K: Financial and Insurance Services

Risk of mortgage stress dropped to lowest for three years in January, but is set to increase as interest rates rise in 2026

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Original article by Roy Morgan
Market Research Update – Page: Online : 11-Mar-26

New research from Roy Morgan shows that 23.9% of mortgage holders were ‘At Risk’ of ‘mortgage stress’ in January 2026, down 4% points from August 2025. This is the lowest proportion of mortgage holders ‘At Risk’ of ‘mortgage stress’ since January 2023. The number of Australians ‘At Risk’ of mortgage stress has decreased by 449,000 compared to a year ago, when the RBA began a cycle of interest rate cuts. Meanwhile, the number of Australians considered to be ‘Extremely At Risk’ of mortgage stress is now numbered at 789,000 (15.9% of mortgage holders); this is just below the long-term average over the last two decades of 16.3%. These are the latest findings from Roy Morgan’s Single Source Survey, based on in-depth interviews conducted with over 60,000 Australians each year, including over 10,000 owner-occupied mortgage-holders.

CORPORATES
ROY MORGAN LIMITED, RESERVE BANK OF AUSTRALIA

CBA plans to retrain workers to head off anger over job cuts

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Original article by James Eyers
The Australian Financial Review – Page: 17 : 25-Feb-26

The Commonwealth Bank of Australia will launch a new skills program that aims to retrain its staff and provide them with the AI skills and other expertise that will be needed in the future. CEO Matt Comyn says employers have an obligation to help workers to build up their AI skills, and he argues that Australian companies must embrace AI technology in order to remain internationally competitive. CBA’s focus will be on training staff in areas that will be in demand, with the aim of shifting thousands of workers into higher-value roles. Meanwhile, CBA has advised of another 300 job cuts across its banking and human resources teams, although they have not been specifically linked to AI.

CORPORATES
COMMONWEALTH BANK OF AUSTRALIA – ASX CBA

Elliott drops legal case against ANZ over unpaid bonus

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Original article by Angira Bharadwaj, James Eyers
The Australian Financial Review – Page: 18 : 25-Feb-26

The ANZ Bank withheld some $32m worth of bonuses to some current and former executives in 2025, in response to the regulatory failing that resulted in a record fine. The executives included former CEO Shayne Elliott, who subsequently pursued legal action to recover more than $13.5m in bonuses that had been cancelled. Elliott contended that ANZ had breached the terms of his departure by withholding his bonuses. The bank has welcomed Elliott’s decision to abandon the lawsuit, and has advised that both parties will pay their own legal costs. Elliott is entitled to an additional $8m worth of future bonuses, which may also be in doubt.

CORPORATES
AUSTRALIA AND NEW ZEALAND BANKING GROUP LIMITED – ASX ANZ

Profit season off to unusually strong start

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Original article by Alex Gluyas
The Australian Financial Review – Page: 29 : 18-Feb-26

Banks and resources stocks have been the key drivers of a strong earnings performance so far in the February reporting season. However, there have been mixed earnings outside of these sectors, which has been reflected in share prices; Cochlear and Temple & Webster are the stocks that fell sharply after their latest financial results were below expectations. Hasan Tevfik from MST Marquee notes that overall, there has not been such a strong start to the earnings season since February 2021, when the market was recovering from the impact of the pandemic.

CORPORATES
COCHLEAR LIMITED – ASX COH, TEMPLE AND WEBSTER GROUP LIMITED – ASX TPW, MST MARQUEE

Macquarie’s plan to grab more market share in deposits

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Original article by James Eyers
The Australian Financial Review – Page: 19 : 11-Feb-26

Data from the Australian Prudential Regulation Authority shows that Macquarie Bank’s household deposits topped $100bn for the first time in December. Macquarie’s deposits grew by 3.6 per cent in December, outperforming all other banks. Head of personal banking Ben Perham says Macquarie aims to increase its market share with regard to term deposits, which is curently one per cent; in contrast, its share of transaction and savings accounts is now seven per cent. Meanwhile, its home loan market share has risen to 6.8 per cent, and Perham says it is approving mortgage loans "considerably faster" than other lenders.

CORPORATES
MACQUARIE BANK LIMITED, MACQUARIE GROUP LIMITED – ASX MQG, AUSTRALIAN PRUDENTIAL REGULATION AUTHORITY

Interest rate increases set to hit mortgage holders in Victoria, Queensland, and Tasmania the hardest

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Original article by Roy Morgan
Market Research Update – Page: Online : 10-Feb-26

The most recent Roy Morgan data on mortgage stress shows that 24.5% of mortgage holders are now ‘At Risk’ of mortgage stress. Last week’s interest rate rise is expected to increase this to 25.3%, and a 25 basis point interest rate rise in March to 4.1% would increase this to 27.2% (1,322,000 mortgage holders). A deep dive into Roy Morgan’s data on mortgage stress by State shows that the situation is worst in Tasmania; 29.8% of mortgage holders are classified as ‘At Risk’, and this will increase by 3.8% points to 32.6% if the Reserve Bank increases interest rates again in March. In clear second place is Victoria with 27.2% of mortgage holders classified as ‘At Risk’ and set to increase to 29.9% (up 2.7% points) following another RBA interest rate increase. However, a potential RBA interest rate increase will hit hardest in Queensland and would mean 26.8% of mortgage holders are ‘At Risk’ – an increase of 3.2% points. Overall, 17.1% of mortgage holders are ‘Extremely At Risk’, and this will increase by 2.4% points to 19.5% if the Reserve Bank increases interest rates in March (947,000 mortgage holders).

