Latest news with #ANZ
Daily Mail
18 hours ago
- Business
- Daily Mail
Shock update after Aussie family lost 15 years of savings when their $250,000 house deposit was stolen in sophisticated email scam
A Gold Coast family scammed out of their $250,000 house deposit has received a major lifeline after ANZ agreed to fully reimburse the stolen funds. Sarah and Laine Robinson unknowingly transferred their entire life savings to scammers posing as their conveyancer just days before settlement on their dream rural home in Mount Nathan. 'We honestly can't believe it,' Sarah told A Current Affair. 'We've had a phone call from ANZ, and they agreed to reimburse the money.' The couple had spent 15 years saving for their dream property and were packed up and ready to move with their three children when the scam unfolded. The nightmare began when, as settlement approached, the conveyancing firm the couple had been working with suddenly went silent. Unknown to the Robinsons, scammers had intercepted the email chain and began impersonating the firm. The fraudulent emails looked nearly identical to legitimate correspondence, but had one subtle red flag, the sender's email was missing a simple '.au' at the end. 'I was talking to the scammers for a week-and-a-half without knowing,' Sarah said. Trusting the instructions, the Robinsons visited an ANZ branch to make the payment. There, the teller failed to notice that the account name didn't match the details. 'They can see that they were at fault on that day,' Sarah said. 'Their staff member failed to do appropriate checks and failed to protect us.' The scam was only uncovered the day before settlement, when the real conveyancer contacted them. While the firm had received the first $60,000, the second and much larger payment of $252,000 was missing. ANZ was initially able to recover around $80,000, but the remaining $170,000 was gone. The bank has now stepped in and reimbursed the full amount. The heartwarming update comes after Australian Financial Complaints Authority had previously cleared the ANZ of wrongdoing, a finding the couple have criticised. Despite this, ANZ made the decision to cover the full loss. The couple are now urging other scam victims not to give up hope. 'If you can see you can see you've done the right thing, keep fighting. You can have a positive outcome, we are living proof that can happen,' they said. The family is now back on the market, hoping to finally find a new dream home. ANZ said it would take action to help protect its customers against scams and fraud, including business email compromise and invoice scams like this one. 'We invest in ongoing education, detection systems, and recovery efforts to support our customers. The extent and pace of change in the scams landscape has evolved significantly, as perpetrators become increasingly sophisticated,' a statement said. 'We will continue to adapt our protective measures and encourage customers to stay alert, stay informed, and act swiftly on anything suspicious.'
Business Times
a day ago
- Business
- Business Times
Olam secures US$1.85 billion loan
[SINGAPORE] Agribusiness giant Olam has secured a US$1.85 billion loan for general corporate purposes, said the company on Friday (May 30) via a bourse filing. The loan, which was taken by Olam Agri – the company's food, feed and fibre operating group – has a three-year tenor and will be disbursed in two tranches. The first tranche is a US$1.6 billion conventional loan, while the remaining US$250 million will be issued as an Islamic loan. For the conventional tranche, the lead arrangers are ANZ, BBVA, BNP Paribas, ING, Intesa Sanpaolo, Natixis, as well as First Abu Dhabi. These are the banks responsible for arranging and syndicating the loan. HSBC is the conventional tranche's facility agent, which is responsible for managing the loan's day-to-day activities and the relationships between the borrower and lenders. For the Islamic tranche, the lead arranger and investment agent is Dubai Islamic Bank. Shares of Olam rose 1.1 per cent, or S$0.01, to close at S$0.90 on Friday.
1News
2 days ago
- Business
- 1News
Is it time to lock in a longer home loan fix?
