K: Financial and Insurance Services

CBA can win big from Klarna float

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Original article by Joyce Moullakis
The Australian Financial Review – Page: 15 & 19 : 3-Sep-25

Global digital bank and ‘buy now, pay later’ provider Klarna recently filed documents with the Securities & Exchange Commission for an IPO in the US. Klarna is currently believed to be valued at between $US13bn ($19.9bn) and $US14bn. The Commonwealth Bank’s latest annual report values its stake in Klarna at $956m, compared with a peak of nearly $3bn at the height of the BNPL boom. Analysts expect the Commonwealth Bank to sell down its Klarna stake, either via the IPO or on the open market; Hamish Carlisle from Merlon Capital Partners says Klarna has been "strategically peripheral" for the big four bank.

CORPORATES
COMMONWEALTH BANK OF AUSTRALIA – ASX CBA, KLARNA, UNITED STATES. SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE COMMISSION, MERLON CAPITAL PARTNERS PTY LTD

Investors calm as government debt nears $1trn

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Original article by Cecile Lefort
The Australian Financial Review – Page: 25 : 3-Sep-25

Official data shows that the federal government’s debt currently stands at $961bn, while its monthly interest bill is about $2bn. Meanwhile, gross debt has risen from just five per cent of GDP to 37 per cent in the last 15 years, although this compares favourably with the US (124 per cent) and Japan (216 per cent). Robert Thompson from RBC Capital Markets expects federal government debt to top $1bn in early 2026. However, Oliver Levingston from Bank of America says Australia has low debt and low deficits compared with the majority of advanced countries. He adds that Australian government bond yields are highly attractive at present.

CORPORATES
RBC CAPITAL MARKETS, BANK OF AMERICA CORPORATION

Extreme mortgage stress eases nationally year-on-year, but surges in lowest socio-economic quintiles

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Original article by Roy Morgan
Market Research Update – Page: Online : 27-Aug-25

New research from Roy Morgan shows that an estimated 27.8% of mortgage holders were ‘At Risk’ of ‘mortgage stress’ in the year to June 2025, down from 30.3% in the previous 12 months. The proportion of Australians who are estimated to be ‘Extremely at Risk’ of mortgage stress has in turn fallen to 18.5%, down from 19.7 per cent in the year to June 2024. However, the decline in the proportion of mortgage holders at ‘Extreme Risk’ of mortgage stress was only evident among those in the top three socio-economic quintiles. Among those in the lowest two quintiles, the proportion of mortgage holders ‘at extreme risk’ of mortgage stress increased – by 5% among those in the E Quintile, and by 5.2% among those in the FG quintile. Meanwhile, mortgage holders with annual household incomes of under $100,000 are more likely to be ‘Extremely at Risk’ of mortgage stress. Only mortgage holders in households with annual incomes of $100,000 or more have seen a decline in mortgage stress. These latest findings come from the Roy Morgan Single Source survey, derived from in-depth interviews with over 60,000 Australians each year.

CORPORATES
ROY MORGAN LIMITED

Commonwealth Bank defends giving problem gambler $13k in personal loans

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Original article by Pat McGrath
abc.net.au – Page: Online : 26-Aug-25

An unnamed problem gambler has taken the Commonwealth Bank to the Australian Financial Complaints Authority, alleging that it breached its responsible lending obligations. It comes after the CBA gave the male problem gambler around $13,000 in personal loans, despite the fact that he spent over half his take-home income on online betting during the 90-day period prior to it advancing him the first of what were two loans. In its defence, the CBA stated the loans did not breach its internal policies, which block borrowers who have spent more than $10,000 on gambling in the 90 days before making a loan application.

CORPORATES
COMMONWEALTH BANK OF AUSTRALIA – ASX CBA, AUSTRALIAN FINANCIAL COMPLAINTS AUTHORITY

Boards woo investors with ASX buybacks

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Original article by Alex Gluyas
The Australian Financial Review – Page: 29 : 20-Aug-25

Analysis by MST Marquee shows that most Australian-listed companies that announce buybacks tend to outperform the broader sharemarket by an average of 10 per cent in the following 12 months. Twelve listed companies have revealed plans to repurchase some $5bn worth of their shares so far in the current reporting season; this compares with the 10 companies that announced just $2.8bn worth of buybacks during the August 2024 reporting season. The growing trend towards buybacks has coincided with an overall decline in the dividend payouts of listed companies.

