K: Financial and Insurance Services

Interest-only loans plummet as banks clamp down on mortgage risk

roymorgansocial Leave a comment

Original article by Michael Roddan
The Australian – Page: 13 & 14 : 16-Jan-18

New data suggests that the Australian Prudential Regulation Authority’s crackdown on interest-only mortgage loans is having an impact. Australian Fin­ancial Group’s latest mortgage index shows that 19 per cent of new mortgage loans in the December 2017 quarter were interest-only loans, compared with 47 per cent for the corresponding period in 2016. However, the size of the average mortgage loan rose by 2.8 per cent nationwide in the year to November, and by 4.3 per cent in Victoria.

CORPORATES
AUSTRALIAN PRUDENTIAL REGULATION AUTHORITY, AUSTRALIAN FINANCE GROUP LIMITED – ASX AFG, MACQUARIE GROUP LIMITED – ASX MQG, AUSTRALIAN SECURITIES AND INVESTMENTS COMMISSION, DIGITAL FINANCE ANALYTICS, MOODY’S INVESTORS SERVICE INCORPORATED

Resurgent Aussie dollar heads back above US80c as commodity prices boom

roymorgansocial Leave a comment

Original article by David Rogers
The Australian – Page: 13 & 18 : 16-Jan-18

The Australian dollar rose above $US0.79 in local trading on 15 January, and National Australia Bank estimates that the currency’s fair value in the near-term is $US0.80. Ray ­Attrill of NAB says the currency could reach its 2017 peak of $US0.8125 unless the US dollar rebounds, while Sean Callow of Westpac is also upbeat about the currency’s near-term outlook. Aside from US dollar weakness, the Australian dollar has benefited from a rally in the price of key commodities over the last month.

CORPORATES
NATIONAL AUSTRALIA BANK LIMITED – ASX NAB, WESTPAC BANKING CORPORATION – ASX WBC, RESERVE BANK OF AUSTRALIA, IG MARKETS LIMITED, UNITED STATES. FEDERAL RESERVE BOARD

US inflation stirs global rate rise bets

roymorgansocial Leave a comment

Original article by John Kehoe
The Australian Financial Review – Page: 1 & 27 : 15-Jan-18

Thierry Albert Wizman of Macquarie Group notes that the Reserve Bank of Australia is the only major central bank among developed countries that has not flagged a rise in official interest rates. The Bank of Canada is widely tipped to tighten monetary policy again in mid-January, while the general consensus of economists is that US interest rates will rise in March. Meanwhile, New York Federal Reserve president William Dudley recently warned that factors such as the low unemployment rate in the US and the Trump administration’s tax cuts could potentially see the US economy "overheat".

CORPORATES
MACQUARIE GROUP LIMITED – ASX MQG, RESERVE BANK OF AUSTRALIA, UNITED STATES. FEDERAL RESERVE BOARD, FEDERAL RESERVE BANK OF NEW YORK, BANK OF CANADA, EUROPEAN CENTRAL BANK, BANK OF JAPAN, FIS GROUP, BANK OF AMERICA CORPORATION, CAPITAL ECONOMICS LIMITED, LEHMAN BROTHERS INCORPORATED, RBC CAPITAL MARKETS, UNITED STATES. EXECUTIVE OFFICE OF THE PRESIDENT

Industry funds set for swift growth

roymorgansocial Leave a comment

Original article by Glenda Korporaal
The Australian – Page: 14 : 12-Jan-18

Australia’s industry superannuation funds now boast 6.8 million members, according to Roy Morgan’s Superannuation and Wealth Management report. In contrast, retail super funds have 3.9 million members. The report also shows that while the median age of all super fund members is 42.7 years, the median age of industry and retail fund members is 39.6 years and 45.7 years respectively. Meanwhile, the median balance of industry funds members is $A38,500, compared with the market average of $A57,800, although Roy Morgan attributes this to the lower median age of industry fund members.

CORPORATES
ROY MORGAN LIMITED, AUSTRALIAN PRUDENTIAL REGULATION AUTHORITY

Satisfaction with performance of industry superannuation funds back on top of retail funds

roymorgansocial Leave a comment

Original article by Roy Morgan
Market Research Update – Page: Online : 12-Jan-18

Roy Morgan’s latest Superannuation Satisfaction Report shows that in November 2017, satisfaction with the financial performance of industry superannuation funds (59.2%) was higher than retail funds (57.5%) for the third consecutive month, after having trailed them for the seven months prior. Satisfaction with self-managed superannuation funds remained the overall leader with 71.9%, despite being down by 2.4% points over the last year. Across the fifteen largest super funds (based on number of members), Qsuper had the highest satisfaction with 70.0%, followed by Cbus (67.4%) and Unisuper (66.4%). The best performer among the largest retail funds was Colonial First State in sixth place overall with a satisfaction rating of 61.2%, followed by MLC (55.8%), BT (55.8%), OnePath (54.7%) and AMP (54.2%).

