Credit not driving housing price climb

The Reserve Bank of Australia is not accepting any thesis that looser credit conditions are driving the, admittedly patchy, rises in housing prices around Australia. "The upswing in housing asset va.. read more

Bank funding costs ease

Bank funding costs "have declined a little relative to the cash rate", the Reserve Bank of Australia says in its latest quarterly Statement on Monetary Policy. read more

Fifty cents a fair late payment fee

Both ANZ and the plaintiffs in the class action over penalty fees are likely to appeal after the Federal Court ruled partly in favour of each party in a piece of landmark litigation delivered yester.. read more

Class action funders seek more claimants

A key feature of the judgement in the ANZ fees class action case is that late payment fees charged more than six years ago may be claimed and are not barred by the statute of limitations. Financial.. read more

Margins motivated bank on exception fees

ANZ "well knew that the level of exception fees it charged was well above 'cost recovery'," Federal Court judge Justice Michelle Gordon said in concluding the ANZ fees class action case. read more

Plaintiffs' experts preferred by court

Other banks defending class actions over penalty fees will want to take notice of the Federal Court's preference for the expert evidence of the plaintiffs' consultant, Paul Regan, of the Californian.. read more

Property cycle aids Genworth

Rising property prices helped to improve the financial metrics for mortgage insurer Genworth in the final quarter of 2013, with the loss ratio halving over the year. read more

Experienced local vendors preferred for NPP

The process for selecting vendors for the New Payments Platform is chugging along, with the Australian Payments Clearing Association spelling out the pre-qualification method yesterday "to validate.. read more

Savings a struggle for many

Most Australian households have a relatively low stock of cash savings, and thus little scope to deal with an emergency, a periodic analysis by ME Bank, produced by the Economics & Beyond and Ba.. read more