Show Me The Monetary Policy

Just what should central banks be looking at when deciding interest rates?

Choosing the right credit card types from the banks

Banks offer very different sets of features for their credit cards, which is why it is important to recognise the different types of credit cards from the banks.

Sophia Banks

It took a few detours, but this designer found her passion in the city where dreams are made.

Choosing banks

When choosing which banks to deal with, keep in mind that what you want now may be different in the future.

Lower Costs, But Not For Long As Pressure Hits

THE fall in home-loan costs expected for as early next month could be short-lived as the longer term funding pressures on banks are set to increase rather than ease over the coming year.

Using multiple banks

If you are using multiple banks for a wide variety of financial needs, it is important to find a convenient way of managing your business with all of them.

Look Beyond The Big Five

Attractive home loan rates are available outside the major banks.

Credit Crisis To Hit Business Debt

THE subprime contagion is still spreading, with major banks in Australia and around the world facing billions more in potential write-downs - but this time to their corporate debt portfolios.

Invest In Surfing Memorabilia And Avoid A Wipe-out, Dude

THE economy may be rattling banks and real estate agents, but Mick Mock reckons there has never been a better time to invest in surfing memorabilia.

Compare what the banks offer

Banks can provide a staggering array of products.

Financial Advisers Haven't All Gone Cold On Cdos

MAJOR investment banks are washing their hands of complicated products such as collateralised debt obligations (CDOs), wary of their unpredictable returns. Even so, some investors are labelling them the "opportunity of a lifetime".

Banks for your retirement

When planning your retirement, the banks you will use for various financial needs can be important.

Reserve Bashes The Banks

THE Reserve Bank has partly blamed Australia's private banks for creating conditions that risk pushing the nation into a "deeper and more persistent slowdown".

Blame Yourself For Bank Rip-offs

With one of our Big Four banks, Westpac, about to gobble up the fifth biggest, St George, how much competition is there between them? Not as much as we'd like, but more than you may think. In any case, the less-than-cutthroat competition is partly our own fault.

Subprime Crisis Sparks Treasurer's Probe Into Another State-run Organisation

ANOTHER Victorian state-run organisation is being investigated for breaching investment guidelines, just a week after the Government shut down a water board on the banks of the Murray River for buying into the US subprime crisis.

Expand your business

Banks can help your business to expand by providing loans and leasing services to fund improvements.

Looking A Bit Soft

The Rudd Government is still feeling its way, and it shows. Telstra and the banks are making hay while the sun shines.

Lehman Brothers Subprime Fallout To Hit Victoria Hard

is just one of several banks known to have peddled complex financial instruments called collateralised debt obligations (CDOs) in Victoria before the market for them collapsed. Invest Victoria , First Mildura Irrigation Trust, Maroondah City Council ,

Banks 'manipulate' On Credit Card Limits

AUSTRALIAN banks and other credit lenders employ "psychological manipulations" to tempt consumers to increase their credit card limits, according to a new report that examines the language and design used in letters offering higher credit allowances.

Show Them The Money

Banks and lenders should pass on any interest rate cuts to borrowers.

Subprime Crisis To Hit Charities

AUSTRALIA'S biggest banks have shrugged off the subprime crisis with little more than a dent in their billion-dollar profits, but many charities, churches, children's hospitals and local councils have been infected.

The Doer Lord And His Do-it Manor

Paola Totaro catches up with an Australia-bound leader who banks on the resilience of people - not the capacity of government - to effect life's improvements. Lord Mawson, Andrew Mawson,

Compare personal loans

Banks can offer great deal son personal loans, but if you want to find the best deal, it can be a good idea to see everything that's on offer.

Ah, The Banks Of The Yarra: Perfect One Day, Perfect The Next

The banks of the Yarra are one of this city's most beautiful spots. They don't need to disappear over summer for a beach.

Banks offering low cost credit cards

Banks offer interest free days on purchases for many of their credit cards, which can lead to low overall costs when combined with low annual fees.

Editorial Banks Profit, But No Relief On Frontline

THE Commonwealth Bank yesterday posted a higher-than-expected $4.7 million profit, but don't imagine that is going to influence any decision to cut mortgage interest rates.