CORPORATES
ROY MORGAN LIMITED, QSUPER LIMITED, CONSTRUCTION AND BUILDING UNIONS’ SUPERANNUATION FUND, UNISUPER LIMITED, COLONIAL FIRST STATE GROUP LIMITED, MLC LIMITED, ONEPATH AUSTRALIA LIMITED, AMP LIMITED – ASX AMP

Stumble may be start of bigger global pullback

roymorgansocial Leave a comment

Original article by David Rogers
The Australian – Page: 18 : 11-Jan-18

The S&P/ASX 200 recorded its largest fall in six weeks on 10 January, after posting strong gains over the last three months. Factors such as a rise in US 10-year bond yields to a 10-month high and a slight reduction in the Bank of Japan’s quantitative easing program weighed on the Australian market. Meanwhile, tax-loss selling is a major risk for the US market in January, as the Trump Administration’s capital gains tax reforms now allow US investors to defer tax liabilities until April 2019.

CORPORATES
STANDARD AND POOR’S ASX 200 INDEX, BANK OF JAPAN, STANDARD AND POOR’S 500 INDEX, UNITED STATES. EXECUTIVE OFFICE OF THE PRESIDENT, BELL POTTER SECURITIES LIMITED, JP MORGAN AUSTRALIA LIMITED, WOODSIDE PETROLEUM LIMITED – ASX WPL, ORIGIN ENERGY LIMITED – ASX ORG, BHP BILLITON LIMITED – ASX BHP, COMMONWEALTH BANK OF AUSTRALIA – ASX CBA

PayPal faces boycott over lack of services in Palestine

roymorgansocial Leave a comment

Original article by Andrew Tillett
The Australian Financial Review – Page: Online : 3-Jan-18

The Australian Palestinian Advocacy Network (APAN) has urged Australians to boycott online payments provider Paypal. It accuses Paypal of engaging in "online apartheid" by providing its services to Israelis but not to Palestinians living in Gaza and the West Bank, even though they use the same currency, the Israeli shekel. PayPal states its lack of service to Palestine is not politically motivated, but that there are certain compliance and regulatory issues that need to be addressed before it can provide its service to Palestinians.

CORPORATES
AUSTRALIAN PALESTINIAN ADVOCACY NETWORK, PAYPAL INCORPORATED, ACTION AID

Big banks to slash 20,000 jobs

roymorgansocial Leave a comment

Original article by James Frost
The Australian Financial Review – Page: 1 & 4 : 3-Jan-18

Australia’s big four banks reduced their full-time employee numbers by just under 1,500 in 2017. However, banking analysts suggest that Westpac, the National Australia Bank, the ANZ Bank, and the Commonwealth Bank will be a lot more active in 2018 in terms of job shedding, with an overall reduction of 20,000 full-time employees seen as likely. Victor German from Macquarie says he had thought the big four might have been a bit more active in 2017 in terms of job cuts, while he urged them not to rely on natural attrition to get employee numbers down.

CORPORATES
WESTPAC BANKING CORPORATION – ASX WBC, NATIONAL AUSTRALIA BANK LIMITED – ASX NAB, AUSTRALIA AND NEW ZEALAND BANKING GROUP LIMITED – ASX ANZ, COMMONWEALTH BANK OF AUSTRALIA – ASX CBA, MACQUARIE GROUP LIMITED – ASX MQG, CLSA AUSTRALIA PTY LTD, KPMG AUSTRALIA PTY LTD, COLONIAL FIRST STATE GLOBAL ASSET MANAGEMENT, COMMINSURE

Super fund returns outpace property

roymorgansocial Leave a comment

Original article by Sally Patten, Alice Uribe, Matthew Cranston
The Australian Financial Review – Page: 1 & 4 : 2-Jan-18

The average balanced superannuation fund returned 10.5 per cent in the 12 months to December, the first time in five years that returns have been of double-digit nature. The 10.5 per cent return achieved by super funds exceeded the total average return of 9.1 per cent from property across capital cities for the 12 months to November. However, superannuation experts warn that the strong returns achieved in the past year are not likely to be repeated in 2018.

CORPORATES
THE ASSOCIATION OF SUPERANNUATION FUNDS OF AUSTRALIA LIMITED, FIRST STATE SUPER, SUPERRATINGS PTY LTD, CHANT WEST FINANCIAL SERVICES PTY LTD, AUSTRALIAN PRUDENTIAL REGULATION AUTHORITY, RESERVE BANK OF AUSTRALIA, UNITED STATES. FEDERAL RESERVE BOARD, AUSTRALIANSUPER PTY LTD, KINETIC SECURITIES PTY LTD, SUNSUPER PTY LTD, HOST-PLUS, AUSTSAFE, VISION SUPER PTY LTD, INTRUST SUPER FUND, VICSUPER PTY LTD, AUSTRALIAN SECURITIES AND INVESTMENTS COMMISSION

Industry superannuation funds set for growth

roymorgansocial Leave a comment

Original article by Roy Morgan
Market Research Update – Page: Online : 22-Dec-17

Of the 13.4 million Australians aged 14 and over with superannuation, 6.8 million (50.7%) are members of an industry fund. This is well ahead of retail funds with 3.9 million (29.1%) and all other types combined, which make up only 2.7 million. This is one of the major findings from the new 2017 edition of the Roy Morgan ‘Superannuation & Wealth Management in Australia’ report. Although the median balance of industry fund members is currently only $38,500, which is lower than the market average of $57,800, this has a lot to do with the lower median age of industry fund members. The current median age of their members is only 39.6 years, well below all other superannuation types and as a result they have the best long term growth potential. Self-managed superannuation fund members (SMSFs) have the oldest median member age with 59.0 years, followed by public sector funds (49.6 years) and retail funds (45.7 years).

CORPORATES
ROY MORGAN LIMITED