Timing the market to lock in interest rates at the very bottom of the cycle is likely to be difficult, ANZ's economists say - but there could merit in taking one more short-term fix before locking in a longer term. They have released their latest Property Focus report, in which they say they expect the housing market to pick up over the latter half of this year, and for prices to end the year 4.5% higher. But they say the big question on many borrowers' minds is when is the right time to lock in home loan rates. The Reserve Bank cut the OCR again on Wednesday, and banks are offering a range of terms just below 5%. ANZ's economists said the Reserve Bank's own forecasts implied more cuts were coming but there was debate about how quickly and how much. ADVERTISEMENT The Reserve Bank has pencilled in 40bps of cuts, indicating that two 25bp cuts is more likely than one. ANZ economists expect the OCR to fall to a trough of 2.5% in October. They said wholesale rates were likely to keep falling until the end of the year and mortgage rates were likely to follow suit. But when markets decided the turn was happening, the opportunity to take cheaper rates could start to disappear. "History has taught us that when interest rates bottom out, financial markets tend to be quick to conclude that if they aren't falling they will eventually start rising. Given that, we think the proverbial $64,000 question for most people will be when should I lock in for longer? Loosely speaking the short answer is soon." Wholesale rates would have a little further to fall, but not as much as the OCR, which could bring one, two and three-year mortgage rates down by another 10bps or 20bps, they said. "At face value that suggests there is merit in fixing for six months with a view to refixing for a longer term when that fixed term ends. The only problem with that strategy is that the future is always uncertain and of course rates may not fall, or if they do they may not fall as much as expected." They said the US tariff impacts would mean it took longer for the economy to recover than it otherwise would, which would keep inflation at bay and mean rates could fall further. ADVERTISEMENT "We have broadly been of the view that borrowers have had the luxury of waiting a little longer for the past few months and, while it has paid off, and we think that remains the case, time is marching on. "With one- and two-year rates already at 4.99%, they are worthy of consideration too, as is spreading one's risk over several terms or strategies. "For many borrowers the choice will come down to how convinced you are that interest rates will keep falling and how much you stand to gain if they do." They said they expected the housing market was likely to stay fairly steady with rising demand being matched by supply. "The sales-to-listings ratio is a useful indicator of heat in the housing market and tends to give a three to six month lead on house price momentum. It's tracked sideways as rising sales have been matched by growing inventories, and points to modest growth in house prices in the near term." They said days to sell had dropped a bit but was still above the long-term average.
Yahoo
2 days ago
- Business
- Yahoo
Major bank's $2.4 million a day 'boon' exposed as CBA, NAB and ANZ make popular move
Commonwealth Bank, NAB and ANZ customers will see their variable home loan interest rate drop from today, following the Reserve Bank of Australia's (RBA) May cash rate cut. Westpac customers will have to wait until Tuesday for the rate change. More than 20 lenders have now dropped variable rates following last week's decision, where the official cash rate was lowered 0.25 per cent to 3.85 per cent. More than 50 lenders have made their post-RBA announcements, but haven't yet passed on the cut. Infochoice editor and research analyst Harrison Astbury told Yahoo Finance some banks' cuts to mortgage rates wouldn't take effect until June 10 or 11, more than 20 days after the RBA's announcement. RELATED Commonwealth Bank announces huge interest rate cut following RBA decision: 'Stampede' Australia's most in-demand jobs revealed with $125,000 salaries up for grabs $1,831 Centrelink payment change coming within weeks 'In terms of the tardiest on home loans it's actually two smaller customer-owned banks - P&N Bank which rate cuts take effect on 10 June, and Tassie-based Bank of Us [on] 11 June,' Astbury told Yahoo Finance. 'Bendigo is probably the biggest player that is the tardiest, with home loan rate cuts not taking effect until 6 June.' Horizon Bank now offers the lowest variable rate on the market, according to Canstar, with a first-home buyer loan priced at 5.25 per cent. CBA, Westpac, and ANZ's lowest variable rate will be from 5.59 per cent when the rates take effect, while NAB's will be 5.94 per Westpac and NAB have chopped their savings rates ahead of their mortgage rates. Westpac's savings cuts will come into effect today, while its home loan rate cuts won't be until June 3. NAB lowered rates on its two main savings accounts last Friday ahead of today's mortgage cut. While the delay might not seem like much, Astbury said it could be a huge 'boon' for the banks. 