CORPORATES
MST MARQUEE

‘Do the right thing’: ASIC raises pressure on CBA over refund refusal

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Original article by Clancy Yeates
The Age – Page: Online : 30-Jul-25

The Commonwealth Bank of Australia is under scrutiny after advising that it will not provide refunds to low-income customers who had been charged high account fees. Westpac and the ANZ Bank have both agreed to provide such refunds to welfare recipients in the wake of an investigation by the Australian Securities & Investments Commission. However, the CBA contends that the fees in question were disclosed to customers and charged in accordance with its terms and conditions, although it subsequently indicated that it will consider making ‘goodwill payments’ to some affected customers. ASIC chairman Joe Longo has urged CBA to avoid taking a legalistic approach to the issue, arguing that other major banks are "doing the right thing".

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

CBA slashes dozens of call centre jobs, citing new AI system rollout

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Original article by James Eyers, David Marin-Guzman
The Australian Financial Review – Page: 17 : 29-Jul-25

The Commonwealth Bank informed the Finance Sector Union last week that it will be making 45 roles in its call centre operations redundant, following the introduction of a chatbot system last month to answer customer inquiries. It is likely to be the first of many redundancies in the CBA’s call centres as a result of AI, with the CBA saying the new system has reduced the volume of call centre calls by 2,000 a week and has allowed it to concentrate its focus on upskilling its call centre team to deal with more complex customer queries

CORPORATES
COMMONWEALTH BANK OF AUSTRALIA – ASX CBA, FINANCE SECTOR UNION

Risk of mortgage stress up in June as Australians take out bigger mortgages after interest rate cuts

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Original article by Roy Morgan
Market Research Update – Page: Online : 23-Jul-25

New research from Roy Morgan shows that 1,491,000 mortgage holders (28.4%) were ‘At Risk’ of ‘mortgage stress’ in the three months to June 2025, up 1.5% points from a month earlier. This is the highest rate of mortgage stress since January 2025, before either of the Reserve Bank’s interest rate cuts. The number of Australians ‘At Risk’ of mortgage stress has increased by 684,000 since May 2022, when the RBA began a cycle of interest rate increases. Meanwhile, the number of mortgage holders considered to be ‘Extremely At Risk’ of mortgage stress is now now numbered at 1,032,000 (19.7% 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 more than 60,000 Australians each year, including over 10,000 owner-occupied mortgage-holders.

CORPORATES
ROY MORGAN LIMITED, RESERVE BANK OF AUSTRALIA

Super fund satisfaction improves to highest since May 2022 with Retail Fund satisfaction at a new all time high

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Original article by Roy Morgan
Market Research Update – Page: Online : 9-Jul-25

New data from Roy Morgan’s Superannuation Satisfaction Report shows an overall super fund satisfaction with financial performance rating of 69.9% in May 2025, an increase of 3.1% points from a year ago and up 4.9% points from the post-pandemic low of 65.0% in July 2023. Despite hitting a low point in July 2023 superannuation satisfaction with financial performance has remained significantly higher than the long-term average of 59.0% post-pandemic, and is now approaching the all-time high of 72.0% reached in January 2022. There has been improvement across all four different categories of super funds over the last year; the largest increase has been for Retail Funds, with customer satisfaction up 6.4% points to 69.3%. Customer satisfaction for Industry Funds is up 2% points to 69.5%, while satisfaction with Public Sector Funds is up 0.8% points to 75% and satisfaction with Self-Managed Funds is up 0.8% points to 77.7%. 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

ASX rotation could see CBA investors jump on mining train

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Original article by Alex Gluyas
The Australian Financial Review – Page: 23 : 2-Jul-25

S&P/ASX 200 bank stocks gained 26 per cent during the 2024-25 financial year, while the resources sector fell eight per cent. However, some analysts believe that investors are set to shift from banks to resources stocks in 2025-26, amid speculation that the Commonwealth Bank’s outperformance will not be sustained. The stock gained 45 per cent in 2024-25, with its share of the benchmark index rising from nine per cent to nearly 12 per cent.

CORPORATES
STANDARD AND POOR’S ASX 200 INDEX, COMMONWEALTH BANK OF AUSTRALIA – ASX CBA