Announcer - exposes "fake news"!!
Fake News”
It must be tough being in the media industry these days. With so many outlets with which to get our news it is much harder for them to grab a headline.
“Sensationalising” news seems to be the way to grab attention, forgetting about the detail, accuracy or validity of the information being used.
So this week I call out the “fake news” articles on the front pages of the Financial Review, Australian, Telegraph reporting on the housing bubble, poor lending practices by our banks and the personal crusades of individuals employed by the legislators APRA and ASIC enforcing tighter lending restrictions. I think it is about time we get some perspective!
In the old days the RBA moved the cash interest rates up and down to maintain some stability in the economy. It’s key economic indicators remain the same – inflation, growth, employment, Aussie Dollar. Australia is a big place, so if we take the Australian Macro number, the country is not doing too bad. However on a City by City, State by State and Industry by Industry basis, things are not quite even. So how can the RBA manage all of these factors by just changes in the cash rate?
The simple answer is it can’t, so to help slow down the pace of property growth it has called in help of the banking and lending legislators APRA and ASIC!
Let’s all agree, the increase in property value in Sydney and Melbourne over the last 5 years has been incredible and with the real interest rates at all-time lows, it may be more affordable on real rates to borrow a larger loan than ever before. This being said, having written thousands of loans for hard working Australians and worked with all the big lenders and banks in our market, I can safely say that their lending practices have never been more sensible and their policies more stringent.
The banks I work with dot their I’s and cross their T’s. They now request more information from applicants than ever before. Their assessment interest rate is an average at 8%, their living expenses used are very real and lastly. The credit reporting agencies have further information they provide to the banks on applicants about their historic credit applications and credit performance. Never before has there been this much abundant information for the banks to make an informed credit assessment on applicants.
Yes I totally agree, banks and the legislators need to work closely together to ensure we continue to make “responsible” lending decisions. These conversations should be done collectively and collaboratively and not show ponied and played on stage and in the media!
It is great that we can celebrate the collective knowledge of our major banks ( 200th years of Westpac it started as the Bank of NSW in 1817) and our legislators APRA and ASIC (both founded in 1998).
Don’t believe the hype!