Australian employment growth just hit a sixteen month Hi, man, is there.

Any better feeling than walking into the weekend with fifty snackeroonis in your pockets?

I'm not sure.

Every week we give a fifty bucks for the first person to answer three business questions correctly in our weekly game at quick Sticks. So we make sure to download the Flux app and turn your notifications on three.

Splendid stories today, juzzy boy, let's do it for our first combank has been whacked with a seven point five million dollar fine for sending more than one hundred and seventy million emails to customers that did not include the option to unsubscribed.

Is there anything worse than a spam emails? That you don't want and can't unsubscribe to, maybe only a reply all email percent by accidents to the whole office. So tell me what's going on here?

So Juseway will often speak about Commonwealth Bank of Australia aka Combank aka big e Yellow.

Yeah. They're the biggest bank in Australia with over seventeen million customers.

And their share price has been bonkers this year as well, up twenty five percent, which is large for a monstrous business like Combank.

That the man with all growing businesses comes growing pains, and Combank has had a fair few recently.

In May twenty twenty three, Combank paid a three point five to five million dollar fine for sending sixty five million emails without a working unsubscribe option in the email.

That was bad and they've learned.

Their lesson right, Well not quite, jusy boy, because Combank has breached the spam rules once again for the second time in less than eighteen months.

This time is sent more than one hundred and seventy eight million emails to customers without the necessary option to unsubscribe, and.

As a result it has copped a seven point five million dollar fine for its laxness. So I'm wondering over here is the key learning here?

The cost of sending emails and texts can be pretty cheap, but the cost of breaching laws is becoming very costly for a company's reputation.

Companies with very large databases can send out emails for free at the click of a button.

But in Australia we've now got pretty strict laws around spammy emails under the Spam app.

Including the fact that customers need to be able to unsubscribe from marketing emails and be man.

Because of the ease of sending these emails, AKMA, Australia's Communications and Media Authority, has been actively cracking down on the practice over the past eighteen months.

Get this. AKIME is issued more than fifteen million dollars in spam and telemarketing penalties in that period of time.

We're talking companies like Ticke, tech opsm Kmart, DoorDash and of course Combank previously.

So hopefully Big Yellow has learned its lesson this time, or otherwise the fine might be even juicier.

B Man. Before we jump into our second story, we are very excited to be having a quick fireside chat with Brendan Malone the Sea. Your rais Australia's number one micro investment app. Brendan, welcome, thanks justin.

Great to be Brent.

How are you very well Brendan. Awesome to have you here.

And Brendan apparently been a big listener of the pod for a long time.

I love it. I love the small It's a bit like a small amount over time that up and you can learn something.

Love that, Brendan. We've seen over the last couple of years huge numbers of Australians getting into Etfs've got a fun stat for you, the ETF market group on more than thirty seven percent over the past year. So would love you to give us a quick overview of ETFs and also just why the market is growing so much.

I think the easiest way to explain it and boils on from Newcastle. So I explain things as best I can because I I can't expect our customers to understand it. So it's all about diversification the D word. The way I explained it to people, think of the shipping container, open up the doors, throwing a couple of companies, lock it up and there you go. So you're not getting exposure to one you're getting exposure to in the industry,

And let's talk a little bit about micro investing, which is a little different to direct investing in shares. How do you define what micro investing is?

The important part there is that micro investing is that you're fully invested for your five dollars. We can sit there and you know, Jazzi will say, hey, I want a CBA stock or can't afford a whole one at one hundred and forty odd dollars, but you could put ten dollars into CBA, So he gets that fractional portion whatever the ten dollars is the percentage of he gets

I've actually been very happy with my raise account. I've been tracking with the Aggressive portfolio. The reason I liked it because they had asex in it had EUROPTF SMP five hundred grown to a few grand just from like the roundups, which I'm pretty happy about. I know that's not the only option. There's quite a few different investment options available.

Look, while Jazzy the Aggressive love it, what we're trying to do is break down the various investing. So we've got a conservative to an aggressive and when you look at that, it's just a and it's the diversification or the exposure to what I call classes, whether it's bonds or cash on the left hand side of the conservative up to aggressive.

And as there been a standout portfolio over the last twelve twenty four months, the.

Most popular things like the Aggressive, but also our social responsible Emerald portfolio on you know, just as a little tidbit. Super Ratings for the second year in a row has rated the Emerald portfolio the number one performing net of fees second financial year in a row.

