Briefs: ME Bank prices bonds, business confidence mixed, pressure on life insurance premiums, ING Di 12 November 2014 4:56PM Banking Day staff Briefs, ME Bank yesterday priced a new A$200m senior unsecured three-year transaction. The notes priced at 100 basis points over the three-month bank bill swap. ME Bank is rated BBB+ by Standard & Poor's and A3 by Moody's. Joint lead managers were ANZ, Commonwealth Bank, Deutsche Bank and Westpac Institutional Bank. NAB's business survey for October shows that "borrowing conditions improved, but demand for credit was unchanged in past three months," while "no borrowing required" remains the most common response of firms asked. Roy Morgan Research said in its monthly business confidence survey that banks, like all business, must respond to "a more pessimistic outlook for the Australian economy and their own businesses over the next 12 months." Roy Morgan's confidence index declined by eight points to 114.9 in October, from September, which was the lowest level since June. Business confidence is now 16 per cent below the spike following the election of the Coalition government in 2013. Life insurance companies, some owned by banks, may benefit from widespread user ignorance of pricing pressure on premiums. According to a recent survey by Aon Hewitt Superannuation and Insurance: "Australian companies need to assume that insurance premiums are going up, and the risk for companies is that the increases are potentially substantial." The survey showed that premiums have doubled in some cases. Ashley Palmer, principal and actuary with Aon Hewitt's retirement team said "many organisations are unaware that premium increases are on the cards because they have 'premium guarantees' in place. They may therefore not be informed of the increases in premiums by their insurer or super fund until the guarantee is due to expire." ING Direct is doing well with its Living Super product. Deposits increased by A$777 million over 18 months to reach $1 billion in funds under management. IFA reported on the latest data yesterday. ING chief Vaughn Richtor told IFA this was a bit more than his superannuation team had budgeted for in its business case. Of Living Super's 9335 customers, two-thirds were existing ING Direct customers and the rest were new to the bank, Richtor said. He told IFA the bank had also done good business with its transaction account, Orange Everyday, which had a 50 per cent increase in account openings last year. Arrears on prime loans within Australian residential mortgage-backed securities were at their lowest level in seven years in September 2014, slipping below one per cent, Standard & Poor's said. Loans in arrears greater than 30 days underlying prime RMBS decreased by 11 basis points to 0.98 per cent in September. Sub-prime RMBS arrears increased 64 bps to 5.23 per cent. Wide Bay Australia has cut its variable rate to 4.65 per cent from 5.30 per cent on new home loans of more than A$150,000. The comparison rate is 5.03 per cent, with loans available on loan-to-valuation ratios of less than 80 per cent. Loans.com.au still has the lowest home loan rate of 4.48 per cent (4.50 per cent comparison). Westpac New Zealand has released a new money management app developed by the winners of its crowd sourcing initiative, the Westpac Global App Challenge - UK. The mobile app uses 3D technology and allows customers to see how much they have spent on their credit card in the last five weeks, when credit card payments are due, their last five purchases and the balance on their loyalty card. The app is initially available on iPhones, but Westpac said an Android version was planned.