Adelaide Bank result, with the bank’s net interest margin up 0.2 per cent to 1.92 per cent as it passed through higher rates to mortgage borrowers, and slightly less higher rates to deposit holders. But that dynamic is changing. Bendigo lifted its deposit rates in the final weeks of the year as part of an effort to bolster its funding to pursue growth, and expects this competition for deposits across the sector to weigh on deposits in the 2024 financial year, too.
Bendigo, like the rest of the banking sector has had to navigate the expiry of the Term Funding Facility which the Reserve Bank set up during the pandemic to provide the banks with access to cheap debt; the replacement funding that Bendigo secures will be much more expensive.AM: It’s not just banks seeing funding costs rise. Interest costs took analysts by surprise at Aurizon, sending the shares down on Monday., which was nearly 15 per cent more than analysts forecast.
The thing to watch at Aurizon is its bulk earnings, which is the company’s big push into carrying things like grain and iron ore, and diversifying its revenue and earnings away from coal. It bought OneRail last year to help fuel the growth but UBS analysts said that earnings were a bit “sluggish”, which is a bit of a concern.JT: Finally Anthony, to the company with more back-seat drivers than a road trip with your parents: property and construction giant Lendlease.
But he said he was not deviating from his strategy to simplify the group by selling assets and slashing costs; and will move to sell the group’s communities business, the last bit of its retirement business and its business in China when conditions allow.is senior Chanticleer columnist based in Melbourne. He was the Companies editor and editor of BRW Magazine.