Australian banks

By Leith van Onselen Australian Prudential Regulatory Authority (APRA) chairman, Wayne Byres, has delivered a keynote address this morning to the AFR Banking & Wealth Summit in Sydney, whereby he warned the banks that they would be required to hold more capital against their mortgage books.

Fresh to her role as Australia’s top banking Judas, Anna Bligh has wasted no time in trashing the public interest: The new head of the Australian Banker’s Association (ABA) – former Queensland premier Anna Bligh – has hosed down talk of a housing price bubble in her first day on the job.

From Moody’s: Moody’s Investors Service says that delinquencies for Australian auto loan asset-backed securities (ABS) and residential mortgage-backed securities (RMBS) increased in January 2017 when compared with December 2016.

Dalian iron ore is down today: And coking coal down: Big Iron is stalled other than WHC: This despite the booming China PMIs and Cyclone Debbie.

If only…cutting investor loans to 30% from 48% of mortgages would be a great idea: Instead we got absolute waffle.

From S&P: The number of delinquent housing loans underlying Australian prime residential mortgage-backed securities (RMBS) increased in January to 1.29% from 1.15% in December, according to a recent report by S&P Global Ratings.

Via Marty North: Genworth released their notice of the 2017 Annual General Meeting today, to be held on 11 May 2017.

Domainfax: Bank of Queensland says it has seen a surge in mortgage applications in recent weeks, despite tough competition in the home loan market and stricter regulatory controls.

Dalian is struggling again.

Dalian is open and is up with coking coal as Debbie does Dalian, both erasing half of last night’s losses.

From CBA: Commonwealth Bank has today announced an increase in its Variable Home Loan interest rates and Viridian Line of Credit products effective Monday 8 May 2017: – The standard variable rate for owner-occupier home loan customers paying principal and interest will increase 3 basis points to 5.25 per cent per annum.

From ANZ: Principal and interest owner-occupier home lending Variable interest rates for the 80% of owner-occupier borrowers who repay principal and interest on their standard variable home loan remain unchanged at 5.25%pa.

From Chris Joye: The once market-orientated RBA now hopes that the bubble blown by its cheap money policies can be cauterised by getting the Australian Prudential Regulation Authority to re-regulate lending via “macroprudential” constraints on credit creation.

By Leith van Onselen The AFR has reported today that the Australian Prudential Regulatory Authority (APRA) is believed to be considering imposing a higher risk-weighting for mortgage loans made for investment purpose in a bid to curtail house price increases in Melbourne and Sydney.

Dalian is open and soft but holding: The good ‘ol days return today as Big Iron is getting hosed: FMG is falling -5% and describing a superb head and shoulders topping pattern: The uptrend is broken but we’ll need to see it breach the $5.80 neckline before the topping pattern is confirmed.

From S&P today: Arrears Trends: The Big Picture The Standard & Poor’s Performance Index (SPIN) for Australian prime mortgages rose to 1.15% at the end of fourth quarter (Q4) 2016 from 1.14% in Q3.

Dalian is down the better part of -5% today: But nobody cares as Big Iron has barely budged: Any time iron ore is in the $90s there is only downside.

No worries, mate: On March 20, 2017, we revised our rating outlook on Genworth Financial Mortgage Insurance Pty Ltd. to negative from stable (see “Genworth Australia Outlook Revised To Negative From Stable; Ratings Affirmed At ‘A+’”).