Latest News
18 November 2008 GE Money pass on 0.58% to GEL Custodians borrowers.
Mark Rice, MD of GE Money announced today all Flexible Options borrowers would receive a 0.58% interest rate reduction following the Reserve Bank rate announcement of 7 November. The reduction will take effect from 24 November 2008.
Source: GE Money Media Release
___________________________________________________________________________
7 November 2008 - Morgan Brooks DIRECT Pass on 0.62% to their PTVL borrowers
Morgan Brooks DIRECT announced on Friday that effective 24 November Full Doc Perpetual Trustees Victoria Limited clients would receive a 0.62% cut in their variable rate home loans. CEO Richard Aulsebrook said Low Doc and Easy Doc borrowers would also benefit from a cut in their rates of 0.52% and 0.45% respectively.
Holders of GEL Custodians or GE Money home loans were still awaiting news if they would receive any of this latest Reserve Bank cut in official rates. GE Money MD Mark Rice earlier defended his companies decision not to pass on any of the October Reserve bank rate cut to any of its borrowers except its Wizard Home Loan clients; a business GE was negotiating to sell
Source: Richard Aulsebrook - CEO Morgan Brooks DIRECT
___________________________________________________________________________
31 October 2008 - Westpac profits and bad debts up
Westpac announced a six per cent rise in cash profit to $3.73 billion and a 93 per cent increase in provisioning for bad debt to $931 million. The bank will increase dividends to 72 cents per share by underwriting and maintain capital adequacy ratios of 7.8 per cent of tier one capital, the highest among the major banks. CEO Gail Kelly said the bank was focussed on customers and wants to turn customers into promoters of the bank. Westpac expects housing and business loan growth to slow to 6 -8 per cent from 10 per cent last year. Kelly said Westpac expects interest rates to be cut by a further 1.5 per cent by March 2009.
Source: The Australian Financial Review
30 October 2008 - No penalty fee for union members
Members Equity Bank will no longer charge members of unions a $25 dishonour fee for union deductions where there are insufficient funds in their account. Mr Tony Beck, Head of Corporate Affairs for Members Equity Bank, said until today union members were being charged a dishonour fee for union dues that were rejected because of insufficient funds in InterestME and Ultimate Offset Accounts.
"From now, payments to unions from our customers will not be charged a dishonour fee even if the member does not have sufficient funds in the account," Mr Beck said. "This does not mean that we will honour the original payment if there is insufficient funds in the account. We definitely will not be paying the union subscriptions for the customer. But it does mean that our union customers will not get charged the extra fee for a dishonoured payment."
Source: Members Equity
30 October 2008 - Bank defends no rate cuts on credit cards
St George Bank chief executive Paul Fegan yesterday defended the bank's decision not to pass on any of the two recent Reserve Bank rate cuts to its consumer credit card holders. St George is not alone. Hardly any lender has cut interest rates on any credit card product over the last two months.
Fegan rejected the suggestion that the bank was being mean and doing nothing to help consumers struggling with credit card debt. Consumer debt was one area where the bank recorded a substantial increase in bad debt expense in the 2007/08 financial year, with provisions on the consumer credit portfolio rising from $98 million to $116 million. Fegan said card rates were priced appropriately for risk.
Figures supplied by InfoChoice show that purchase rates on St George's Gold Low Rate, No Annual Fee, Platinum, Starts Low Stays Low and Vertigo cards rose by between 100 and 290 basis points in the nine months from July last year to March this year, when the last of the RBA increases was announced.
Cash advance rates rose by between 100 and 526 basis points over the same period. The cash advance rate on the Gold Low Rate card rose from 12.99 to 18.25 per cent. The bank has not cut rates on any of those cards since then, despite official rates coming down 125 basis points in the past two months.
