Bank Profits are Up Thanks to Customers
Banks are posting enormous profits in their latest revenue disclosures. Statistics indicate that deposits from customers make up a bulk of these bank profits.
The latest bank to reveal its revenue is the National Australia Bank (NAB), which reported an interim profit of $3.15 billion for the first half. The NAB practically acknowledged in its press release that depositors primarily helped with the reported huge bank profits.
NAB stated that lower costs on liquidity, deposit and funding costs significantly contributed to higher revenues from lending and deposits. The total revenues of Australia’s big four banks rose to $15 billion for the first half of the year.
The New Daily stated that most banks used to raise their capitals from international sources; however, the global financial crisis changed things and made it costlier and more difficult for banks to borrow from overseas lenders. To keep their businesses going, banks resorted to local household and business depositors for their capital needs.
From around 40 per cent in 2007, deposits now account for 60 per cent of funding for all domestic loans from the banks.
Figures released by the Australian Prudential Regulation Authority (PRA) confirm the sizeable portion of deposits from consumers that make up bank profits. Around $560 billion worth of deposits from households is held by the banks. The big four hold a big slice of the pie with 82 per cent of the deposits worth about $530 billion.
The ones on the losing end of all these soaring bank profits are the more than 20 million household depositors whose money constitutes the bulk of the banks’ capital used to fund their loans.
Despite their dependence on household deposits for their funds, banks have not provided enough to compensate their customers. In fact, they even cut deposit interest rates to gain more revenues for the benefit of their investors who will be receiving soaring first-half dividends, and executives who will be taking home lucrative bonuses and incentives at the end of the year.
Deposits market competition died down in the last 18 months. According to Canstar, a financial services research firm, a $25,000 deposit could only earn 3.9 per cent interest in one year, the highest rate in the market today. Westpac and ANZ even offer rates for as low as 2.5 per cent.
The New Daily reported that the absence of strong pricing competition on deposits among banks in order to attract customers appears to indicate connivance between the lenders. If banks are really bent on dispensing balanced interests and services to both depositors and investors, they should give returns and incentives on customers’ deposits, which make up a substantial portion of bank profits.
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