And Brendan I kind of touched on it briefly. But the thing that I love is like I buy a coffee for four dollars, sixty rounds up the extra forty cents to five bucks, so then forty cents goes into my raise account. But how does that work for people? And how have you seen that working successfully?

Don't tell them they can't spend, because everybody's going to spend. What roundups does goes. I hope my wife's not listening. She's got a bad habit of spending. But with the round up feature, she's spending and saving at the same time. Or she tells me that she's saving money because she brought it through Razuewards, or she gets the round up.

Brendan, great to have you on the pod and if b man it leaves again, then hopefully we can get you to replace it.

Yes, sub Brendan inform.

Yeah, absolutely, Hey juzzy mate, what's the killing.

For our second story? Boeing, the aeroplane manufacturer, is looking to raise twenty five billion US dollars to stabilize its finances After a staff strike and issues with its operations.

Boeing has officially hit turbulence. Where's the latest on their flight plan?

Good question? We'll be a bit of background. Bows founded back in nineteen sixteen.

Now, since then they've become one of the largest aerospace manufacturers in the solar system.

We're talking more than ten thousand Boeing built commercial jet liners in service worldwide.

Otherwise known as almost half the world fleet, and.

They're more than six thousand on order right now.

But now, Juzy boy, Boeing is looking to raise as much as twenty five billion dollars through a mix of shares and bond.

And what's the reason for this wop and raise.

Well, Boeing has been struggling to navigate through some pretty stormy weather.

Yeah, we're talking a strike that has stopped production of its planes.

Yep, as well as enormous delays in the delivery of planes as well.

Yet this some of Boeing's Triple sevens were promised to be delivered to airlines in twenty nineteen. Now they're saying twenty twenty six.

So Jazi boy, it's no surprise that the stock has lost more than forty percent in value this year.

But be man, despite the fact that Boeing's in a world of pain, Boeing's still confident that will raise the cash to survive and maybe even thrive.

So I'm wondering what is the key learning here?

In the world of business and finance, some companies are considered too big to fail.

Interesting so Boeing's collapse could and would have enormous consequences for the broader economy globally.

And be man. The idea of being too big to fail is particularly true for industries critical to national security and infrastructure like aviation.

When these types of companies face challenges, investors often step in to help keep things afloat.

Because they know if the company collapses it could hurt everyone even more. And this ain't the first company that has been too big to fail. Remember the GFC back in two thousand and eight.

B Man I most certainly do General Motors and Chrysler, the car manufacturers. They were about to go down the gurglar.

And the US government swopped in with a thirteen poin four billion US dollar bailout package, and they also bailed at eight banks like JP Morgan Wells Fargo with two hundred and forty five billion US dollars as well.

So Jazi boy, when you are too big to fail, you might just find that people are willing to go the extra mile to help you out.

For our third and final story, Australian Super, Australia's biggest superfund, is making a two point two billion dollar bet on US data centers and AI.

Buzzwords like data centers and AI equal take my money, now, tell me more?

Okay. So, Australian Super is an industry superfund. They've got over three hundred and forty billion dollars of retirement savings under their management.

And more than three point four million members.

Fun fact by man, Australian Super is actually the largest superfund in Australia and the sixteenth largest penchry fund in the whole wide world.

That's huge, Jasey boy. But now os super is investing two point two billion dollars into a US data center company named data Bank.

In other words, oz s soupers jumping on the bandwagon of the artificial intelligence wave big time.

Now.

Interestingly, this is O Super's first move into the US data center market.

The cup they have invested in Data Bank already has more than sixty five data centers in twenty seven markets, and they plan to use OZ Super's money to finance new sites.

There's no denying it. Jazy Boy in this deal enables olsuper to get involved in the frenzy around cloud and AI infrastructure.

So what is the key learning here?

Competition to invest in data centers is reaching its zenith in twenty twenty four.

It's fair to say we are in the Singa market that is desperate to cash in on AI technology.

And old oz Super is going all in.

Yeah, oz Super bought a minority stake in another company named Vantage Data Centers for two and a half billion. Baccarinis and jaz Boy. It's not just osuper on the hunt, oh No, many large investment firms with an interesting infrastructure and now also hyper focused on data centers, particularly with AI associated with that Bluck Sam. If you want to kick off the weekend on a high with fifty bucks in your front pocket, there's only one way to do it.

Thanks for listening and we'll see you on Monday.