Westpac has launched an aggressive campaign to win the banking business of Australia's 2500 biggest farmers. Graham Jennings, head of Westpac's agribusiness and regional commercial [...]
Borrowers are likely to be slugged by more rate rises from RBA and more margin expanding rate rises from the big banks as well. The [...]
Over the last 14 months of the GFC, many people moved their money and their business to a big four bank. Many people could simply [...]
Switching bank accounts to a new bank is easier than it has been in the past, but can still be a complex process. ASIC and [...]
Almost all banks, credit unions and building societies have announced changes to the fees they charge their credit card, loan and account customers. Now may [...]
ANZ, Westpac and NAB have launched new marketing programs recently all trying to reconnect with their customers and communities. ANZ have re-fashioned their signage with [...]
Most homeowners are choosing to stick with their variable rate mortgages with only ten per cent saying they are opting to fix their rate now. [...]
The first national study by Westpac into the social effects of the global financial crisis shows more than 32% of Australians are cocooning in the [...]
Parents at some schools are paying for their children’s lunches online with their credit card to avoid having to give their children money. Holy Cross [...]
Australians lost almost twice as much money during the global financial crisis as people in other countries according to the 2009 global wealth report, by [...]
Almost 10 million Australians visited their online internet bank each week, but more visit and spend much more time on social networking sites such as [...]
National Australia Bank yesterday acknowledged to a senate committee hearing in Melbourne that banking consumers' choices had narrowed in the past year. “I think it's [...]
There were only 171 auctions listed in Sydney on the October long weekend but the clearance rate improved to 72.5 per cent from 62 per [...]
NAB, ANZ and second tier lenders all managed to claw back mortgage market share in August. ANZ said they have improved turnaround times on mortgage [...]
The growth story in the loan market remains that of Commonwealth Bank, which lifted its lending by 1.2 per cent over the month of August [...]
Macquarie Leasing will take over the servicing of the Ford loans by January 2010. The portfolio covers around 200,000 vehicles and adds to the bank’s [...]
The federal government’s Henry review into taxation is set to recommend that tax on savings should be slashed. Ken Henry said yesterday that a middle [...]
The "Big Four" Banks now hold 73.8% of outstanding mortgages in Australia, up from 56.8% two years ago in August 2007, for Australians the effective [...]
The big four banks hold 72.6 per cent (including St George and Bankwest) of all retail deposits in Australia in August 2009, compared with 58.8 [...]
Bank customers are fed up with fees on savings accounts and want to be rewarded with higher rates for saving regularly, according to a new [...]
RaboPlus will add a bonus saver account to its product portfolio to be launched next week. It will pay five per cent interest to customers [...]
Speculation is continuing that the big banks are planning to raise interest rates on variable rate mortgages independently of the Reserve Bank. Banks are continuing [...]
First home buyers of new homes will be entitled to $14,000 of federal government assistance from today, October 1, down from the $21,000 grant paid [...]
ME Bank’s Online Savings Account has won the Australian Financial Review Smart Investor Blue Ribbon Awards 2009, Overall Savings Account Category. Savings products from over [...]
Australians can get behind a great cause by purchasing a pink ribbon or other pink products at any CUA branch on Pink Ribbon Day, October [...]
Traffic to the InfoChoice website has grown 56 per cent from January to June 2009. InfoChoice.com.au remains Australia’s most popular banking product comparison website as [...]
The first home buyer’s boosted grants phase out on October 1. To be eligible for the Boost, you must enter into a contract to purchase [...]
More than fifty thousand Australian households have been given hardship relief by major banks in the past year. Westpac, St George, ANZ, National Australia Bank, [...]
Sources within the major banks say the federal Treasury rang around all major banks last week to check on rumours that they are planning on [...]
Homebuyers have to be prepared for higher interest rates says the governor of the Reserve bank, Glenn Stevens. Stevens told a parliamentary hearing that rate [...]
Increasing evidence of a recessionary trend in economic data is adding weight to expectations of a big cut in interest rates this afternoon by the [...]
The Australian dollar has breached another 23 year high in overnight trading touching 90.61 US cents, surpassing the previous high of 90.50 US cents reached [...]
The June long weekend storms and floods in Newcastle and the Hunter Valley region of New South Wales will have an impact on coal exports. [...]
The Australian current account deficit remains in the red due to the effects of the drought and infrastructure bottlenecks. The deficit for the March quarter [...]
