The Commonwealth Bank has cut its five-year fixed-rate home loan rate by 0.2 per cent to 6.39 per cent, its lowest level in 10 years. [...]

More than 14,000 home buyers switched their mortgages to other financial institutions in December 2002 to get lower interest rates, the Australian Bureau of Statistics [...]

Kerry-Packer-backed Challenger Financial Service Group has acquired non-bank wholesale mortgage financier Interstar Securities for $85 million. The deal is part of a broader $133 million [...]

Two of South Australia's largest credit unions have reported record home lending for the 2002-03 financial year. CPS Credit Union lent $267 million, up 12.2 [...]

Australia's property boom has spread from the mainland to Tasmania and even an island off Brisbane, according to a survey by The Australian. The survey [...]

The Reserve Bank says growth in lending to Australian households from the mid-1990s to 2001 was strong and desirable but it has since become "less [...]

New home sales jumped 21 per cent in June in comparison with a national increase of just 0.4 per cent, according to the Housing Industry [...]

St George Bank shares fell 2.4 per cent on Thursday following speculation that National Australia Bank might sell its 9 per cent stake if it [...]

The property boom has led to rise in the number of complaints registered with the Queensland Office of Fair Trading. Consumer complaints against real estate [...]

Australian Central Credit Union has achieved record home lending levels but its annual profit remained flat due to tough competition in the mortgage loans market. [...]

Shares in AMP have surged following rumours that National Australia Bank was buying a large stake. JB Were and Citigroup Global Markets Australia confirmed they [...]

Construction work in Australia fell 1.9 per cent in the June quarter, the first decline in two years. However, after the record $17.8 billion reached [...]

The Mortgage Industry Association of Australasia has set up a disciplinary tribunal to protect consumers and rule on the conduct of its members. It will [...]

Coles Myer says its new Coles Myer MasterCard will be available from October. As previously announced, it will be issued by GE Capital and linked [...]

Commonwealth Bank's strategy for growth will be found in a culture shift in customer service, CEO David Murray says. Better service will enable staff to [...]

Sydney and Melbourne property investors who have been priced out of their own markets are snapping up bargain-priced Adelaide properties. Real estate agents have recorded [...]

Australia's housing boom will get a new lease of life and last another three years before a slump lasting until 2010, BIS Shrapnel says. A [...]

Citibank's mortgage brokers can now submit loan applications via mobile phone and online. The BOLT system allows brokers to transmit data to the bank in [...]

Non-bank lender Wizard has reported a pre-tax profit of $24 million for 2002-03, up from $6 million the previous year. Executive chairman Mark Bouris dismissed [...]

Almost half of credit card holders would change cards if a limit was placed on the number of points they could earn, or if card [...]

ANZ Bank's identity management system Identrus has been approved for federal government use. ANZ said it was an important step to get the Gatekeeper status [...]

Bank of Western Australia is planning a major marketing campaign to counter potential consumer backlash against its takeover by HBOS. Its rivals intend to capitalise [...]

Commonwealth Bank CEO David Murray said he wouldn't rule out a bid for AMP but CBA wouldn't "pay dearly" for it. Murray said the CBA [...]

St George Bank has become the latest target of an email scam which urges its online banking customers to enter password details on a fraudulent [...]

A new law in Victoria which would prohibit dummy bids at real estate auctions and misleading price quotes will not come into force until next [...]

Figures from the Reserve Bank show a fall in the number of credit card transactions in June, despite spending and account numbers rising slightly. The [...]

A LandMark White report says investors in Melbourne's Docklands apartment precinct have been bitten with capital losses averaging 7.2 per cent and vacancy rates rising [...]

Another attempt to trick Westpac's online banking customers into revealing their bank account details to a fraudulent replica website has been made. An e-mail headed [...]

The Commonwealth Bank has posted a net profit of $2.01 billion for the year to June - a 24 per cent drop on the previous [...]

NSW Premier Bob Carr says stamp duty rates won't be indexed so that homebuyers don't pay more as house prices rise. Mr Carr said the [...]

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, [...]

The Commonwealth Bank is not one of the parties involved in talks to buy the National Bank of New Zealand, it said in a statement [...]

The Australian Taxation Office has unveiled its hit-list for the 2003-04 financial year with many of the nation's 60,000 new property investors and medium-sized businesses [...]

