Weekly Update: 4 April 2025

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Highlights this week:

• ABA distributed a media release about support to customers impacted by flooding in western Queensland and parts of NSW, with extensive coverage online including 9 News.
• ACCC announced the proposal to authorise Banking Code of Practice provisions on basic accounts and agricultural loan interest.
• The RBA published the Financial Stability Review – April 2025.

Quote of the week:
“Australian banks’ resilience has been supported by a long period of prudent lending standards, the high quality and quantity of capital, and large liquid asset buffers. Banks have steadily increased their capital over the past decade – largely through retained earnings – to be well above regulatory requirements. Despite some borrowers experiencing severe financial stress, overall asset quality has remained high and loan losses have been minimal.” 

– RBA Financial Stability Review. 3 April 2025.

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Media & Communications Update:

The ABA distributed a media release reminding customers across Far North Queensland about the support options banks can offer as communities continue to recover from extensive flooding in February.

Provided a statement to Bloomberg, AFR & The Australian on the Coalition’s policy to ease lending rules, saying: ‘Demand side support measures can be important, but so too are measures to free up supply and get more homes built for all Australians.’

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Parliamentary Update:

Tariffs: US President Donald Trump announced a 10 per cent tariff on all Australian goods exported to the US as part of an overhaul of import duties. Trump announced even higher duties on some 60 nations.

• Anthony Albanese described the tariffs as “unwarranted” with “no basis in logic” and revealed a five-point plan to support Australian industry.
• Peter Dutton said he could have negotiated a better outcome with the Trump administration but backed the Government’s announced response.

Lending & APRA: The Federal Opposition released a home ownership election policy that would:

• Change APRA’s Statement of Expectations, whilst retaining its core mandate
• Reduce the serviceability buffer, and
• Adjust the capital treatment of loans backed by Lenders Mortgage Insurance.

Financial services law: Shadow Treasurer Angus Taylor announced that a Coalition government would swiftly enact the ‘Securing Australia as a Financial Centre Bill’ within 100 days if elected. The Bill would aim to:

• Reform Australia’s capital markets
• Increase competition in financial services
• Reform the Corporations Act to simplify financial services law, and
• Establish a Foreign Investment Fast Track for investors from key security partners.

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Policy Update:

ABA policy teams met with:

• researchers at Macquarie University who are developing AI tools to combat scams.
• AUSTRAC and AGD to discuss timing considerations for implementation of AML/CTF reforms.
• Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry to discuss drought relief.

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Economic Update:

• The ABS released Personal Fraud and scams data for 2023-2024 (FY24). The data was mainly focused on personal fraud and specifically card fraud.
• 2.15 million Australians experienced card fraud in FY24 with a gross loss of $2.1 billion. However, due to 92% of customers reporting the fraud to their bank or financial institution, the net loss from card fraud was only $477 million with 72% of customers receiving full reimbursement.

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Regulatory Update:

• The RBA released the April 2025 statement of Monetary Policy.
• The RBA and APRA released a joint statement on use of the RBA’s Overnight Standing Facility.
• Christopher Kent, Assistant Governor (Financial Markets) of the RBA gave a speech on The RBA’s Monetary Policy Implementation System – Some Important Updates at the KangaNews Debt Capital Markets Summit.
• ASIC issued a sustainability reporting regulatory guide.

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Coming up next week:

• Politics:
  • Election campaign continues into Week 2.
• Data:
  • 09/04 – Building Approvals
  • 10/04 – Monthly Business Turnover Indicator

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Upcoming Submissions:

Published submissions

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Upcoming Events:

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Selected Media:

• ABC – Coalition promises to relax home lending rules, against regulator’s urging
• AFR – Trump tariffs to force RBA to cut rates up to four times in 2025
• SMH – The Nigerian ‘blood cult’ targeting lonely Australians with romance scams
• ABC – Donald Trump’s tariffs hit all the RBA’s key risks for financial stability 
• AFR – This market metric shows the sell-off is getting scary

Warm regards,
The ABA Team

Weekly Update