National

Resilient home loan borrowers surprise big bank bosses

By AAP Newswire

Jul 12, 2023

General view outside a NAB branch. — Resilience among borrowers in a time of higher interest rates has surprised the big bank bosses. -AAP Image

Two of the big four banks have reported an uptick in customers asking for help but hardship levels remain surprisingly low.

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Both ANZ and NAB, the first of the big four banks to front a parliamentary committee this week, reported resilience despite high inflation and a fast-paced series of interest rate hikes.

NAB chief executive Ross McEwan said the bank had contacted half a million customers since May 2022 to see how they were faring.

"This includes 8600 home loan customers who we thought were most at risk, but after checking in with them, surprisingly only 14 wanted immediate help," Mr McEwan said.

Surveying by the bank has revealed growing financial stress, however, with one in four feeling worse off financially than 12 months ago.

Mr McEwan said he expected more pain for households in the form of one or two more interest rate hikes.

"It is my view that the sooner we get to the top of this cycle the better, because while it hurts, it is the uncertainty that is harder to manage through," he said.

ANZ chief executive Shayne Elliott said only $6 of every $1000 in its Australian home loans portfolio was overdue by more than 90 days, which was better than before the pandemic.

The bank boss offered three explanations for the display of resilience: strong levels of employment, big savings buffers and robust credit standards that have kept lending responsible.

Around 70 per cent are also ahead on their mortgage repayments, with many customers paying more than they had to when interest rates fell during the pandemic.

"Now that rates are rising, it also means their monthly bills aren't necessarily going up, they're just less ahead," Mr Elliott said.

NAB's top executive said rates of arrears - late mortgage repayments - were ticking up slowly and warned more than half of its customers who secured low fixed rates during the pandemic were yet to roll onto higher plans.

But he said 45 per cent had already fallen off their fixed rates of around two per cent onto something as high as six per cent, and default rates had still remained surprisingly low.

The bosses of Westpac and the Commonwealth Bank will front the committee on Thursday.

Treasurer Jim Chalmers said his priority was making sure banks were doing the right thing by their customers.

"That's especially important in the context of interest rates, which have been going up since before the election," he said.

"(We must ensure) they are swiftly passing on interest rate increases to savers as they have been to borrowers."