The slump in the volume and value of payments handled by the RBA in May is a dire reminder of the credit shocks going off across Australian business.
Rarely singled-out as the tell-all indicator that it is, the value of Real-time Gross Settlements whizzing through the Reserve Bank’s systems are at red-alert readings.
The value of payments handled in May slumped to A$203 billion, 73 per cent of the value processed in March and 75 per cent of the value, in each case looking at the monthly daily average, which is what the RBA report.
The number of SWIFT payments (for foreign trade and welfare) was 74 per cent of that in March.
In April, ATM payments volume and value tanked by 39 per cent and 30 per cent respectively.
The number of domestic cash withdrawals by credit and charge cards in April was down by 47 per cent compared with March, and only 43 per cent of the value initiated by Australians in the feckless days of last December.
There is little recent good news to be found in Australian banking and scant reason to think much has changed or will do so.
NFI is the essence of the briefings big bank CEOs are sharing with their boards as the scale and severity of the forbearance loans for business piling up on their balance sheets.
No spending, no income and no sense that bank dividend flows might restart any time soon.