Briefs: RateSetter to offer secured loans, Auswide issues first FRN, RBA on credit card rates, A$ bo 20 August 2015 4:18PM Banking Day staff Briefs, Peer-to-peer lender RateSetter has expanded its product set, with the addition of a secured personal loan. Since its launch in Australia last November, RateSetter has written A$7 million of unsecured loans. The company said a borrower would save around $1000 on a three-year $15,000 secured loan, compared with the unsecured equivalent. RateSetter has also entered into a referral arrangement with the car finance broker Stratton. Auswide Bank has completed its first issue of senior unsecured floating rate notes, raising A$25 million. Auswide will pay a margin of 65 basis points over the bank bill swap rate on the 12-month securities. Auswide managing director Martin Barrett said in a statement that the issue provided the bank with cost-effective funding diversification. Specialist investment firm Laminar Capital was the lead manager. The Reserve Bank says the big banks have boosted margins on their A$9 billion credit card income by 3 percentage points since the global financial crisis because the notoriously "sticky" interest rates on cards haven't reduced in line with lower bank funding costs.The central bank said interest rates spiked on cards and personal loans after the GFC and have not fallen since, the AFR notes, basing its views on the RBA's submission to the Senate inquiry into card interest rates. Australia will move to T+2 settlements for fixed income products on 7 March 2016, speeding up the secondary bond market settlement process by one day. The Australian Financial Markets Association said yesterday this change would reduce counterparty and systemic risk and bring Australia in line with key trading partner economies. Michael Go, AFMA's head of markets, said the change complemented the ASX's move to T+2 settlement for cash equities and New Zealand's move to T+2 for cash equities and fixed income. Origination settlement cycles and conventions for government and corporate bonds remain the same. Mortgage aggregator, Connective, is planning to launch a new "retail aggregation offering" called iConnect Financial, starting in NSW and Victoria this year, with plans to go national in early 2016. The "brand" is to rely on what Connective has promised in a media release will be "a strong online and digital platform, with a focus on consumer education driven lead generation and best practice digital marketing." None of these terms were defined the media release, presumably to encourage curious brokers to register their interest with Connective.