APRA touts success of change to lending rules… Finsure to boost revenue after mortgage acquisition… Report: Australians resilient to interest rate hikes...
Byres: Lending changes paying dividends
According to Reuters, efforts to reinforce exemplary lending standards in Australian banks' housing portfolios in the last three months are starting to bear fruit, Wayne Byres, the chairman of the Australian Prudential Regulation Authority (APRA).
The banking watchdog has put pressure on Australian banks to tighten their mortgage lending standards, following concerns about rising risks to the financial system led by sky-rocketing Sydney home prices amid record low interest rates, subdued wage growth and high unemployment.
Australian banks capitulated to the warnings, keeping growth in investment loans below a 10 per cent annual speed limit and tightening standards on mortgage products such as interest-only loans, according to the article.
"This effort has consumed a great deal of our supervisory time over the past three months, but is now starting to bear fruit," Byres told a senate committee hearing in Canberra.
Finsure to boost revenue after mortgage acquisition
Finsure Finance and Insurance chief executive and co-founder John Kolenda is on the hunt for acquisitions to double the mortgage aggregator's turnover to $120 million and grow the mortgage book it manages by two thirds to $20 billion within 18 months, according to an article in the Sydney Morning Herald.
"I have been in the industry for 20-odd years and we would have to be the fastest growing aggregation business in the history of aggregation," said Kolenda, who was one of the pioneers of mortgage broking in Australia, working with Aussie Home Loans' John Symond for a decade. "We are now a top 10 aggregator in Australia and a top five non-bank controlled aggregator."
Its present turnover is more than $60 million and loan book managed on behalf of around 750 brokers has topped $12 billion. BRW's Fast Starter's list ranked Finsure the 18th fastest growing business for the 2014 financial year with a 140 per cent rise in turnover.
Finsure's growth will be about 30 to 40 per cent via acquisition. "We are always on the market for an acquisition," he said.
Report: Australians resilient to interest rate hikes
Just a couple days after the RBA opted to hold the interest rate steady a recent study is showing that Australian homeowners are well-placed to cope with a rise in interest rates, according to a new report, despite their borrowings increasing faster than their incomes are rising.
The report, published by the Australian Bankers’ Association, says that although households are increasing their borrowings for housing, they are also prepaying their loans to a greater degree.
“This repayment of the principal more quickly than required by the minimum payment is being achieved by putting extra money into mortgage offset or redraw accounts or by paying down the loan directly,” the report states.
“The proportion of housing loans with a redraft and/or an offset facility has increased steadily in recent years... For example, the rise in the proportion of housing loans with offset facilities from 20 per cent in 2008 to over 30 per cent in 2015 means there has been in excess of a 50 per cent increase in the proportion of housing loans with this facility over those seven years.”
According to Reuters, efforts to reinforce exemplary lending standards in Australian banks' housing portfolios in the last three months are starting to bear fruit, Wayne Byres, the chairman of the Australian Prudential Regulation Authority (APRA).
The banking watchdog has put pressure on Australian banks to tighten their mortgage lending standards, following concerns about rising risks to the financial system led by sky-rocketing Sydney home prices amid record low interest rates, subdued wage growth and high unemployment.
Australian banks capitulated to the warnings, keeping growth in investment loans below a 10 per cent annual speed limit and tightening standards on mortgage products such as interest-only loans, according to the article.
"This effort has consumed a great deal of our supervisory time over the past three months, but is now starting to bear fruit," Byres told a senate committee hearing in Canberra.
Finsure to boost revenue after mortgage acquisition
Finsure Finance and Insurance chief executive and co-founder John Kolenda is on the hunt for acquisitions to double the mortgage aggregator's turnover to $120 million and grow the mortgage book it manages by two thirds to $20 billion within 18 months, according to an article in the Sydney Morning Herald.
"I have been in the industry for 20-odd years and we would have to be the fastest growing aggregation business in the history of aggregation," said Kolenda, who was one of the pioneers of mortgage broking in Australia, working with Aussie Home Loans' John Symond for a decade. "We are now a top 10 aggregator in Australia and a top five non-bank controlled aggregator."
Its present turnover is more than $60 million and loan book managed on behalf of around 750 brokers has topped $12 billion. BRW's Fast Starter's list ranked Finsure the 18th fastest growing business for the 2014 financial year with a 140 per cent rise in turnover.
Finsure's growth will be about 30 to 40 per cent via acquisition. "We are always on the market for an acquisition," he said.
Report: Australians resilient to interest rate hikes
Just a couple days after the RBA opted to hold the interest rate steady a recent study is showing that Australian homeowners are well-placed to cope with a rise in interest rates, according to a new report, despite their borrowings increasing faster than their incomes are rising.
The report, published by the Australian Bankers’ Association, says that although households are increasing their borrowings for housing, they are also prepaying their loans to a greater degree.
“This repayment of the principal more quickly than required by the minimum payment is being achieved by putting extra money into mortgage offset or redraw accounts or by paying down the loan directly,” the report states.
“The proportion of housing loans with a redraft and/or an offset facility has increased steadily in recent years... For example, the rise in the proportion of housing loans with offset facilities from 20 per cent in 2008 to over 30 per cent in 2015 means there has been in excess of a 50 per cent increase in the proportion of housing loans with this facility over those seven years.”
