AMP Bank has launched an issue of residential mortgage-backed securities, seeking A$500 million of funds. Progress 2016-1 Trust is backed by a pool of prime residential mortgages, with the majority of the exposure (72.3 per cent) to metropolitan property markets. All loans are covered by lenders mortgage insurance. Westpac has refunded approximately A$9.2 million to almost 200,000 customers after it failed to waive fees on Westpac and St George branded savings and transaction accounts for eligible customers. Westpac reported what seemed to be a straightforward matter to ASIC under its breach reporting obligations in the Corporations Act, and the Group has now provided refunds to affected customers. The refund payments included an additional amount reflecting interest. In a media release, ASIC said the account opening process for Westpac and St George products had been improved to ensure that all new eligible customers received the relevant fee waivers. Australian small businesses could receive up to $25,000 each by increasing business efficiencies and sharing innovative ideas on how to boost business growth. The Tyro Smart Growth Grant program will see up to ten small to medium-sized businesses receive grants worth a total of up to $250,000. "Our research tells us that inefficient business banking processes cost small businesses on average $7,800 per year, or almost $7 billion nationally," said Tyro CEO Jost Stollmann. Along with efficiency, swift access to working capital is the most important driver of competitive growth for Australian SMEs, he observed. Fitch has affirmed the ratings of the New Zealand units of Commonwealth Bank, National Australia Bank, Westpac and ANZ, and has kept their ratings stable. Fitch said there was a risk of a correction in Auckland house prices, but the banks had strong profitability and regulatory moves to increase Loan to Value Ratios had strengthened balance sheets. However, Fitch noted that profit growth was likely to weaken because of Australian rules forcing banks to rely more on expensive local term deposits for funding. Following on from yesterday's Banking Day note, we can report that Westpac has priced A$1 billion of ten-year senior unsecured floating rate medium term notes. Due 15 Sep 2017, the notes carry a coupon of three month +43 basis points over the bank bill rate, exactly in line with all the other Big Four banks. The notes are expected to be rated AA- by S&P and Aa2 by Moody's. The sole lead manager is Westpac Institutional Bank.