Welcome to Finance and Fury, The Say What Wednesday edition. 

Today’s question comes from David

Hi Louis,

I must commend you on your contribution to the finance community. If you have thought me one thing, it’s that the more you learn the more you realise how little you know. So, one thing that does perplex me is the Australian made product of the offset account. Whilst I understand how they work and the power they have when used correctly, I can’t figure out why the banks have them. I mean it’s the modus operandi of the banks to extract money from lenders via the mechanism of interest. Call me a cynic but I feel the banks must have an ulterior motive to this play. I would love to know your thoughts. – David 

 

That is a great question – made me think as well and do some further digging – today – Offset accounts and Why banks allow them?

  1. First – the basic = Offset accounts are a type of deposit account that is directly linked to a loan – like a mortgage
    1. Money deposited into offset accounts effectively reduce the loans net position and the interest payable
    2. Means where a borrower has a deposit account and a loan (usually a housing loan) with the same institution.
      1. Instead of receiving interest on the deposit account, the interest payment due on the loan is calculated on the net balance of the loan
    3. As they act as deposit accounts – only ADI can offer true offset accounts – non-banks will offer redraw facility instead – which means the money is on the loan – different
  2. In Aus – Offset account balances currently total around $90 billion – almost over 6% of housing loans outstanding
    1. Annual growth in total housing debt of around 7-8% – Offset account balances grown by 30% – annual growth in net housing debt is still growing by 6-7% due to new loans –

Why banks allow them? – number of reasons

  1. Simple one – Better with them than another bank – Incentive to have your money with them and not the competition
    1. Also – repayments come from the offset accounts – easy for banks to have their funds – but minor
  2. But one of the major reasons – they Allow for the further growth of credit – remember – they are deposit accounts
    1. Because Offset accounts are deposit accounts – banks can use them as part of reserves in fractional lending for the creation of money
    2. RBA – Offset account balances have also been making a significant contribution to household deposit growth
      1. If offset balances weren’t in deposits but had paid the loan back – would reduce growth in household deposits by around 1% (from around 7-8%) -12-14% or so reduction
      2. Mortgage payments reduce the ‘stock of outstanding credit’ – i.e. total amount of loans and are a negative growth factor on total credit – if everyone makes additional repayments the credit growth shrinks – the credit growth can be negative = no new lending and only repayments is negative credit growth
    3. Offset accounts are an alternative form of mortgage prepayment that like an at-call deposit account –
      1. Because it acts like an at-call deposit account, any accumulated funds are easily available for withdrawal or for purchasing goods and services – They are treated as such – can be used as any other deposit for lending by the bank
      2. Also – while funds in the account are reducing your outstanding debt for the interest on the loan – you still have the same loan
    4. For the individual with a mortgage and uses an offset account or redraw – similar household economic effects – net housing debt and interest payable are reduced
    5. But for a bank – loans and deposits are higher than they otherwise would be – offset provides deposit funds and doesn’t give a negative credit growth effect – like redraw facilities do
      1. If that $90bn was sitting in the loan (i.e. paid off) – less lending due to fewer depositor funds
  3. Therefore – offset accounts Can increase banks lending income – not decrease it-
    1. Say loans are 4% – you can save 4% or banks can charge it –
    2. $100k in an offset – you save $4,000
    3. Banks use it to lend $800k (12.5% deposit ratio) – they make $32,000 – net $28k better off

