K62 Finance

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.

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ROY MORGAN LIMITEDRESERVE BANK OF AUSTRALIA

Big four banks cash in on zero interest

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Original article by Max Aitchison
The Australian – Page: 13 & 14 : 21-Jan-26

Analysis by Jarden shows that customers of Australia’s four major banks hold a combined $320bn in transaction and business accounts that do not pay any interest. This equates to about 10 per cent of each of the four major banks’ total deposits, and nearly 20 per cent of the estimated $1.7trn in deposits held by all of the nation’s lenders. Jarden’s analysis also shows that the four big banks’ implied earnings from zero-interest accounts have risen sharply in recent years. Matt Wilson from Jarden says the major banks have benefited from customer loyalty and inertia in recent years; he adds that this may change in 2026, and customers may begin seeking better deals for their bank deposits.

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JARDEN GROUP LIMITED

Big four banks slammed over deposit deception for savings

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Original article by Max Aitchison
The Australian – Page: 13 & 14 : 20-Jan-26

Research published in 2023 showed that two-thirds of customers at Australia’s four major banks are not earning the maxium interest rate on savings accounts that offer bonus rates. Data released by National Australia in response to a written request from Liberal MP Aaron Violi shows that this situation has not changed since then; NAB revealed that only 34 per cent of customers with a Reward Saver account earned the advertised bonus interest rate of 4.15 per cent in the last six months. Violi has called for an end to this ‘deposit deception’ and contends that all banks should be more transparent and remove hurdles to ensure that the majority of customers with such accounts can earn the maximum bonus interest rate.

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NATIONAL AUSTRALIA BANK LIMITED – ASX NAB

Festive shoppers left with $90bn debt hangover

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Original article by Cameron Micallef
The Australian – Page: 20 : 7-Jan-26

Australians’ credit card debt has increased every January since 2015. Canstar’s analysis of credit card data from the Reserve Bank suggests that consumers are likely to have spent about $86.8bn using credit cards since the start of November; based on trends over the last five years, an additional $28.9bn is likely to be spent using credit cards for the full month of January. Meanwhile, it is estimated that Australians now pay a combined $9.4m in credit card interest charges each day. Canstar notes that interest-free periods may be much shorter than the advertised length, depending on whether a purchase was made near the end of a card-holder’s billing cycle.

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CANSTAR PTY LTD, RESERVE BANK OF AUSTRALIA

Commonwealth Bank bows to ASIC pressure with $68m in fee refunds

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Original article by Angira Bharadwaj
The Australian Financial Review – Page: Online : 24-Dec-25

The Commonwealth Bank of Australia has belatedly agreed to provide a partial refund to low-income customers who were charged high fees despite being eligible for low or no-fee bank accounts. A report from the Australian Securities & Investments Commission in mid-2024 found that welfare recipients had paid $270m in "excessive" fees to the CBA since 2019. ASIC also found that Westpac, Bendigo Bank and the ANZ Bank had charged excessive fees, although they agreed to provide a refund to affected customers. CBA has now advised that it will provide $68m worth of ‘goodwill’ refunds to these customers in early February; it had already paid about $25m in refunds to Indigenous customers in response to the report.

CORPORATES
COMMONWEALTH BANK OF AUSTRALIA – ASX CBA, asic use AUSTRALIAN SECURITIES AND INVESTMENTS COMMISSION, WESTPAC BANKING CORPORATION – ASX WBC, BENDIGO BANK, AUSTRALIA AND NEW ZEALAND BANKING GROUP LIMITED – ASX ANZ

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

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