From Gottiboff today:
It’s conventional to blame APRA and the regulators’ new rules but the credit squeeze motivation goes deeper and I think it is multiplied by a middle management confidence loss stemming from the looming retrenchments, the scandals and now building up to the real possibility of a Royal Commission. Not surprisingly, the bank most caught up by these affairs, the Commonwealth, has been among the most restrictive.
Nothing illustrates what is happening better than what I will call the “tea, coffee and cosmetics” (TCC) approach to home lending. But, as I will describe later, TCC has spread to small business lending.
