Australia’s biggest banks unveil anti-scam platform
Seventeen banks – including the big four – have signed up to a “near real-time reporting” system that is designed to reduce scam activity. The Fraud Reporting Exchange (FRX) will give the participating banks a way to quickly communicate with each other as fraudulent payments are transferred from one institution to another. That is expected […]
- Author: admin
- Date: 22 May 2023
Student debt set for sharp, inflation-adjusted increase
HECS-HELP student debt will rise by 7.1% on June 1, in line with the latest inflation rate. That reflects the recent surge in inflation – the increase was only 3.9% in 2022 and 0.6% in 2021. The Australian Taxation Office (ATO) has advised people to move fast if they want to reduce their loan balances […]
- Author: admin
- Date: 22 May 2023
Some lenders plan to scrap cashbacks
Refinancing cashback deals may become a thing of the past, after several big banks and smaller lenders, including Commonwealth Bank, NAB and Bankwest, announced they planned to phase out the incentive. Now that some institutions have made the first move, it wouldn’t be surprising if other lenders followed suit, because cashback deals can have more […]
- Author: admin
- Date: 22 May 2023
First home buyer activity rises, despite challenges
This is a pretty good time to be a first-home buyer, according to one of Australia’s leading property economists. Ray White Group Chief Economist Nerida Conisbee said there are four things in favour of first-home buyers right now: That said, Ms Conisbee also noted that first-home buyers faced three main challenges: Still, more first-home buyers […]
- Author: admin
- Date: 22 May 2023
Federal Budget 23/24 – what does it mean for me?
You may have heard the Federal Government last night handed down its 2023/24 Federal Budget. Federal Treasurer Jim Chalmers’ Budget included a number of measures aimed at easing the cost-of-living pressures and improving housing affordability. The challenge the Treasurer faced was to ease pressure many Australians are facing in covering increasing costs without adding to […]
- Author: admin
- Date: 10 May 2023
Paid parental leave entitlements are about to change
From 1 July, two entitlements – Parental Leave Pay and Dad and Partner Pay – will be combined into one payment. That means the current entitlement to 18 weeks’ paid parental leave pay will be combined with the current Dad and Partner Pay entitlement to two weeks’ pay. As a result, partnered couples will be […]
- Author: admin
- Date: 2 May 2023
How office landlords are fighting to secure tenants
Just as employers are dreaming up perks to lure staff back into the office, office landlords are offering incentives to attract businesses to their premises. Ray White Commercial Head of Research Vanessa Rader said the incentives range from drinks and discount food to pilates sessions and special events, and have proved effective. “Post COVID-19 we […]
- Author: admin
- Date: 2 May 2023
Business sector in robust shape: RBA
The business sector has a stronger balance sheet than before the pandemic, according to the Reserve Bank of Australia’s (RBA) latest Financial Stability Review. That finding was based on a study of non-financial businesses’ balance sheets over the three years to June 2022, the most recent period for which the RBA had data. “Aggregate leverage […]
- Author: admin
- Date: 2 May 2023
Commercial property market cools due to market uncertainty
A total of $4.74 billion of commercial property transactions were conducted in the first quarter of 2023, 68.2% lower than the year before, according to data from Real Capital Analytics and Ray White. Ray White Commercial Head of Research Vanessa Rader said “a combination of rapidly rising interest rates, difficulty in obtaining finance and sentiment […]
- Author: admin
- Date: 2 May 2023
Does the cash rate impact car and personal loans?
The Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) today announced the cash rate will move by .25 percentage points to 3.85%. This follows the release of inflationary data last week that showed annual inflation had cooled slightly in the March quarter (7%) compared to the December quarter (7.8%). While many homeowners across the country have been impacted […]
- Author: admin
- Date: 2 May 2023