Babcock Takes Property Hit

THE global financial downturn looks to be plaguing Australia's big banks, with Babcock & Brown downgrading its interim 2008 net profit by as much as 40%.

Will the banks pass on the rate drops?

Many people are looking forward to a possible interest rate reduction by the RBA, but there are concerns that the banks will not respond in kind.

Clearance Rate Drops Close To A Three-year Low

INTEREST rate cut? What interest rate cut? Just as the market was starting to see the light at the end of the tunnel, it turns out that what the Reserve Bank can give, the private banks look increasingly likely to keep away.

An Interest In Real Estate

SLUMPING property sales in the Hunter prove what was already known. The brakes are on the economy and consumer confidence has faltered. That's chiefly to do with global circumstances. The subprime mortgage disaster in the United States has produced a credit crunch. Some of the world's biggest banks are attempting to absorb painful losses and suddenly the long-running glut of money has turned into a relative shortage.

Commander On Hold As Banks Call Up Receivers

COMMANDER Communications' lenders have called in the corporate paramedics in an attempt to revive what only two years ago was Australia's fourth-biggest telco.

Reserve May Cut Rates, Banks Might Not Follow

TWO of Australia's largest banks, Westpac and ANZ, have warned that they may not fully pass on any cut in interest rates by the Reserve Bank.

Savings or a personal loan?

Banks offer both high interest savings accounts as well as personal loans, but which is better for helping you to pay for the larger purchases you want?

We Need To Crash Through Barriers

Given the achievements of the past 20 years, now is not the time to stop tariff reform, writes Gary Banks.

Mortgage Slump Good For Rate Cuts

THE prospect of the big banks choosing not to pass on the full effects of an interest rate cut by the Reserve Bank to mortgage borrowers receded yesterday, after new figures showed home-loan lending had slowed to its weakest level for 20 years.

Angel Of Oecd Approves Bank Rescue

THE world's lenders would lose up to $4 trillion if central banks were not moving to help them through the US subprime crisis, according to one of the world's foremost economic diplomats.

Looking for better home loans?

Banks are very often the first stop for people looking to take out home loans.

Market Takes 2.6% Dive

THE resource sector, led by mining giants BHP Billiton and Rio Tinto, dragged the market to a three-month low despite a late rally by the banks.

This Bank Thrives On Risky Deals

WHEN the disaster relief teams flew into Chengdu in May to tackle the devastation of the Sichuan earthquake, with them was a team from the International Finance Corporation - with $US1 billion of guarantees for local banks so they could help small business survive and rebuild.

How can banks help you?

Banks offer a wide variety of services to help people with their finances.

Nz Fallout To Hurt Australia

MORE than 30 New Zealand financiers and investment trusts have failed or been forced to stop investors withdrawing their money in the past two years, underlining the exposure of Australian banks to bad debts in New Zealand.

Banks or credit unions?

The main difference between banks and credit unions is ownership.

Market Is Right To Slash Banks

SOMETIMES the sharemarket gets it wrong. When it comes to the banks,not this time. There's been good reason to slash their share prices - don't be surprised if they drift for the rest of the year.

Not Hawaii, Tahiti Or Bells . . . Newcastle Rolls Out The Barrels

THE perfect combination of swell, offshore winds and shallow sand banks brought a smile to surfers' faces yesterday morning.

Is this the best personal loan?

Banks offer different types of personal loans.

Surf's Up At Dangerous Banks, 35km Off Tassie

DANGEROUS BANKS is a large shifting sandbar with a mythical and fearsome history, about 35 kilometres off the tip of north-west Tasmania, where Bass Strait floods into the Southern Ocean.

They Surf At Dangerous Banks, 35km Off Tassie

DANGEROUS BANKS is a large shifting sandbar with a mythical and fearsome history, about 35 kilometres off the tip of north-west Tasmania where Bass Strait floods into the Southern Ocean.

Waive The Danger? Off Tasmania, Some Surfers Think That's A Swell Idea

DANGEROUS Banks is a large shifting sandbar about 35 kilometres off the tip of north-west Tasmania. Raging currents, winds and giant swells kept humans at bay for nearly 200 years, but on June 27 three surfers conquered Dangerous Banks.

What are your personal banking needs?

Banks offer a variety of products to help you make the most of your money