Briefs: ABS performance stable, Big Sky appoints new head of operations, life expectancy lengthens, 11 November 2014 4:24PM Banking Day staff Briefs, Losses on asset-backed securities in Australia are pretty stable, Fitch Ratings said yesterday. The annualised net-loss rate remained steady at 0.48 per cent during the September 2014 quarter. Fitch said it expected net losses to rise over the next 12 months, to the 18-month average of 0.5 per cent, "as losses from less seasoned transactions begin to flow through." Delinquencies dropped 19 basis points to 0.95 per cent, it said. Macquarie Leasing is the primary originator of ABS securities. Big Sky Building Society has appointed Matthew Chan as its new head of operations and projects. Chan joins Big Sky from ANZ where he has held a number of senior roles in both Melbourne and Hong Kong over the past 12 years. He has also worked as a research analyst in mining and energy, and as an exploration geologist. Big Sky accounted for A$700 million in assets and 17 per cent of the Australian Unity groups portfolio for the financial year for 2014. Life expectancy is lengthening in Australia, the Australian Bureau of Statistics said last week. For males life expectancy increased from 77.8 years in 2003 to 79.9 years in 2012 and then to 80.1 years in 2013. For females it was 82.8 years in 2003 and then 84.3 years in both 2012 and 2013. Heartland New Zealand, the bank formed through the merger of Canterbury and Southern Cross building societies with Marac Finance, has hired Kiwibank executive Richard Lorraway as its new chief risk officer. Lorraway has held the same position at Kiwibank for the past three years, and will take on the new position at Heartland next March, the bank said in a statement. Last month Heartland affirmed its 2015 earnings guidance for annual profit of between $42 million to $45 million in the 12 months ending June 30, 2015, compared with profit of $36 million in the 2014 year (reprinted from Business Desk). The governor of the Bank of England, Mark Carney, has been reappointed as chairman of the international standards body, the Financial Stability Board. Carney was first appointed FSB chairman in November 2011. His new term is for three years. ME Bank launched a new new senior unsecured three-year bond yesterday. The bank is rated BBB+ by Standard & Poor's and A3 by Moody's and the issue is expected to price today. Joint lead managers are ANZ, Commonwealth Bank, Deutsche Bank and Westpac Institutional Bank. ANZ chief executive Mike Smith, who will lead the B20 financing growth taskforce at the G20 Summit in Brisbane this week, has told The Australian that "a number of banks" are getting out of correspondent banking relationships in emerging markets because of the anti-money laundering and counter-terrorism financing crackdown that is currently underway. Smith said there was "perceived reputational risk" in operating in some markets and this was having the unintended consequence of increasing financial exclusion in some emerging markets.