Fitch Ratings reports that Australia's 30-plus day mortgage arrears increased by 12 basis points to 1.13 per cent in 1Q18, compared to the previous quarter. "This is consistent with the seasonal increase in spending during the end-of-year holiday period," Fitch said, noting that arrears for 30-plus days remained nine basis points below 1Q17. Losses from the sale of collateral property during 1Q18 were "extremely low", with lenders' mortgage insurance payments or excess spread covering principal shortfalls in all transactions, Fitch reports. However, prepayment rates have been sitting below 20 per cent for five consecutive quarters - the longest such sequenced since 2011 - reflecting a combination of tighter underwriting standards and regulatory restrictions on annual interest-only and investment-loan growth. Hitting back at opinion pieces by Andrew Bragg, a Business Council of Australia member, Industry Super Australia cited the penalties and remediation paid by banks - the four majors plus Macquarie - from 1 January 2017 to 30 April 2018. The numbers cited totalled A$493 million for "compensation, reimbursements, refunds, payments, and remediation of consumer loss for alleged misconduct including poor financial advice, failure to properly apply fee reductions and charging a fee for advice that was not provided". In addition, the five banks have collectively paid some $30 million in penalties for bank misconduct: "breaching responsible and consumer protection laws, and allegations of contravening market integrity rules and engaging in cartel conduct". Neither list included the $702 million money laundering fine negotiated by CBA with Austrac. Dairy farmers in New Zealand are under increasing financial pressure and their satisfaction with their banks has slipped, according to the Federated Farmers banking survey. The majority of farmers (79 per cent) across all farming sectors are still 'satisfied' or 'very satisfied' with their agri-lenders, a drop from 81 per cent since the 2016 survey. Only 68.2 per cent of dairy sharemilkers, however, rate themselves as satisfied with their bank. There has also been a slight increase in the number of farmers saying they feel "undue pressure" from their bank (for dairy farmers and sharemilkers, this has jumped from 10 per cent to 13.8 per cent). The average mortgage across all farmers is down slightly, but the average dairy farm mortgage has increased from NZ$4.6 million to $5.1 million since 2016.