CORPORATES
ROY MORGAN LIMITED, RESERVE BANK OF AUSTRALIA

Super fund satisfaction rises to new record highs driven by record highs for Retail Funds and Industry Funds

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Original article by Roy Morgan
Market Research Update – Page: Online : 4-Feb-26

New data from Roy Morgan’s Superannuation Satisfaction Report shows an overall super fund satisfaction with financial performance rating of 78.8% in December 2025. This is an increase of 10.4% points from a year ago and up 13.8% points from the post-pandemic low of 65.0% in July 2023. Superannuation satisfaction is now 19.2% points above the long-term average of 59.6% since 2007. There has been significant improvement across all four categories of super funds over the last year; the largest increase is for Retail Funds, with customer satisfaction up 10.5% points to a new record high of 75.6%. Customer satisfaction for Industry Funds has risen by 9.6% points to 78.9% in the last year, which is also a record high. Customer satisfaction with Public Sector Funds is up 9.8% points to 83.6%, and now clearly the highest of any of the four categories, while customer satisfaction with Self-Managed Funds is up 3.1% points to 80.4%. The report’s findings are from Roy Morgan Single Source, Australia’s most trusted consumer survey, compiled by in-depth interviews with over 60,000 Australians each year.

CORPORATES
ROY MORGAN LIMITED

AI leads Australian start-ups’ $5b funding boom

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Original article by Tess Bennett
The Australian Financial Review – Page: 15 : 3-Feb-26

Funding for Australian technology start-ups increased by $1 billion to $5.1 billion last year, according to the State of Australian Start-up Funding report. Investments linked to artificial intelligence dominated funding, with 61 per cent going to start-ups using AI in their product offerings, while the 20 biggest deals accounted for 58 per cent of the total capital deployed. Commenting on the 2025 figures, Airtree Ventures partner James Cameron said VC sentiment was "buoyant" again after a subdued couple of years, while diversity among funded start-ups still remains a major issue; all-female founding teams received just two per cent of total capital invested in 2025

CORPORATES
AIRTREE VENTURES PTY LTD

Big deals put bourse at risk of shrinking

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Original article by Alex Gluyas
The Australian Financial Review – Page: 24 : 29-Jan-26

MST analyst Hasan Tevfik says that several big merger proposals mean that the Australian sharemarket is risk of ‘de-equitising’ in 2026 . This occurs when the value of shares removed from the market via buybacks, takeovers and de-listings exceeds new capital raised by listed companies and via IPOs; this has not happened since 2005, when News Corporation moved its primary listing from the ASX to New York. BlueScope Steel and Qube Holdings are among the companies that are currently the subject of takeover bids, while Tevfik notes that the ASX’s equitisation would take a big hit if Rio Tinto acquires Glencore and opts to scrap its dual listing in Australia.

CORPORATES
MST MARQUEEBLUESCOPE STEEL LIMITED – ASX BSLQUBE HOLDINGS LIMITED – ASX QUBRIO TINTO LIMITED – ASX RIOGLENCORE PLC

Risk of mortgage stress drops to lowest for three years, but rising inflation poses a risk of interest rates heading up in 2026

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Original article by Roy Morgan
Market Research Update – Page: Online : 29-Jan-26

New research from Roy Morgan shows that 24.5% of mortgage holders were ‘At Risk’ of ‘mortgage stress’ in the three months to December 2025, down 3.4% points from August. This is the lowest proportion of mortgage holders ‘At Risk’ of ‘mortgage stress’ since January 2023. The number of Australians ‘At Risk’ of mortgage stress has increased by 380,000 since May 2022, when the Reserve Bank of Australia began a cycle of interest rate increases. Meanwhile, the number of Australians considered to be ‘Extremely At Risk’ of mortgage stress is now numbered at 830,000 (17.1% of mortgage holders); this is just above the long-term average over the last two decades of 16.3%. These are the latest findings from Roy Morgan’s Single Source Survey, based on in-depth interviews conducted with over 60,000 Australians each year, including over 10,000 owner-occupied mortgage-holders.

CORPORATES
ROY MORGAN LIMITEDRESERVE BANK OF AUSTRALIA