经济学人:澳大利亚最大金融机构正在受审 (1)

 　　BANKS often face conflicts of interest when it comes to advising their customers. 当提及为客户提供咨询建议的时候，银行经常面临利益冲突。

　　The regulators who are supposed to stop the abuses that can result are not always up to the job. 监管者本应阻止可能产生后果的滥用，但他们总不能胜任这份工作。

　　But when wrongdoing does finally come to light, the penalties can be vast. 但当公司罪状最终大白天下的时候，处罚就非常巨大。

　　Financial institutions in Britain have had to lay aside 40bn pounds ($52bn) to compensate¹ customers mis-sold payment protection insurance. 英国金融机构需要放弃400亿英镑（520亿美元）用于赔偿错卖客户的支付保护险。

　　Wells Fargo was fined $1bn by American regulators and ordered to reimburse² the people to whom it had sold useless insurance or mortgages with inflated³ fees. 美国监管部门对富国银行罚款10亿美元并要求赔偿那些被银行推销购买无用保险或有通货膨胀费的抵押贷款的客户。

　　Now it is the turn of Australian banks to face a reckoning. 现在轮到澳大利亚银行面临审判了。

　　A royal commission has exposed a litany of abuses. 一所皇家调查委员会曝光了一大串滥用罪责。

　　Its interim⁴ report, published on September 28th, paints the country's financial institutions as consumer-crushing oligopolies. 其9月28日发布的中期报告将国家金融机构描绘成压榨消费者的寡头。

　　Lenders charged hidden fees long after providing services, and for some services they never provided at all, on occasion to people who were dead. 在提供服务后，贷方收取隐藏费用，有时还会对那些根本没有提供的服务收取费用，有时还把这招用在已去世人身上。

　　They siphoned off at least A$1bn ($720m) of compulsory⁵ pension savings⁶ in excessive charges. 在额外收费中，他们至少对强制养老金储蓄收取了10亿澳元（7.2亿美元）的费用。

　　And they offered mortgages that they should have known were far too expensive to afford. 而且他们还提供抵押贷款，他们本应该知道这种贷款太过昂贵，客户支付不起。

　　Their behaviour, said Kenneth Hayne, the head of the inquiry⁷, was not just immoral⁸, but criminal. 他们的行为，负责该调查的肯尼思·海恩称，不仅是不道德的，更是犯罪。

　　The banks have tried to pin the blame on a few rogue⁹ staff. In fact the wrongdoing was pervasive—and turbo-charged by government policy. 银行想要把责任归咎于几名流氓员工。事实上，这种犯罪行为很普遍—并且是由国家政策所导致的。

　　Until relatively¹⁰ recently few Australians sought financial advice. But the introduction of compulsory private pensions in the 1990s gave them savings to invest. 直到最近几名没什么澳大利亚人寻求理财建议了。但是20世纪90年代强制私人退休金的引入给了他们用于投资的存款。

　　At A$2.6trn, Australia's superannuation pot is now one of the world's largest. It has sustained a swelling¹¹ wealth-management industry. 澳大利亚2600亿澳元的退休金罐现在是全球最大之一。这笔退休金维持了一个膨胀的财务管理工业。

　　The inquiry levelled sharp criticisms at outsized commissions. 在庞大的佣金面前，调查等同于尖锐的批评。

　　These, it found, had encouraged financial advisers¹² to direct customers' savings towards high-cost, 调查发现，这些佣金激励着财务顾问将客户存款引入高成本

　　poorly performing funds and insurance providers to sell policies that would never pay out. 表现糟糕的基金，并激励着保险供应商推销那些根本不会有赔付款的保险。

1 compensate   

vt.补偿，赔偿；酬报 vi.弥补；补偿；抵消

参考例句：

• She used her good looks to compensate her lack of intelligence. 她利用她漂亮的外表来弥补智力的不足。
• Nothing can compensate for the loss of one's health. 一个人失去了键康是不可弥补的。

2 reimburse   

v.补偿，付还

参考例句：

• We'll reimburse you for your travelling expenses.我们将付还你旅费。
• The funds are supposed to reimburse policyholders in the event of insurer failure.这项基金将在保险公司不能偿付的情况下对投保人进行赔付。

3 inflated   

adj.（价格）飞涨的；（通货）膨胀的；言过其实的；充了气的v.使充气（于轮胎、气球等）( inflate的过去式和过去分词 )；（使）膨胀；（使）通货膨胀；物价上涨

参考例句：

• He has an inflated sense of his own importance. 他自视过高。
• They all seem to take an inflated view of their collective identity. 他们对自己的集体身份似乎都持有一种夸大的看法。 来自《简明英汉词典》

4 interim   

adj.暂时的，临时的；n.间歇，过渡期间

参考例句：

• The government is taking interim measures to help those in immediate need.政府正在采取临时措施帮助那些有立即需要的人。
• It may turn out to be an interim technology.这可能只是个过渡技术。

5 compulsory   

n.强制的，必修的；规定的，义务的

参考例句：

• Is English a compulsory subject?英语是必修课吗？
• Compulsory schooling ends at sixteen.义务教育至16岁为止。

6 savings   

n.存款，储蓄

参考例句：

• I can't afford the vacation,for it would eat up my savings.我度不起假，那样会把我的积蓄用光的。
• By this time he had used up all his savings.到这时，他的存款已全部用完。

7 inquiry   

n.打听，询问，调查，查问

参考例句：

• Many parents have been pressing for an inquiry into the problem.许多家长迫切要求调查这个问题。
• The field of inquiry has narrowed down to five persons.调查的范围已经缩小到只剩5个人了。

8 immoral   

adj.不道德的，淫荡的，荒淫的，有伤风化的

参考例句：

• She was questioned about his immoral conduct toward her.她被询问过有关他对她的不道德行为的情况。
• It is my belief that nuclear weapons are immoral.我相信使核武器是不邪恶的。

9 rogue   

n.流氓；v.游手好闲

参考例句：

• The little rogue had his grandpa's glasses on.这淘气鬼带上了他祖父的眼镜。
• They defined him as a rogue.他们确定他为骗子。

10 relatively   

adv.比较...地，相对地

参考例句：

• The rabbit is a relatively recent introduction in Australia.兔子是相对较新引入澳大利亚的物种。
• The operation was relatively painless.手术相对来说不痛。

11 swelling   

n.肿胀

参考例句：

• Use ice to reduce the swelling. 用冰敷消肿。
• There is a marked swelling of the lymph nodes. 淋巴结处有明显的肿块。

12 advisers   

顾问，劝告者( adviser的名词复数 )； （指导大学新生学科问题等的）指导教授

参考例句：

• a member of the President's favoured circle of advisers 总统宠爱的顾问班子中的一员
• She withdrew to confer with her advisers before announcing a decision. 她先去请教顾问然后再宣布决定。