Australian banks

From the AFR: The National Australia Bank has joined the three other big Australian banks to curb lending to foreign property buyers without domestic incomes.

Some days equities really are amusing.

Bremain continues to be priced with shares broadly up.

It makes no sense at all but big iron is up today is Dalian rises 3%.

S&P is out with its monthly RMBS arrears data and the news is a little discomforting. S&P puts on a smile: The number of Australian housing loans in arrears rose for the sixth consecutive month in April for prime residential mortgage-backed securities (RMBS), as measured by Standard & Poor’s Performance Index (SPIN).

Big iron ore is getting hit today for no obvious reason.

According to Wikipaedia “chaos theory is a branch of mathematics that deals with complex systems whose behaviour is highly sensitive to slight changes in conditions, so that small alterations can give rise to strikingly great consequences”.

From David Murray today at the AFR: The idea that the major banks should be broken up should be considered in the context of the unique features of the Australian economy.

From Banking Day: Specialist mortgage lender Firstmac is on the hunt for an equity investor and another option on realising a vision to transform into a bank.

Big iron is up today following a 5 point rise in Dalian futures with BHP 0.7%, RIO 0.8% and FMG 2.5%.

From Mac Bank: Event  Our mystery shopping highlighted that banks have tightened their lending standards over the last 12 months. We believe these changes combined with further risk of tightening (i.e., interest-only loans to owner-occupiers) will likely result in ongoing pressure on the outlook for banks’ volume growth.

Big iron is up today following London’s stupid session with BHP 1.7%, RIO 1.4% and FMG 2.4% despite its huge discounting.

Big iron is taking it in the team again today as BHP and RIO fall -1.8% while FMG continues its delusional levitation at -1.3%: Dalian has recovered a couple of points from overnight.

Martin Wolf at the FT assess Brexit fallout today: Its main scenario is that gross domestic product would be 3.6 per cent lower after two years than if the UK voted to stay, unemployment 520,000 higher and the pound 12 per cent lower.

I would not have thought it possible a few months ago but Australian bank funding costs have fallen below those in Europe as Brexit occupies global market’s risk matrix.

The Australian Prudential Regulatory Authority (APRA) is currently the single most important macroeconomic manager in the country.

Big iron is trying to rally today but largely failing after weakish overnight action in Dalian (which seems closed today).

From the AFR: Commonwealth Bank of Australia, the nation’s largest lender, is planning to cut investment property interest rates and slash minimum loans by more than 90 per cent, triggering claims by rivals of a price war between property investment lenders.

From the AFR: Lenders are offering new property investment deals that test the limits of the regulator’s 10 per cent speed bump, fuelling fears that recent rate cuts might be inflating a property bubble. The warnings conflict with the Reserve Bank of Australia’s (RBA) assurances that the recent rebound in demand will not last.

Because it sells…semiconductors?