Economic growth forecasts continue to be clouded by the worsening drought, with summer cropping nearing a 24 year low. The Australian Bureau of Agriculture and [...]
The Australian government's latest package of assistance for farmers in drought-affected areas has a couple of ramifications for banks. The government said it would be [...]
A third interest rate increase for 2006 appears to be a near-certainty after the release of September Consumer Price Index (CPI) data today. The CPI [...]
As expected, the Reserve Bank board has increased official interest rates by 0.25 percentage points to 6 per cent in August. This means home borrowers [...]
The Reserve Bank has lifted official interest rates by 0.25 percentage points to 5.75 per cent. The rise will flow on to variable rate home [...]
The price of oil is on the rise again, and this has direct implications for the level of home loan interest rates for Australian borrowers. [...]
Australian bank executives have aggressive growth expectations and do not expect to engage in cost cutting to achieve growth, according to consulting group Accenture's survey [...]
The Commonwealth Bank will launch an automated business lending service via the internet which will handle loan applications of up to $1 million. Commonwealth is [...]
All four big banks and the Bank of Queensland are donating large sums of cash to the Cyclone relief effort in Innisfail and Tully. Commbank [...]
Despite falling or flat house prices around Australia – borrowing for housing continues to bubble along nicely - no doubt as prospective buyers re-enter the [...]
In development that will make home buyers prick up their ears, it is now possible to buy insurance against falling house values. The Housing Industry [...]
Good news for homebuyers and borrowers. As expected, the Reserve Bank has left interest rates on hold for August as the economy settles into a [...]
Bendigo Bank managing director Rob Hunt said that there was a slow in mortgage lending in capital cities. He said home loan demand remained buoyant [...]
A new crop of managed rural investment projects hopes to attract up to $1 billion in investment from high income earners with tax breaks in [...]
Account holders at Credit Union Australia will be able to check their account balances and receive transaction alerts by mobile phone text message under a [...]
The Reserve Bank of Australia today increased the cash rate by 0.25% to 5.50%. This increase is the first change in monetary policy since December [...]
Elders Rural Bank will market its agribusiness deposit and loan products through Bendigo Bank branches nationally within the next six months. [...]
Arab Bank, one of the pioneers in the high yield account segment, said it would prioritise term deposits for its highest rate rather than at-call [...]
The country’s most profitable farmers avoided paying tax on another $494 million that they tipped into farm management deposits before the end of the 2003/04 [...]
The accessibility of banks has increased slightly, with a 1 per cent increase in the number of bank branches in the year to June 2004. [...]
The coalition said it would provide further funding to Australia Post to extend its banking services further into rural and remote areas. The government said [...]
ANZ Bank is spending $1 million on TV advertisements during Seven Network's coverage of the Olympic Games, telling viewers it's listening to customers and opening [...]
The Commonwealth Bank has taken business managers out of some NSW rural branches and replaced them with "travelling business banking specialists". Eight business banking positions [...]
The Australian Bankers' Association has not named any of the participants in its Small Business Consultative Forum, which has already met twice, saying it hasn't [...]
Bendigo Bank will launch a telecommunication venture using the same community-based model as its bank business. MD Rob Hunt said up to 40 communities around [...]
Credit Union Australia says a survey of members shows 69 per cent of members are satisfied and loyal. "The figure is well above the worldwide [...]
St George Bank is the first Australian bank to offer its customers access to their accounts via mobile phone. Customers can monitor account balances and [...]
A Roy Morgan survey has found the Commonwealth Bank's customers are the least satisfied of all Australian banking consumers. A poll of 57,000 bank customers [...]
The Australian Bankers' Association will form a working party to examine bank branch closures in rural locations following a critical report by a parliamentary committee. [...]
The Australian Consumers' Association says rural bank customers may soon be charged up to $12 each time they use a "foreign" ATM. The fee hikes [...]
A federal committee has given qualified approval to proposed changes in ATM fees but said these should not necessarily lead to higher charges in country [...]
Australia's banks have been warned on branch closures in rural and regional areas by a federal parliamentary committee looking into banking in the bush. Such [...]
A finance industry group will miss the Reserve Bank's deadline to deliver a blueprint for the reform of ATM fees to the Australian Competition and [...]
The Queensland-based Suncorp is spreading its presence nationally with the opening of its first branches in South Australia and Western Australia. Now 157 branches strong [...]
