Plenty of competition for borrowers: RBA

The head of the Reserve Bank says Australia has healthy levels of competition in the lending market, particularly home loans.

The Reserve Bank building in Sydney

The Reserve Bank building in Sydney

The head of the Reserve Bank says there's plenty of competition in Australia's lending market, particularly when it comes to home loans.

Glenn Stevens said competition had increased across most types of loans, particularly for mortgages and loans to big business.

Despite the RBA keeping the cash rate on hold for 18 months between August 2013 and February 2015, mortgage rates fell thanks to healthy competition, he said.

"I do not think, myself, there's any problem of no competition in the mortgage market," Mr Stevens said in his bi-annual testimony to a parliamentary committee on Friday.

"If you're worried about competition, I don't think it's worth spending any more time on mortgages."

One area that could use more competition was lending for small business, although this was a harder area, Mr Stevens said.

When asked about competition among credit card rates, Mr Stevens said Australians should not be encouraged to use credit cards, which were an expensive form of debt.


Share

1 min read

Published

Updated

Source: AAP


Share this with family and friends


Get SBS News daily and direct to your Inbox

Sign up now for the latest news from Australia and around the world direct to your inbox.

By subscribing, you agree to SBS’s terms of service and privacy policy including receiving email updates from SBS.

Download our apps
SBS News
SBS Audio
SBS On Demand

Listen to our podcasts
An overview of the day's top stories from SBS News
Interviews and feature reports from SBS News
Your daily ten minute finance and business news wrap with SBS Finance Editor Ricardo Gonçalves.
A daily five minute news wrap for English learners and people with disability
Get the latest with our News podcasts on your favourite podcast apps.

Watch on SBS
SBS World News

SBS World News

Take a global view with Australia's most comprehensive world news service
Watch the latest news videos from Australia and across the world