Exit fee ban sticks

The ban on exit fees on home loans will come into force from the beginning of July, after the Senate voted yesterday to uphold the regulations. read more

Australasia lays out pre-paid payment dream

EMerchants, the kernel of a new deposit-taking entity being established by a group of Perth-based entrepreneurs, generated revenue of only A$1 million in the 2010 financial year, its ninth year of t.. read more

Card-not-present fraud keeps increasing

Trends in fraud on payment cards in Australia are sticking to the script. Fraud is rising on credit cards and scheme debit, and falling on Eftpos. The chief culprit in the rising trend is card-not-pre.. read more

Bitcoin battered, not beaten

Bitcoin, a faddish, alternative currency that briefly attracted claims to being "one of the top-returning assets of any kind" (according to Dow Jones) has taken a fall. read more

17% interest earned on interest-free loans

Certegy, a provider of merchant finance, is earning an effective interest rate of 17 per cent on loans marketed to consumers as "interest-free". In some cases the interest rate is as high as 65 per.. read more

Big Sky seeks friendly merger

Australian Unity is in talks with Big Sky Credit Union over a possible merger that would provide a fresh start for the former in developing a niche banking business to complement its investment mana.. read more

Credit cycle twists for banks

The credit cycle for banks is not so much turning, as twisting, with industry-wide data showing an improving trend in the level of impaired assets as well as a persistent worsening in the level of o.. read more

Bank fees rise for business in 2010

Big business in the main, but also, albeit to a lesser extent, small business paid much more in bank fees in 2010, according to separate analyses published yesterday by the Australian Bankers Associ.. read more