K: Financial and Insurance Services

Banks abandon plan to mothball payment system by 2030

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Original article by James Eyers
The Australian Financial Review – Page: 14 : 17-Dec-25

AusPayNet’s chairman John Brogden has advised that it has postponed plans to decomission the Bulk Electronic Clearing System by mid-2030. Financial payments are processed in batches overnight via BECS; however, it was to be phased out in favour of the New Payments Platform, which processes such transactions in real-time. AusPayNet’s decision follows discussions with banks, large companies and government departments, which expressed concern that the NPP may not be ready to handle bulk payments by the former deadline.

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AUSPAYNET

Super funds told to help bailout plan

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Original article by Lucas Baird
The Australian Financial Review – Page: 15 & 19 : 10-Dec-25

The federal government will require the superannuation sector to contribute to the Compensation Scheme of Last Resort for the first time. The government intends to impose a ‘special levy’ on the super industry to help cover the scheme’s expected funding shortfall of $47.3m for the current financial year. Banks, financial advisers and stockbrokers are amongst the financial services providers that usually fund the CSLR via a levy. There has been ongoing concern about the viability of the CSLR since it was established to compensate refund victims of financial misconduct in cases where the provider is insolvent or otherwise lacks the capacity to pay.

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Risk of mortgage stress drops to lowest since February 2023 following RBA interest rate cut in August to 3.6%

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Original article by Roy Morgan
Market Research Update – Page: Online : 26-Nov-25

New research from Roy Morgan shows that 25.3% of mortgage holders were ‘At Risk’ of ‘mortgage stress’ in the three months to October 2025, down 2.6% points from August. This is the lowest share of mortgage holders ‘At Risk’ of ‘mortgage stress’ since February 2023, when the share ‘At Risk’ first rose above one-in-four mortgage holders (where it has stayed ever since). The number of Australians ‘At Risk’ of mortgage stress has increased by 518,000 since May 2022, when the RBA 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 903,000 (17.3% of mortgage holders), which is 1% point 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.

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ROY MORGAN LIMITED

Trust in banking and finance industries – including all big four banks – increases significantly over the last 12 months

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Original article by Roy Morgan
Market Research Update – Page: Online : 12-Nov-25

Roy Morgan measures trust and distrust across 27 industries and over 200 key Australian brands on an ongoing basis. A special deep dive into trust and distrust in the banking and finance industry shows a remarkable recovery in levels of trust and a reduction in distrust for the industry over the last 12 months. The Banking industry itself is now the 14th most trusted industry in Australia, up 10 spots from a year ago, lifted higher by rising trust and decreasing distrust in the big four banks. In addition, the Insurance industry is up five spots and is now the 12th most trusted industry. The Payments, Cards and Loans industry is up three places to 7th and the Superannuation and Wealth Management industry is up three positions to 6th overall. These four industries have improved more than any other sectors over the last 12 months.

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ROY MORGAN LIMITED

Majority of mortgage holders who live alone or as single parents experience mortgage stress

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Original article by Roy Morgan
Market Research Update – Page: Online : 29-Oct-25

Roy Morgan’s Single Source research shows that 52.3% of owner-occupier mortgage holders who live alone or are single parents are ‘At Risk’ of mortgage stress, while 36.0% are ‘Extremely at Risk’. Many more women than men are impacted; an estimated 205,000 ‘single female’ mortgage holders were ‘At Risk’ of mortgage stress in the 12 months to June 2025 compared with 108,000 ‘single male’ mortgage holders. More single women were also ‘Extremely at Risk’ of mortgage stress (137,000), compared with 74,000 single male mortgage holders. The substantially higher number of single female mortgage holders at risk of mortgage stress is not only due to single women being more likely to be at risk of mortgage stress, but also due to there being more single women than single men among mortgage holders; nearly twice as many mortgage holders are single women (6.8%) as single men (4.1%). While single women are more likely to be at ‘Extreme Risk’ of mortgage stress than ‘single men’, the gap is greatest among those aged under 34, where the income gap between men and women is greater.