Also – Other factors like bail-ins and deposit schemes

  1. Bail in-laws – We’ll leave a link on the website to the episodes covering the bail-in regulations and pitfall of this
    1. In short – as it is a deposit account – can be used as bail-in provision –
    2. Most people with loans would have much more in offsets than savings – or should at least –
    3. But the catch is that all your deposits will likely to be with one ADI – and potentially above the $250k
  2. Government Guarantees – May not actually help – You have a few problems there: A guarantee only applies to a bank going insolvent and collapsing— with not enough money left over for depositors. Bail-ins (if they are in fact legal) will just take your money to prevent that from happening. That is, the government guarantee won’t cover a bail-in.
    1. Guarantees are capped at $20B per ADI – stated in Financial System Legislation Amendment (Financial Claims Scheme and Other Measures) Bill 2008
      1. Activation of the EAFD 1.20 – A declaration outlines the total amount available to make payments to depositors of a declared ADI. For the first three years of the scheme (from 2008), the amount that can be appropriated for the purposes of meeting depositors’ entitlements is unlimited. After three years, the maximum that can be appropriated is $20 billion. The declaration must also outline the amount available for the administration costs for implementing the scheme up to a maximum of $100 million
      2. RBA aware of this – in their “Depositor Protection in Australia” – Payouts of deposits covered under the FCS [The Australian Government’s Financial Claims Scheme] are initially financed by the government through a standing appropriation of $20 billion per failed ADI [Authorized deposit-taking institutions]
    2. The total size of deposit accounts totalled $2 trillion (Commonwealth Bank— $581 billion, ANZ — $467 billion, NAB— $407 billion and WESTPAC — $533billion). This includes savings, term deposits, chequing, debit card, transaction accounts, mortgage offset accounts, pensioner deeming accounts, retirement savings accounts etc… So only $80 billion (or 4%) out of this $2 trillion dollars is actually covered by the guarantee.
    3. The question remains – once they activate it – where will the money come from?

In Summary

  1. Does benefit you – But so does repaying your home loan in most other means – except the accessibility – offsets are best for this
  2. But benefit the bank as well – you repaying the loan doesn’t benefit them as much as you keeping the loan and then being able to keep expanding credit using the deposits – take your $100k and lend $900k – which they make 3% –
    1. Also – more money with the bank to be used in ‘resolution proceedings’ with Bail in regulations

Thanks for the Great question David

Thanks for listening to today’s episode. If you want to get in contact you can do so here: http://financeandfury.com.au/contact

Printing an unbacked currency to avoid asset price declines. What could go wrong?

Welcome to Finance and Fury. This week we will be looking at the Mississippi bubble. I find it a very interesting story of speculation and devaluation – creating a situation of loss of confidence in an early form of fiat currencies –– Lessons to learn from this – I...

Predicting future market returns using the Buffett indicator

Welcome to Finance and Fury. The returns for shares over the last few years has not been good – especially in comparison to other assets – Is it still worth it to invest in shares? Afterall, the Australian Share index is sitting almost the same point as 18 months ago,...

(Intro Series) What does your retirement look like, and why?

Intro - Episode 5 What does your retirement look like, and why? What do you normally think about before you go anywhere? Anyone who has ever left the house before has probably had to think about something before taking a step out the front door. Anyone who hasn’t,...

Keep calm and carry-on investing.

Welcome to Finance and Fury. I’ve talked to a lot of people over the past few weeks that have concerns to varying degrees – ranging from fallout situation to seeing short term volatility in investments The most important thing to do is avoid making rash decisions – In...

Overcoming political divisions in a partisan world

Welcome to Finance and Fury, the Furious Friday edition. This episode is a little different – it is some of my commentary about the political division that is starting to emerge – especially in America – but also how to avoid it in your own lives and also prosper...

What types of superannuation accounts allow you to control your investments?

Welcome to Finance and Fury, the Say What Wednesday edition. This week, the question comes from Andrew: "Last episode you mentioned super and a product that lets you invest in third party platforms. Would like to hear more about that." What is super? Most people think...

Market integrity, disruptions, innovations and the fallout of Wall Street versus retail traders.

Welcome to Finance and Fury. In this episode, we are going to look at some of the potential fallouts from the GameStop saga – looking at market disruptions, market integrity and the ongoing implications of potential regulation changes If you want an overview of this,...

Is money the root of all evil? And, how statistics are used to perpetuate misunderstandings and f*ck with you

Furious Friday Is money the root of all evil? And, how statistics are used to perpetuate misunderstandings and f*ck with you Welcome to Furious Friday – These episodes aim to solve misunderstandings In this episode -  Furious about the muckery of statistics used to...

How to avoid financial distractions and hack spending habits.

Welcome to Finance and Fury, I hope you are all going well. Today we will be going through how to avoid financial distractions. This episode is a little bit of a follow up from the previous - as one of the comments I made was a little oversimplified – that was that if...

Furious Friday: Is social media at a tipping point?

Furious Friday Is social media at a tipping point? Today we’re looking at the market environment for Facebook, Google, Twitter, YouTube etc… their costs are going to far outpace what their revenues will be. Are they on their way up, or on their way down? EU copyright...

Pin It on Pinterest

Share This