Australian banks

Via Australia’s last journalist standing, Adele Ferguson: It doesn’t get much worse – or serious – than blatantly lying to the corporate regulator on at least 20 occasions, but AMP did just that.

Via the AFR: Behind-the-scenes discussions between banks, regulators and industry associations are continuing to create a new Professional Banking Council that would govern industry-wide standards of professional conduct and competency, as banks brace for more damage to their reputations as the royal commission re-starts in Melbourne.

Via the AFR: The nation’s third-largest residential property lender is warning brokers that their future mortgage recommendations will need to satisfy strict new internal guidelines and ‘external’ scrutiny, a reference to regulatory or possibly legal action.

  Ahead of the May budget Gunnamatta spoke with Leith van Onselen and David Llewellyn-Smith about the economic outlook and the unfolding Australian economic narrative.

Via a panicky Domainfax and following this week’s WBC tightening: Tom Crowley, National Australia Bank’s acting general manager of home lending, said the bank was collecting “granular” details of a customer’s expenses, and it was keen to work with regulators and other lenders to improve their assessments of borrowers’ finances.

From the RBA’s new Financial Stability Review comes a look at interest-only loans: Interest-only (IO) loans account for a sizeable and growing share of total housing credit in Australia, now representing around 23 per cent of owner-occupier lending and 64 per cent of investor lending (Graph B1).

Evil Anna (A.K.A what’s left of hollowed-out former QLD premier Anna Bligh) is busy white-anting bank reform again, via Banking Day: One of the keynote speeches at the Thomson Reuters Australian Regulatory Summit in Sydney yesterday was delivered by Anna Bligh, chief executive officer of the Australian Banking Association.

From The Advisor: The Westpac Group has updated its credit policies so borrower expenses will need to be captured at an “itemised and granular level” across 13 different categories and include expenses that will continue after settlement as well as debts with other institutions.

This is big, via the AFR: Home loan applicants at Westpac will have to reveal spending on everything from pet care to tax and toiletries, under a tough new “responsible lending” regime being introduced from next Tuesday.

Via Banking Day: …the allegations started to fly after police raids on two business premises and a private home.

By Leith van Onselen The CEO of Westpac’s business bank, David Lindberg, has warned that sky high housing prices and reduced home ownership in Sydney and Melbourne is starving budding entrepreneurs of obtaining funding, posing a risk for the productive economy.

Via the AFR: The financial intelligence regulator AUSTRAC has stolen the spotlight from Commonwealth Bank CEO Matt Comyn on his first day in the top job with allegations that the bank broke the law by knowingly opening transaction accounts for customers it had reasons to suspect of money laundering.

By Leith van Onselen The ABC’s business editor, Ian Verrender, has written a ripper article today explaining why Australian mortgage rates might soon start to rise: Official rates may not be going anywhere any time soon… But tremors are roiling through global money markets that will flow directly through to higher domestic rates.

Evil Anna was in full flight yesterday: The Australian Banking Association chief executive Anna Bligh has urged the federal government to ensure that any regulatory changes made in the aftermath of the Hayne royal commission remain balanced or risk unintended consequences.

According to the stock market, Australian banks are not well.

More whack stuff from the AFR today on brokers: Brokers at Commonwealth Bank subsidiary Aussie Home Loans overwhelmingly favoured its owner’s mortgage products but sold under a number of different brands according to data provided by the broker to the Hayne royal commission.

Via the AFR: Commonwealth Bank was being pressured by the prudential regulator to appoint external consultants and fix its flawed home lending data almost 2½ years before the Hayne royal commission began exposing the big four for sloppy administrative errors and irresponsible lending.

ABC’s The Business on Thursday evening ran a segment on the $50-billion mortgage broking industry, which has been accused of dodgy dealings during the Banking Royal Commission.

Via APRA’s February banking statistics, investment mortgage lending was up just 0.1% month on month in February and 1.7% year on year.

By Leith van Onselen The Productivity Commission has received a joint submission from six regional banks which have called for regulatory reforms to ensure that they remain competitive against larger rivals.

Via Damien Boey at Credit Suisse: Markets chasing the wrong headlines Over the past few days, investors have been closely monitoring trade tensions between the US and China.

Via the AFR: Australian Prudential Regulatory Authority chairman Wayne Byres withstood an aggressive line of questioning from the House Economics Committee on Wednesday saying there was little evidence of a lending free-for-all and rejected claims the regulator was unable to keep the the banks in line.