Australian banks

Watch Wayne Byers squirm as Lee Rhiannon quotes Lyndsay David and Phil Soos’ great work on mortgage fraud: Not only is Mr Byers squirming, he is misleading the Senate.

APRA is out with January lending numbers and specufestors continue to take it on the chin.

Via the RBA’s Michele Bullock: Thank you for the opportunity to be here today.

By Martin North, cross-posted from the Digital Finance Analytics Blog: Last Wednesday, the Australian Prudential Regulation Authority (APRA) proposed key revisions to its capital framework for authorized deposit taking institutions (ADIs).

Hello, via the AFR: Realtor Andrew Fawell has valued four distressed – or mortgagee – sales in the past two weeks for houses and apartments valued between $1 million and $2.5 million located around Melbourne’s coveted, prestigious and expensive inner south-east fringe.

Via S&P: Australian mortgage arrears fell 7% year on year to 1.07% in December, according to a recent report by S&P Global Ratings.

By Leith van Onselen In its response to the Murray Financial System Inquiry, the Government has also endorsed the Australian Prudential Regulatory Authority (APRA) introducing a leverage ratio to act as a backstop to ADIs’ risk-weighted capital positions from 1 July 2019.

By Leith van Onselen The Australian Prudential Regulatory Authority (APRA) has today released a discussion paper, which finally acknowledges that the systemic concentration of Authorised Deposit-Taking (ADI) portfolios in residential mortgages poses a problem.

Cross-posted from The Conversation: A Productivity Commission report analysing competition in the financial sector has pointed out that our finance regulators have become enablers of an industry that is an impediment to our economic competitiveness and exploitative of their most loyal customers.

By Leith van Onselen ABC’s The Business has done an interesting segment on the Banking Royal Commission, which is worth a look.

Via Australia’s last journalist standing, Adele Ferguson: Farcical, damp squib, paper tiger, stillborn.

The great Genworth ponzi scheme rolls on today with $369bn in gross written premium: Secured by just $2bn in capital: And today: Genworth indicated it would re-start its previously announced  $100 million buyback.

By Leith van Onselen ABC’s 7.30 Report ran an interesting segment last night examining whether APRA’s interest-only mortgage crackdown could potentially trigger a US-style housing bust.

By Leith van Onselen The Productivity Commission (PC) has released its 630-page Draft Report into Competition in the Australian Financial System, which proposes several reforms to Australia’s financial system.

Via the Federal Reserve: Responding to recent and widespread consumer abuses and other compliance breakdowns by Wells Fargo, the Federal Reserve Board on Friday announced that it would restrict the growth of the firm until it sufficiently improves its governance and controls.

Lordy, just how dirty is it?

Via the ‘Boff today: Nowhere in Australia are there more danger signals than in inner city apartments.

Via S&P: This is a seasonally strong period for arrears but the trend is down now: Majors are seeing 30-90 day arrears collapse.

Via News: COMMONWEALTH Bank is encouraging struggling first home buyers to borrow 100 per cent of the value of a property using their parents’ home as security, describing the highly risky strategy as a “great option”.