Bank of Western Australia shareholders have approved a $4.25-per-share buyout by Scottish-owned HBOS, despite the opposition of 1,245 angry shareholders at the bank's last meeting [...]

More than 100,000 Queenslanders have received the first home owners' grant since it was introduced but the latest figures show that numbers are decreasing as [...]

Crime experts say that gangs of criminals specialising in credit card fraud and ATM skimming are growing in number. The annual heist from such activities [...]

There was a sharp rise in corporate insolvencies in the first half of 2003, according to figures just released by the Australian Securities and Investments [...]

If you've signed up to buy an investment property off the plan, paid a 10 per cent deposit and don't expect to worry about finance [...]

Westpac's board has renewed David Morgan's contract as CEO of the bank until the end of 2007, when he turns 60. The board has also [...]

Babyboomer demand and lifestyle factors are drivers of the housing boom and not just easy credit, according to Wizard Home Loans' chairman Mark Bouris and [...]

American Express and Qantas have launched a co-branded charge card aimed at small and medium-sized businesses, big spenders on travel and entertainment. The card will [...]

The ANZ Bank has confirmed that it has lodged a submission with the New Zealand competition authority to make a bid at around $6 billion [...]

Credit Union Australia (CUA) has added a CommSec online share trading facility to its website. CUA Managing Director Graham Olrich said CUA will soon offer [...]

Australia's 8,000 mortgage brokers say that new federal and state licensing requirements impose an unfair cost burden on them. They will be required to comply [...]

The Reserve Bank has sent out one of its most forceful messages yet on household debt and soaring house prices. In its quarterly statement, released [...]

Bluestone Mortgages is expanding its distribution network through an alliance with Mortgage Choice which will see Bluestone's non-conforming home loan products being sold through Mortgage [...]

The Federal Government may move to help first-home buyers before the Productivity Commission delivers its report on housing affordability in March 2004, the Prime Minster [...]

Picking the wrong home loan may have consequences in years to follow. Some issues to consider are: fixed-interest loans are generally not able to be [...]

Australia's state and territory governments collected $11.4 billion in stamp duties in the 2002-03 financial year. Stamp duty is imposed on a variety of items [...]

The South Australian Office of Consumer Affairs is one of the sponsors of a series of free seminars for homebuyers which begins in Adelaide on [...]

AMP's shares hit a new low on August 6 following the leaking of an internal review of Henderson Global Investors in the UK. The review [...]

In a boost for homebuyers at the upper end of the market, RESI Mortgage has lifted the maximum amount it will lend before mortgage insurance [...]

It's a renters' market across Australia with too many properties available to let and not enough tenants. An oversupply of rental properties, particularly in Sydney [...]

Official interest rates have been kept on hold at 4.75 per cent for August by the Reserve Bank. This leaves variable home loan rates steady [...]

The Prime Minister said on August 4 that he can't promise that house prices will fall as a result of the federal inquiry into housing [...]

IMB's CEO Wayne Morris says he'd be very interested in talking to credit unions about potential mergers. The former Illawarra Mutual Building Society indicated it's [...]

AMP Banking is strengthening its ties with American Express, with a new gold credit card about to offered. AMP Banking said the card will be [...]

The Federal Government has asked the Productivity Commission to investigate barriers faced by first-home buyers. The Commission will be called on to review the factors [...]

Aussie Group may become one of the first non-banks to issue its own credit cards. Aussie already offers a card which co-branded with American Express [...]

Mortgage broker Australian Finance Group is planning to list later in 2003. The broker, 10-per cent owned by Macquarie Bank, will seek another major investor [...]

Fund managers still widely provide so-called "soft-dollar commissions" to financial planners with perks such as overseas trips, Grand Prix tickets and Bloomberg terminals. New rules [...]

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 [...]

Federal Treasurer Peter Costello wants delegates to the August Council of Australian Governments meeting to discuss housing affordability. Among the issues he wants discussed is [...]

RAMS Home Loans has inducted its first franchisees. The initial group of 17 will own and operate RAMS' Home Loan Centres in Victoria, New South [...]

The Commonwealth Bank has joined the ANZ as a serious suitor for the National Bank of New Zealand, being sold off by UK bank LLoyds [...]

Housing affordability is at its lowest level since 1990, according to a new report by the Commonwealth Bank and the Housing Industry Association. House prices [...]

