News Australia

The government’s National Consumer Credit Protection Act regulations will become law as of July 1, after the Senate yesterday allowed the controversial regulations that ban exit fees in mortgages. However, the Mortgage & Finance Association of Australia (MFAA), which had sought an exemption for smaller lenders from the banning of exit fees, has said while [...]

Yesterday afternoon the Senate voted on a motion by  the Coalition and Independent Nick Xenophon to disallow the Government regulation to ban exit fees.  The strategy (backing MFAA’s campaign over the past few weeks) was to bring the Government to the table to prepare an amended regulation which would have exempted smaller lenders from the [...]

A threat by the Coalition to overturn the Gillard government’s ban on bank mortgage exit fees has prompted an angry response from consumer group Choice. The ban is due to take effect from July 1, but can still be reversed by a majority vote in federal Parliament. The Coalition would need the votes of two [...]

Here is an excerpt from a story by Naomi Woodley on The World Today: “A bid to link up with the independent Senator Nick Xenophon to overturn a ban on mortgage exit fees is the next item on the list. It’s due to be debated later today and it doesn’t need to go to the [...]

Hopes by some mortgage brokers and non-bank lenders that the Government would not garner sufficient numbers in the Parliament to maintain a ban on mortgage exit fees appear to have been dashed, with the Australian Greens indicating their strong support. The Greens’ only member in the House of Representatives and the party’s banking spokesman, Adam [...]

Click on the link to watch MFAA CEO Phil Naylor talking about mortgage exit fees on Channel 9 in Sydney

SMEs are experiencing a finance crisis due to the scarcity of lenders and a return to strict lending criteria, according to the Mortgage & Finance Association of Australia. The MFAA, which represents around 1,000 finance brokers who raise debt facilities for SMEs, says recent feedback from finance brokers suggests difficult times for their clients. According [...]

The Mortgage & Finance Association of Australia has questioned the basis of the government’s ban on mortgage exit fees. A recent research conducted by MFAA – a survey of over 1,000 householders – has shown that the public’s concern about mortgage exit fees as claimed by the government is not supported by the data. It [...]

The ‘margin’ on an interest rate in this example is the difference between the Reserve Bank cash rate and the average standard variable rate advertised by lenders. For many years was a static ratio of around 4 per cent on variable rate mortgages. When non-banks lenders entered the Australian mortgage market in 1992, the average [...]

“Destabilising”. “An absolute nonsense”. “Wildly unfair”. It’s been called many things, but one thing is for certain – the Government’s proposed wholesale ban on exit fees has caused shockwaves throughout the mortgage industry, particularly among non-banks, mortgage managers and brokers. Today, Mortgage Choice CEO Michael Russell, Gadens Lawyers senior partner Jon Denovan and Provident Capital [...]