My last post looked beyond the superficial assessment of each bank’s exposure to a deterioration in mortgage book asset quality on the back of any turn in the residential property cycle. In this post, we look at the difference in geographic exposure. Continue…

by Stuart Jackson Posted in Financial Services.

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There has been a lot of discussion of late about the current state of the residential property market and the potential for a correction, or even a collapse, in residential property prices. Continue…

by Stuart Jackson Posted in Editor's Pick, Financial Services.

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IDP Education listed on the ASX under the stock code IEL in the latter part of last year.  Education Australia, which comprises 38 Australian Universities owns 50 per cent of IDP, and has agreed to escrow this shareholding until the release of the FY 2016 results in August. Continue…

by Stuart Jackson Posted in Insightful Insights.

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APRA released quarterly statistics for the private health insurance industry during the week. While the data showed rising gross margin trends for the insurers as a result of slowing hospital treatment volume growth, there were trends in the premium data that will be concerning for the Government. Continue…

by Stuart Jackson Posted in Health Care, Insightful Insights.

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Further to our recent warnings about the risks to residential property prices, additional insight has been provided by the release of March quarter results from Genworth (ASX: GMA). Genworth is the largest (dominant) provider of mortgage insurance in Australia.

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by Stuart Jackson Posted in Financial Services, Property.

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McGrath Estate Agents (ASX: MEA) share price fell over 30 per cent on the back of an announcement that its profits will fall short of the prospectus forecasts in FY16.

The company blamed an “unforeseen low volume of listings and sales” that started to emerge in the latter part of March. Prior to this, the company was performing slightly ahead of the prospectus forecasts. Continue…

by Stuart Jackson Posted in Insightful Insights, Property.

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Last year’s final report from the Financial Services Inquiry (FSI) made a large number of recommendations. These included lowering the cap on the maximum interchange fee a bank is allowed to charge on a credit card transaction. Continue…

by Stuart Jackson Posted in Insightful Insights.

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The market has become increasingly concerned about the risk of asset impairments for the major banks. Whether it be from exposure to Asia, mining and energy assets, agriculture assets in New Zealand, or the housing market in Sydney and Melbourne. Banks have effectively sold a put option to consumers and businesses over their assets or income streams and as a result they have a leveraged exposure to significant falls in asset prices. Continue…

by Stuart Jackson Posted in Financial Services, Insightful Insights.

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APRA released December quarter data on the health insurance industry last month. This shows that private health insurance penetration fell for the first time in 10 years. While the percentage of Australian residents that had private hospital insurance only fell 0.1 per cent to 47.2 per cent, this will be of great concern to the Government given that falling coverage rates inevitably sees the healthcare burden fall back onto the public system. Continue…

by Stuart Jackson Posted in Health Care, Insightful Insights.

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