With its macro-prudential controls underway, the Reserve Bank of New Zealand has started collecting more data on new mortgages, showing exactly how much lending is for first home buyers, owner occupiers and rental property investors. Unlike in Australia, where the Australian Bureau of Statistics produces monthly housing finance figures, this is a new move for RBNZ. In a media briefing, Bank officials said they expected to publish a more detailed break-down of mortgage flow data later this year. The Reserve Bank has also asked banks to work out whether mortgages are being used to fund the home mortgage borrowers' small businesses. Data published by the ABS yesterday, covering ownership of Australian State government bonds (semis) to the end of the December 2013 quarter shows banks purchased A$3.1 billion of semis over the quarter to a reach a record total holding of A$90.8 billion. After eight quarters of net buying since the beginning of 2012, Australian banks now hold around 41.9 per cent of all semis on issue, up from 41.4 per cent in Q3. A moderation in buying was interpreted by ANZ interest rate strategist, Zoë McHugh, as an indication that banks were nearing their target level holdings of semis ahead of the Basel III deadline on 1 January. The RBA also increased its holdings of semis in the quarter. In its latest "structured Thinking" notes to clients, Moody's Investors Service has suggested that Australia's new comprehensive credit reporting system will initially improve the origination quality of residential and asset backed securities and covered bond transactions. New ABS transactions containing unsecured consumer loans will the most affected because the lenders' own underwriting processes are not always as extensive as for mortgage lenders. Longer term, Moody's expects competition among lenders to increase, which will lead to a slight deterioration in origination policies and loan performance. Moody's also estimated it will take lenders an additional nine months to collect a full 24 months of data, and a further year for lenders to start changing underwriting policies.