The Commonwealth Bank has confirmed that it will cut 600 positions from its retail banking network and has refused to rule out further job losses. [...]

St George Bank is about to sign a deal to sell its consumer debt ledgers to Credit Corp. The deal is believed to involve debt [...]

An error by the Commonwealth Bank on one of its pieces of stationery has added to the growing number of nuisance calls being made to [...]

Australia's major banks have lifted their fixed interest home loan rates by up to 0.3 per cent over the past week. Westpac increased its five-year [...]

Credit card fees may rise to help fund the transition to smart cards which will dramatically reduce instances of fraud. Master Card and Visa International [...]

The Commonwealth Bank will cut 600 jobs from its retail division in addition to the 1,600 redundancies identified in its August 2002 annual results. A [...]

Several major banks are vying for a larger slice of the EFTPOS processing market by expanding their products and wooing small business. The Commonwealth Bank [...]

The Mortgage Industry Association of Australia will launch a new disciplinary tribunal which will have the power to censure, suspend and expel members on the [...]

The Australian Securities and Investments Commission will host a forum of consumer, finance, government and education groups in Sydney today, following a survey commissioned by [...]

Australia's annual inflation rate fell to 2.7 per cent in the June quarter, its lowest in four years according to the Bureau of Statistics. The [...]

Rising building costs and low rents in the June quarter may begin to dull investors' appetites for residential property investment. The cost of building a [...]

A report published on the Reserve Bank web site - which does not purport to express the views of the bank - claims that Australian [...]

The Commonwealth Bank has introduced multi-function EFTPOS terminals following a successful four-month trial. The XPOS terminals allow the purchase of products such as phone cards, [...]

Home buyers' chance to lock in rock-bottom fixed-rate home loans may have already slipped past as lenders have started to lift fixed-rate mortgages for the [...]

Liberty Financial is offering homebuyers a chance to boost their chances of getting home loans by using the equity in their cars. Liberty will advance [...]

The Australian Crime Commission has reported a 400 per cent increase in credit card skimming crimes over the past 12 months. Card skimming is now [...]

Crime syndicates are using stolen tax file numbers to make false claims for GST repayments with some investigators claiming that up to 10 per cent [...]

Property is still a better buy than bonds but not as good as shares, according to analysts. AMP's Shane Oliver says property has benefited from [...]

Westpac's CEO David Morgan believes homeowners can expect a soft landing when the residential market property comes off the boil. Dr Morgan said while Westpac [...]

The rapid growth in mortgage broker-originated home loans which has reached 25 percent of the market and been widely predicted to reach 50 per cent, [...]

Hopes of an interest rate cut have faded further after the Westpac/Melbourne Institute index of consumer confidence was released showing that consumer optimism rose to [...]

Demand in the Australian property market will continue to flourish for at least another 10 years according to Professor Dominique Fischer, a property specialist. She [...]

More than 14,000 Australians refinanced their home loans last year to cash in on low interest rates - and the trend is likely to continue. [...]

Wizard Home Loans is celebrating the opening of its 50th shop-front in Victoria - but the non-bank mortgage lender won't stop there. CEO Angelo Malizis [...]

New Bureau of Statistics figures reveal a 12 per cent surge in lending to investors for rental properties in the month of May 2003. Banks [...]

The Queensland Government is considering making available cheap loans for renovations to owners of heritage-listed houses. Queensland's Heritage Minister, Dean Wells, said on July 13 [...]

Australian Bureau of Statistics figures due to be released today are expected to show that approvals for housing loans increased during May 2003. Economists are [...]

Westpac has expended its definition of what it considers to be "inner city" when it comes to investment properties. In Melbourne it defined the inner [...]

St George Bank has responded to a broker report that suggested it had made a grab for a larger slice of the home lending market [...]

The triple burden of federal, state and local taxes is pushing new homes in Melbourne out of the reach of the average homebuyer, the Housing [...]

Home loans have more than doubled in size over the past five years, with the average loan now standing at $179,631 - 61 per cent [...]

Queensland consumers are being hounded by debt collection agencies over debts that are either too old to be pursued or have been cancelled. But the [...]

Economists say the Reserve Bank's decision to hold off on cutting interest rates was due to concerns about the domestic residential property market as well [...]

Homeowners are being lured into refinancing to more expensive home loans by unscrupulous mortgage brokers, according to Mortgage Choice. Some loans with marginally lower interest [...]