THE NEWS WRAP: Microsoft announces senior executive shake-up

Microsoft chief executive Satya Nadella has announced the first major management shakeup of his leadership.

Under the reshuffle, Nadella has appointed Scott Guthrie to his former role as head of cloud and enterprise group, former Nokia boss Stephen Elop is now head of devices, while Phil Spencer oversees Xbox.

“As I said on my first day, we need to do everything possible to thrive in a mobile-first, cloud-first world,” Nadella says.

“The announcements last week, our news this week, the Nokia acquisition closing soon, and the leaders and teams we are putting in place are all great first steps in making this happen.”

CBA calls for greater regulation of finance tech companies

Commonwealth Bank has called for the financial regulations applying to banks to be extended to “shadow banks” and new finance tech companies in a response to the Financial System Inquiry led by David Murray.

It argues that if non-bank entities conduct the same activities as banks, they should be regulated in a similar fashion.

In its submission, the bank also calls on the federal government to take a greater role in lending to startups, which it says find it tough to win bank financing.

Private sector credit grows

Total credit to the final sector grew by 0.4% in February, putting the annual rate of growth at 4.3%, according to new figures from the Reserve Bank.

The figures show business loans grew by 0.4%, up from 0.2% in January, which was less than the 0.5% rise in February for housing credit, although personal lending declined 0.2%.

“An improvement in business confidence and conditions is evident in rising business credit growth. However, shaky consumer confidence is weighing on personal credit growth,” Commonwealth Bank economist Diana Mousina said.

Overnight

The Dow Jones Industrial Average is up 16457.7. The Aussie dollar is up to US92.72 cents.