6 June 2023
The RBA continues to address the nation’s inflation challenge with today’s 0.25% increase in the cash rate target, to 4.10%.
The latest inflation figures showed an increase to 6.8% in April, up from 6.3% the previous month, indicating the cost-of-living challenge faced by Australian households.
The ABA encourages those bank customers who are concerned about their financial situation to shop around to find the most suitable deal for their individual needs. Competition in the banking sector is strong and record levels of mortgage refinancing continues.
Banks strongly encourage any customers experiencing financial difficulty to reach out to access bank support services and to do so as early as possible.
Bank support teams are also proactively communicating with those customers at risk. Banks can assist customers by restructuring loans, offering interest only payments, extending the term of a loan and offering payment deferrals.
Australians have record levels of savings sitting in deposit and offset accounts while arrears remain at low levels. In April 2023 the value of household deposits on the books of ADIs grew for the 23rd month in a row, to $1.373 trillion.
Figure 1: Deposits held with ADIs, March 2019 – April 2023, $m
Latest news
Banks are on standby to support customers across the Mid-North Coast and Hunter regions impacted by the current severe weather and flooding. ABA CEO Anna Bligh said with torrential rain and flooding taking place, banks were activating financial assistance and relief to support their customers. “Banks recognise that this is a very challenging weather event… Read more »
Michael McLaren (Host): Well, here we are at the Easter Show, the great celebration of country life in the city, but it’s also an important platform this to better understand the challenges that the regions face. Now, yesterday, we looked at the floods. Today, I want to look at the banks. Now in the regions,… Read more »
The ABA is reminding customers across North and Far North Queensland that they don’t have to tough it out on their own, as they continue to recover from February’s severe flooding event. ABA CEO Anna Bligh recently met with Queensland’s State Recovery Coordinator Andrew Cripps to discuss how banks can assist customers facing financial difficulty… Read more »