Trending Financial News 15 August
Global markets are falling
The Australian stock market’s key index, the ASX200 fell more than 100 points on opening today and is now below the 100-day moving average of 6748.
Overnight, Wall Street recorded a 3 per cent fall in the S&P 500 with US bond yields briefly going negative, indicating a risk of recession.
Chinese and Hong Kong markets have suffered big losses on opening today.
The Shanghai Composite index dropped 1.61 per cent in morning trading while the Hang Seng lost 0.76 per cent.
When will the banks deliver real-time payments?
Three more banks have confirmed delays to the delivery of instant payment services. Bank of Queensland, Citigroup Australia and ME Bank have each told Banking Day that they will not begin connecting customers to the New Payments Platform until at least the end of 2019.
The Reserve Bank recently castigated banks for its slow adoption of real-time payments and other advanced functionality supported by the New Payments Platform.
The big four banks, Commonwealth, Westpac, NAB and ANZ, have faced public shaming from politicians and the RBA for dragging the chain on NPP implementation.
An ME Bank spokesperson yesterday said: “We will start enabling services this financial year, across mobile and internet banking.”
AMP Bank and HSBC Australia said their customers would not have access to Osko or any other NPP-based functionality until 2020.
NAB customers are not happy, Jan
Customer unrest with the big four banks continues with National Australia Bank revealing yesterday that its customers are not at all likely to recommend their bank to other people.
National Australia Bank’s net promoter score in key customer segments has fallen to minus 14. The NPS index ranges from -100 to 100 and measures the willingness of customers to recommend a company’s products and/or services to others. A minus score indicates customers are more likely to recommend against the company.
NAB reported a 3rd quarter net profit of $1.70 billion yesterday, up from an average quarterly profit in the first half of $1.35 billion. The number of NAB home loans in arrears is one-fifth higher than one year ago.
Bendigo grabs more mortgage market share
Australia’s fifth largest retail bank, Bendigo and Adelaide Bank, has reported strong growth in mortgage sales. Bendigo’s total lending for the last financial year was worth $62 billion, up 1.1 per cent with residential lending growing strongly at 3.5 per cent and 4.3 per cent in the first six months of 2019.
Bendigo CEO Marnie Baker said that the bank increased its net promoter score to positive 24.8 which is “more than 30 points higher than the average of the major banks.”
Bendigo wants to be “Australia’s bank of choice”
“Bendigo and Adelaide Bank is consistently ranked as one of Australia’s most trusted brands,” said the bank’s chief executive Marnie Baker yesterday.
Bendigo is growing its share of the mortgage market in 2019 and has recently introduced online home loan applications through its Bendigo Express brand using the digital systems of subsidiary online lender Tic:Toc.
“We are looking to the future for our customers and for all our stakeholders as we drive our multi-year journey to become Australia’s bank of choice.”
Europcar fined over high card surcharges
Car rental firm Europcar will pay $350,000 in penalties for charging excessive credit and debit card payment surcharges. During 2017 Europcar charged Visa and MasterCard credit card and debit card users fees that were higher than Europcar’s costs to accept payments from those credit cards.
“Europcar imposed excessive surcharges on transactions affecting 63,012 customers, and over-charged more than $67,000,” said ACCC Deputy Chair Mick Keogh.
Europcar overcharged customers an average of just over $1 per transaction.
“While the amount per customer was small, Europcar imposed these charges on thousands of consumer transactions,” said Mr Keogh.
Europcar changed its surcharging practices and also provided refunds to the majority of overcharged customers.