RBA LEAVES CASH RATE ON HOLD AT ITS FIRST MEETING OF 2019

 

February, 2019

 

At its meeting today, the Board decided to 

LEAVE THE cash RATE ON HOLD AT 1.5%

The Governor of the RBA, Philip Lowe’s, statement is available in full CLICK HERE

 

Welcome to the first email of 2019.  I trust you all had a wonderful Christmas season, and those that have children, have all settled into the school year!

 

So yesterday was the release of the Final Report of the Royal Commission into Misconduct in the Banking, Superannuation and Financial Services Industry.

We believe it has been a huge set back for the broker channel and Customers.

The recommendations on mortgage brokers represent a huge win for the Big Four banks.

Destroying the viability of the mortgage broker channel would immediately reduce competition and drive customers back into the branches of the banks with the largest branch networks.

MFAA CEO Mike Felton said these recommendations did not represent a good outcome for consumers.

“These policy recommendations are effectively a new multi-thousand-dollar tax on borrowing. They will put the broker channel at severe risk, damaging competition and access to credit and entrench bank power,” Mr Felton said.

“As reviews by ASIC, the ABA and the Productivity Commission have found, brokers drive competition by providing a shopfront for smaller lenders, particularly for rural and regional customers. We are critical to the health of Australia’s mortgage lending market.

“I fail to see how decimating the broker channel, leaving Australians with a handful of lenders to choose from, is good for competition, or good for customers,” Mr Felton said.

 

Let’s see what will unfold from this Final Report in the coming months!