'Westpac stands to gain up to $2.4 million per day in the four days between its savings account and home loan rate cuts,' he said. 'This can be calculated via looking at its variable home loan vs deposit book ($485 billion vs $348.5 billion), based on its net interest margin (NIM) — 1.88 per cent — gleaned from its latest half-year results.' Astbury said NAB could gain around $766,000 a day from the seven-day delay, due to the makeup of its loan versus deposit booms and lower NIM. CBA and ANZ have made their savings cuts take effect from today, the same day as home loan rate cuts. CBA quietly announced it would be passing on the 25 basis point cut to savings account customers this morning. Infochoice found the biggest gap between savings and home loan rate cuts was from AMP, who has a 10 day difference. The average borrower with a $600,000 home loan with 25 years remaining will see their minimum monthly repayments drop by $91 following May's cash rate cut. CBA, ANZ and NAB do not automatically adjust repayments after rate cuts and customers have to initiate a change to their direct debit. Customers may have to wait until at least late June or July to see their repayments drop, depending on their billing cycle. Canstar data insights director Sally Tindall said customers should consider whether they want the relief in their bank account or for it to stay in their mortgage. 'If you don't need the cash right now to make ends meet, think about keeping your repayments exactly the same, because if you can chip in a little bit extra each month, for the rest of your loan term, you could potentially find yourself mortgage-free years ahead of schedule and save tens of thousands of dollars,' she said. Astbury has called on lenders to move quicker to pass on interest rate cuts to borrowers. Unloan and Athena, for example, dropped new and existing variable rates on the same day as the RBA announcement, effective immediately. Unloan is owned by CBA. Macquarie was also quick to the draw, dropping savings and home loan rates three days after the RBA decision. 'We've seen it is possible to move incredibly quickly and there's a variety of reasons why some banks are slow to act,' he told Yahoo Finance. 'They will say legacy IT systems delay the rate cuts — some banks will point out they still have numerous tech platforms with different home loan customers on them versus the new digital players which might only have one or two. 'This isn't a good enough excuse in my opinion. The secret reason is protecting margins, and as we know in the case of Bendigo and smaller regional players experiencing bleed back to the major banks, margins have taken a hit so they are doing anything they can to protect them.'
Business Recorder
2 days ago
- Business
- Business Recorder
Indian rupee to rise at open after dollar reverses tariff ruling-spurred rally
MUMBAI: The Indian rupee is poised to open higher on Friday, after the U.S. dollar's rally, which was sparked by a U.S. court ruling on tariff policy, proved short-lived. The 1-month non-deliverable forward indicated a open in the 85.36-85.40 range, versus the previous session's close of 85.5075. So far this week, the Indian currency has been in a 84.78 to 85.70 range and is on track for a marginal weekly decline. Indian rupee to open nearly flat, holds upper hand as dollar remains vulnerable The rupee 'is in a space where you have to play the ranges' with the near-term range defined by recent price action between 85.00 and 85.80, a currency trader at a Mumbai-based bank said. 'Moves below 85 (on dollar/rupee) and past 86 are difficult to imagine at this stage.' Dollar resumes decline The dollar index, which had touched an intraday high of 100.48 on Thursday, slipped to 99.30, allowing Asian currencies to recover from losses. The dollar had initially found support after a U.S. court ruling blocked most of former President Donald Trump's proposed tariffs. However, a federal appeals court later issued a temporary pause on the ruling, allowing the tariffs to remain in place for now. Senior officials from the Trump administration had anyway downplayed the impact of the ruling blocking the tariffs, expressing confidence it would be overturned on appeal and indicating that alternative legal avenues to impose tariffs remain available. While the initial court ruling sparked optimism, it does not eliminate the uncertainty surrounding the U.S. trade policy, ANZ Bank said in a note. 'The appeal process could drag on for months, adding to trade policy uncertainty,' ANZ noted, while pointing out that legal experts have suggested that the administration does indeed have other legal authorities to levy tariffs. The dollar was further pressured by data that showed the number of Americans filing new applications for jobless benefits rose more than expected last week.
