The International Accounting Standards Board has issued the final version of a long-awaited standard on the classification and measurement of financial assets, including impairment and provisioning for bad debts, which supplements the 2013 hedge accounting principles. Known as IFRS 9 Financial Instruments, this completes a project launched in 2008 in response to the financial crisis. The profession hoped for a single globally converged standard, but the IASB and US standard-setter FASB were not able to reach agreement. Paul Lichtenstein, KPMG Financial Risk Management Partner, said banks' provisions for bad debts would be larger and more volatile, although APRA's regulatory scrutiny of provisioning levels and the traditionally conservative approaches taken by Australian banks meant the impact on them was likely to be less pronounced than in many other countries.  Credit Suisse analysts said comments by RBA Governor Glenn Stevens suggesting the Bank was concerned about property price inflation feeding into credit growth may mean the RBA was unlikely to cut rates further, even though that would be a valid response to a cyclical slowdown. If, on the other hand, the RBA wanted to raise rates, Credit Suisse said the peak would occur "below 3.5 per cent" as mortgages are larger and disposable income not keeping up. CS analysts estimated household debt servicing payments at 21 per cent of disposable income, and rising. A 100 basis points rate rise would lift the debt-servicing ratio to the financial crisis peak of 23 per cent, a level viewed as unsustainable. Brian Hartzer, head of Westpac's Australian Financial Services division, says banks should try to act like start-up companies if they are to thrive in an era of sweeping technological change. "Disruption happens when businesses don't pay close enough attention to the needs of their customers," he said in a speech to the Centre for Economic Development of Australia, reported by the Australian Financial Review. "We also know that new business models are developing - and they won't fit neatly inside our current operating model." Last month the co-founder of technology firm Atlassian, Mike Cannon-Brookes, described bank profitability as "insanity". He said other companies, including payments firm Tyro where he is a director, were targeting the potentially lucrative market.