Source: The Sheet
30 October 2008 - Reverse mortgages lose popularity
Reverse mortgage settlements fell by more than 20 per cent in the first half of the year as retirees put spending plans on hold in the face of rising interest rates. Figures released by Deloitte Actuaries and Consultants yesterday show settlements of $180 million in the six months to June (an annualised rate of $360 million), compared to $466 million for the full year in 2007 and $520 million in 2006. Deloitte Actuaries and Consultants partner James Hickey said: "The settlement figures are against a backdrop of a more constrained lending market. It has been a difficult year for lenders, with borrowers also choosing to be more cautious." A significant number of lenders have left the reverse mortgage market this year. The chief executive of the Senior Australian Equity Release Association of Lenders, Kevin Conlon, said he did not believe the withdrawal of lenders had affected demand. Conlon said: "There is still a wide range of product in the market." The reverse mortgage market grew from $2.02 billion in December to $2.3 billion in June. The number of loans increased from 33,741 to 36,638. The average loan size was $62,840 at June.
Source: The Sheet
30 October 2008 - St George grows deposits but not loans
St George benefited from the retail deposit flight to quality during 2008, boosting retail deposits by one fifth to $57 billion, as investors felt more secure lodging funds with major Australian banks. Cash investors chased yield, moving funds from low interest accounts to term deposits, which jumped 57 per cent to $23 billion, with growth strongest in the second half, climbing 32 per cent.
The directsaver products also performed well, up 15 per cent to $9.1 billion. Transaction accounts increased three per cent to $18 billion, with savings falling five per cent to $554 million and investment accounts off nine per cent to $6.4 billion. Retail funding provides just over half of total retail funding and other borrowings at St George, but the percentage continues to trend down.
In September 2007 retail deposits funded 54 per cent, 60 per cent a year earlier, with 62 per cent in 2005 and 63 per cent in 2004. The bank has been pursuing an expansion strategy to do more business outside NSW. Over the past year it opened one new branch in Western Australia, one in Victoria and four in Queensland. It installed 50 new ATMs.
Home loan receivables were up 9.1 per cent from $69.2 to $75.5 billion over the year. Growth in the bank's home lending business lagged system, which St George chief executive Paul Fegan put at 11.6 per cent, because of the six per cent growth in New South Wales. Unsecured personal loan arrears actually decreased during the period from 1.9 per cent last year to 1.6 per cent this year, while credit card arrears remain stable. Total consumer loans fell 10 per cent to $6.9 billion, due to margin lending falling by a third to $2.1 billion. Personal loans increased eight per cent to $3.1 billion, with credit cards up 14 per cent to $1.7 billion.
Source: The Sheet
29 October 2008 - Deposit guarantee clarified but questions remain
The deposit guarantee threshold under which there is no fee is one million dollars per depositor, per bank the government said last night. The clarification came amid advice from planners and analysts to companies, councils and individuals with more than one million to spread their money around to avoid the fee. Only the balance above one million dollars will attract the fee said the Commonwealth Treasury. For a deposit of $1.5 million in a big four AA rated bank, $500,000 would be charged a fee of 0.7 per cent. In an A rated bank such as Macquarie the fee would be 1.0 per cent. Lower and unrated institutions would be charged 1.5 per cent. Foreign bank branches have belatedly been included in the guarantee. The government is under pressure to clarify how it will stop foreign depositors moving money into Australian branches of foreign banks and benefiting from the guarantee.
Source: The Australian Financial Review
29 October 2008 - Record profit posted by St George
St George announced a cash profit of $1.32 billion, up 14 per cent on last year. Bad and doubtful debt expenses rose by 63.5 per cent to $291 million. Total income was up 9.4 per cent to $3.58 billion in 2007-2008 with customer satisfaction ratings also up to 75 per cent, compared to the other major banks who scored an average of 70 per cent. St George's Tier 1 capital adequacy ratio was 6.6 per cent, above the required minimum of 6.25 per cent. The St George board yesterday reiterated its recommendation to shareholders to accept the Westpac takeover offer.