Despite an increasing number of entrants to the lending market, the Big Four banks still have the lion's share of the small-to-medium business market. A [...]
Bendigo Bank says its will extend its successful Community Bank model into the telecommunications area and establish a company called Community Telco Australia. The aim [...]
The Bank of Queensland is actively recruiting bankers in Victoria who are interested in operating the 50 branches it intends opening in that state over [...]
The latest customer satisfaction ratings by Roy Morgan Research show that the Commonwealth Bank is almost 30 points behind the top-rated Bendigo Bank. The poll [...]
Bendigo Bank's shares rose 33 cents to a record close on Thursday of $9.30, up 30 cents. More than 400,000 shares were traded as the [...]
The Commonwealth Bank has launched its long-heralded customer service vision while announcing another 2775 job cuts over the next three years. CBA chief David Murray [...]
Suncorp's restructuring will result in at least 120 redundancies with branch closures and mergers also expected. Branches tipped to close or merge are Toowomba, Gladstone, [...]
Westpac claims it's going to be the winner by 2005 amongst the Big Four when it comes to customer service. The bank's CEO David Morgan [...]
Bendigo Bank celebrated two milestones this week, announcing it has obtained the trademark for Community Bank while its first community branches - in the Victorians [...]
RAMS, Rabobank and Elders Rural are all revving up to grab a slice of the rural banking market following the Big Four's branch closures in [...]
Bill Robinson would like to do himself out of a job. He's the ANZ Bank's independent customer advocate, the man on the customer's side when [...]
Consumer confidence has fallen to its lowest level in two years, according to the latest Westpac-Melbourne Institute survey. The index dropped 2.1 per cent in [...]
A recent survey by Macquarie Research Equities found that 70 per cent of small-to-medium sized business owners don't like their banks, describing themselves as "very [...]
A better deal for small businesses on bank fees is the aim of a summit of state ministers and small business representatives today in Sydney. [...]
The ANZ Bank has written to customers to apologise for regularly charging $29.50 "honour fees" to customers who unknowingly over-draw their accounts. ANZ says the [...]
Bendigo Bank says will cut its Internet and telephone account-transaction fees to reward its loyal customers and attract potential new ones. [...]
More counterfeit $50 notes have been detected in Victoria and police are warning shopkeepers to be on the alert. Two fake notes were used in [...]
Westpac has been rated as Australia's top online retail bank in a RedSheriff survey on customer service. Sixty-nine per cent of Westpac's online customers were [...]
Residents and businesspeople in the Sydney suburb of Greystanes have succeeded in their efforts to keep the local branch of the Commonwealth Bank open. Two [...]
HSBC Australia has launched a new cash management account for businesses. It offers an interest rate of 4.6 per cent at call for balances over [...]
The Federal Government will hold a new Senate inquiry into remote and rural banking services, to be led by Liberal senator Grant Chapman. Although the [...]
The NSW Minister for Small Business, Sandra Nori, says she intends to push for an inquiry by the ACCC into bank fees levied on small [...]
The middle market in business banking is the most profitable - but it also has the largest number of dissatisfied customers, according to a recent [...]
A new Access Economics report says that the Reserve Bank's plans to reform Australia's credit card system and fees "have merit" but may result in [...]
ANZ Bank announced it will open a new branch in rural Victoria on July 1. The bank has secured a lease on a building in [...]
The New South Wales Budget will slash stamp duty on general insurance from 10 per cent to 5 per cent, which will affect not only [...]
Credit Union Australia has announced that it will merge with Metropolitan Credit Union, in a deal which will boost CUA's assets under management to $1.8 [...]
ANZ Bank CEO John McFarlane has promised that people using branches won't have to wait more than five minutes to be served. The five-minute commitment [...]
ANZ Bank chief John McFarlane warned yesterday that competition constraints are stopping Australia's big banks from achieving their full global potential. He said that bans [...]
The ANZ Bank has launched an aggressive marketing campaign designed to poach the National Australia Bank's customers in rural Australia. It is targeting customers across [...]
ANZ's CEO John McFarlane has accused the National Australia Bank's chief Frank Cicutto of breaking an unwritten policy between the top bankers to restore the [...]
The Finance Sector Union and the Australian Consumers' Association have slammed the National Australia Bank's decision to close dozens of country branches and shed 5,000 [...]