Jack Derwin
Jack Derwin follows the money through decisions that change how banks, fintechs and listed companies treat their customers, shareholders and staff, with a focus on hard documents, data and market consequences. He works as a markets and finance correspondent at Capital Brief, bringing more than a decade of business reporting experience to coverage of banking strategy, corporate restructures and the changing structure of capital markets. His reporting blends scoops, regulatory material and trading data to show how boardroom calls flow through to job cuts, lending standards and investor sentiment.
Banking strategy, mortgage policy and regulators
Derwin’s core beat centres on banks, their challenger brands and the regulators that oversee them. He reported on Commonwealth Bank’s digital challenger Bankwest waiving lenders’ mortgage insurance for employees of big tech companies, banks, federal government agencies and professional services firms, framing it as a bold play to compete directly with Macquarie in the high‑value borrower segment. In that story he detailed how Bankwest now lends to those cohorts with deposits as low as 10% of a property’s value, and explained that the bank pitched the move as a way to reduce upfront borrowing costs for professional customers.
His work shows how product tweaks and pricing decisions are used to reshape loan books and target specific professional groups, rather than treating mortgage lending as a static commodity.
Derwin also focuses on the intersection between banks and regulators, using internal documents and official correspondence to track enforcement trends. In a newsletter piece he described how he obtained documents showing a regulator had raised concerns about certain bank referral practices only a handful of times over four years before abruptly switching to a more aggressive stance. He highlighted the risk created when accountants and lawyers paid by banks to refer borrowers are the same intermediaries suspected of fabricating payslips and revenue figures, underlining how compliance failures can be embedded in distribution networks. Across these stories he treats mortgage policy, referral arrangements and regulatory audits as strategic issues that reshape both risk and growth for major lenders.
Corporate restructures, job cuts and market reactions
Another defining strand of Derwin’s coverage is the way corporate restructures and mass layoffs ripple through markets.
He broke the story that ANZ planned to cut thousands of jobs as part of a major restructure, then unpacked how internal communication missteps around an HR email added to staff anxiety. In follow‑up discussion he drew out how employees were responding creatively to the looming cuts and placed the news in the context of a volatile earnings season that unsettled even blue‑chip stocks.
Derwin has also examined tech‑finance hybrids, including Block’s acquisition of Afterpay. In a deep dive for Capital Brief he reported that Block’s mass layoffs pointed to deeper integration problems, noting that shareholder dilution of around 18% to fund the deal had not been matched by a smooth merger of cultures or roles. He described a bloated workforce with duplicated functions, strategic confusion and clashes between the parent company and the buy‑now‑pay‑later business.
His work on restructures consistently connects headcount decisions to equity dilution, strategic misalignment and investor confidence, treating layoffs as more than isolated HR events.
Retail investors, listed companies and trading data
Derwin regularly uses trading data to explain shifts in retail participation and in the fortunes of listed companies. He reported on a sharp decline in activity on Selfwealth, noting that the number of trades on the platform fell by 43% over the financial year and presenting it as part of a broader pullback in retail trading across the market.
That piece tied platform‑level metrics to sentiment among individual investors and to the cooling of the retail trading boom.
On the listed company side, he has covered the market journey of online luxury retailer Cettire. In a briefing he wrote on a last‑minute sell‑off and board changes at the company, he focused on the appointment of director Gidney, a veteran of major financial services firms, as a stabilising influence on a stock that had been heavily sold off on the ASX. By combining boardroom developments with recent share price moves, Derwin maps how governance decisions and senior appointments play out in real‑time market behaviour.
Fintech, AI, digital assets and newsletters
Fintech and the future of banking technology are a further thread in Derwin’s work. In his Capital Gains newsletter he has covered topics such as new AI threats to banks, cash and card surcharging trends under central bank rules, and compliance blitzes at firms like Airwallex responding to intensive anti‑money‑laundering audits.
He also reports on digital asset roadmaps and industry reactions to regulatory proposals, positioning these developments within the broader transformation of financial services.
Derwin extends this reporting into subscriber‑focused products and live formats, appearing on Capital Brief’s On The Call segment where his ANZ job‑cuts scoop was featured and discussed in detail. His role as markets and finance correspondent is supported by prior stints at major outlets including The Asahi Shimbun, Business Insider and 7News, giving him experience across international business reporting and broadcast and digital formats.
Across beats, his signature is to anchor coverage in original documents, regulatory notices and hard numbers while tracking how strategic decisions in banking, fintech and listed companies filter through to workers, borrowers and investors.
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