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ROY MORGAN LIMITED

Risk of mortgage stress drops to lowest since February 2023 after RBA cuts interest rates to 3.6% in August

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Original article by Roy Morgan
Market Research Update – Page: Online : 22-Oct-25

New research from Roy Morgan shows that 25.9% of mortgage holders (1,361,000) were ‘At Risk’ of ‘mortgage stress’ in the three months to September 2025, down 2% points from August. This is the lowest share of mortgage holders ‘At Risk’ of ‘mortgage stress’ since February 2023 when the share first rose above 25% of mortgage holders (where it has stayed ever since). The number of Australians ‘At Risk’ of mortgage stress has increased by 554,000 since May 2022, when the RBA 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 858,000 (16.3% of mortgage holders) which is in line with the long-term average over the last two decades (also 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.

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ROY MORGAN LIMITED

Risk of mortgage stress remains high despite interest rate cut in mid-August

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Original article by Roy Morgan
Market Research Update – Page: Online : 1-Oct-25

New research from Roy Morgan shows that 27.9% of mortgage holders were ‘At Risk’ of ‘mortgage stress’ in the three months to August 2025, down only 0.5% points from June. The share of mortgage holders ‘At Risk’ of ‘mortgage stress’ has been above 25% since February 2023, despite three interest rate cuts so far this year. The number of Australians ‘At Risk’ of mortgage stress has increased by 616,000 since May 2022, when the RBA began a cycle of interest rate increases. Meanwhile, the number of Australians considered ‘Extremely At Risk’ of mortgage stress is now numbered at 915,000 (17.9% of mortgage holders), which is significantly above the long-term average over the last 10 years of 14.8%. 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.

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ROY MORGAN LIMITED

Westpac cuts 200 teller jobs for digital

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Original article by David Ross
The Australian – Page: 15 : 24-Sep-25

Westpac is set to retrench 200 of its bank tellers as part of its latest restructuring program. The Finance Sector Union’s national secretary Julia Angrisano says it is "callous and short sighted" for Westpac to get staff to migrate customers to its digital services and then sack them. She adds that the FSU will hold Westpac to account "every step of the way", arguing that workers whose roles are cut must be re-skilled and redeployed, rather than discarded. Angrisano adds that Westpac only agreed to establish a $5m development fund for displaced staff due to pressure from the FSU, and that there has been no clarity as to how this fund will work and whether it will genuinely protect jobs.

CORPORATES
WESTPAC BANKING CORPORATION – ASX WBC, FINANCE SECTOR UNION

Buybacks boom but investors see a downside

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Original article by Cecile Lefort
The Australian Financial Review – Page: 27 : 24-Sep-25

Recent data from MST Marquee showed that a record 47 companies in the benchmark S&P/ASX 200 have announced plans for share buybacks this year; this compares with just 10 in 2020. However, analysis shows that there has been a decline in the share prices of seven out of 12 companies that undertook buybacks in late 2024. Luke McMillan from Ophir Asset Management says buybacks can be a better option than dividends for returning excess cash to shareholders, given that they expect dividends to increase each year.

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MST MARQUEE, STANDARD AND POOR’S ASX 200 INDEX, OPHIR ASSET MANAGEMENT PTY LTD

Investors back Matos to clean up the ANZ mess

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

The ANZ Bank’s share price fell by just 0.6 per cent on Tuesday, despite growing scrutiny over the lender in the wake of a recorded $240m financial penalty for misconduct. Montgomery Investment Management’s chairman Roger Montgomery says investors are betting that the strategy of ANZ’s relatively new CEO Nuno Matos will succeed in closing the valuation gap with its peers. Jon Mott from Barrenjoey in turn says Matos has a clear mandate to implement his turnaround strategy.

CORPORATES
AUSTRALIA AND NEW ZEALAND BANKING GROUP LIMITED – ASX ANZ, MONTGOMERY INVESTMENT MANAGEMENT PTY LTD, BARRENJOEY CAPITAL PARTNERS PTY LTD