Source: The Age
29 October 2008 - Suncorp for sale again
Suncorp said it will cut dividends to shareholders from last year's $1.07 dividend and confirmed it was willing to sell its banking division which analysts say is worth $6 billion. Last month Suncorp is believed to have talked to all four big banks about a possible sale with ANZ the only bank to make a formal bid at $3 billion for the banking assets of Suncorp.
Source: The Age
29 October 2008 - Westpac/BT have learnt the liquidity lesson
Westpac's wealth management subsidiary BT Investment management has sustained a $6.6 billion, or 16 per cent, fall in funds under management to $35.3 billion in the year to September, due to the meltdown in equity and debt markets. BT chief executive Dirk Morris said the firm had not experienced a mass exodus of funds but inflows had slowed. Mr Morris said he was concerned about the contagion effects caused by funds freezing their assets. BT said its balance sheet was strong enough to withstand and even respond to market volatility. Mr Morris said BT and Westpac had learnt lessons from liquidity issues that damaged their brand in the 1990's. BT reported a net profit after tax of $40 million on revenues of $147 million.
Source: The Australian
28 October 2008 - Bendigo boasts strong deposit growth
Bendigo and Adelaide Bank increased retail deposits by $2 billion last financial year to $23.6 billion. Managing Director Rob Hunt said the bank's retail deposits were the strongest of any Australian bank, despite the merger with Adelaide Bank reducing the group's reliance on retail deposits as a funding source. Bendigo posted a 40 per cent increase in net profit to $170.5 million with dividends to shareholders up 12 per cent to 65 cents. Branch numbers are expected to grow 20 per cent from 223 community branches currently. Retail deposits now comprise 73 per cent of the group's income, down from 92 per cent before the merger with Adelaide bank. Bendigo plans to increase deposits to 80 per cent of income to allow it participate in wholesale money markets.
Source: Herald Sun
28 October 2008 - CBA shocks investors by freezing CFS trust
Commonwealth Bank has shocked financial advisors, markets and investors by stepping back from the undertakings of its Colonial First State mortgage trust subsidiary and allowing it to suspend redemptions. As a consequence of the CBA decision, all bank owned operations that are not directly part of the bank, including their finance companies, may be called into question. It was open to the bank to purchase Colonial First State Mortgage Trust's mortgages and the decision not to do so is now being interpreted as a political one to place pressure on the government.
Source: Business Spectator
28 October 2008 - Government rejects extending deposit guarantee
Confusion reigns in markets over the government's guarantee on deposits in authorised deposit taking institutions particularly in relation to short-term cash management trusts and similar asset classes, says UBS Wealth Management. The Government is expected to resist further calls to extend the guarantee and has already rejected calls to extend the guarantee to investment products such as mortgage funds. Major banks are expected to shun the government guarantee for some capital products including their bank bills because the cost will lower returns to investors.
Source: The Australian
28 October 2008 - St George will rejuvenate Westpac
Westpac will be rejuvenated by the St George takeover says Southern Cross Equities analyst TS Lim. "If you look at Westpac, the retail banking hasn't been very good," said Mr Lim, "This is a very good deal for Westpac." The combined group will be Australia's second biggest bank, after Commonwealth, although it will retain separate brands. St George is expected to announce profit growth of around 10 per cent tomorrow in its last result before being taken over by Westpac. St George shareholders will receive 1.31 Westpac shares for each St George share they own, a deal that equals $26.19 per St George share, lower than yesterday's closing price of $26.39.
Source: The Australian Financial Review
28 October 2008 - Westpac on NSW sales blitz
Westpac has embarked on a 'NSW sales blitz' campaign on home loans. Westpac is offering 7.66 per cent home loan interest rates for first home buyers, no establishment fees and a $600 rebate for refinancers. The campaign will end on the 7th of November.
Source: The Sheet
Source Infochoice.
Current as at 04.11.2008
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
