The RBA was always a bad joke.Prof Michael Hudson in 2009 visited our RBA and asked them the big question.Why don't they create from nothing the money to equal our productivity + inflation just like the other Central Banks? The silence was deafening.

Back in 1911 our Commonwealth Bank for the first 11yrs of it's life created from nothing a lot of the money that kept our economy debt free.In other words we the people paid less tax.Income tax came in in 1915 supposedly to pay for the BS WW1.Billy Highes in 1922 scuttled the money creation powers of the Commonwealth Bank and Paul Keating sold off it's carcass.

In 1913 Pres Woodrow Wilson gave away the right of money creation to the US Federal Reserve,a private group of banks.Ever since this time,we've had nothing but contrived wars,recessions and depressions.

The RBA is nothing but a tool of the US Federal Reserve.

Do not want to continue with my troubles but need to inform.
Q fever was the meat workers and farmers illness.
I got it out of my area drinking from a cattle trough after mustering cattle,
You can get inoculations now, not then.
Leaves symptoms including every one of BFV and not good.
BFV, was not aware, look it up, is said to be the biggest single cause of, yes unbelievable! Arthritic in this country.
Both leave a weakness beyond belief, but in the later only for some.
66 years and weight not good , but try weight loss if walking 50 meters leaves you in pain for an hour.
Look I just wanted to flesh it out BFV is mozzy born, we all should have a mozzy zapping plan.
Still have good days.

Sorry Yabby, some of that is garbage, particularly the bit about cost of local funds. Our lovely banks are trying to squeeze local depositors, to grab even more profit/bonus.

I have a couple of offset accounts on my cheque account, a few thousand of ready access safety money. The interest on those accounts had dropped in the last 18 months, by 2%. That can hardly be called an increase in cost of local funds for the bank.

If overseas funds have become so expensive, why aren't they maximising their acquisition of local funds? This 2+2 adds up to something like 5.

When I took it up with them, they suggested term deposits. If I wanted this money in term deposits it would all ready be there. Even then, their best term deposit rate is still 3/4% less than my offsets were earning 18 months ago.

This is not an isolated action. None of the other large banks are offering any more, although will up the anti a bit to snaffle a new account. Surely there couldn't be collusion on the interest rates our banks offer, could there?

All this is only a side issue, but highlights my original post, that the reserve bank is a joke. All the garbage about it controlling inflation with interest rates has been window dressing. All the reserve bank governors pontificating has about as much effect as a window pane, rattling in the wind, & is about as much use, just more expensive

Belly we did have a mozzie zapping plan, it was called DDT, & saved millions around the world from malaria, & thousands of others from dengue, & things like your problem.

Of course some greenie rat bag decided to make a name for themselves, & concocted a pile of "evidence" to "prove" it was harmful to bird eggs & other stuff, totally disproven now.

When I went to New Guinea there were no mozzies. Houses did not even have screens. A few years later everyone was back to mosquito nets to be able to sleep, let alone stay healthy. I'm not fond of greenies.

Do remember this example of green hysteria, next time you think about their current scam, global warming.

*When I took it up with them, they suggested term deposits. If I wanted this money in term deposits it would all ready be there. Even then, their best term deposit rate is still 3/4% less than my offsets were earning 18 months ago.*

Well yes, the market keeps changing. At one point, with the GFC
happening, funding was a disaster for banks and they overpaid and
would be losing money on some of those deposits now. If you pay
8% for 5 years and lend it out as a housing loan at 6.5%, you are
doing dough. But yes, competition is increasing. You now have Ubank,
Rabobank etc snapping at the heels of the big four. I never accept
the advertised rate and bargain every time I renew a deposit.
Sometimes they pay me extra, sometimes not, depending on their need
for funds. If banks stopped using overseas funds, we'd all be losers,because
Australia simply does not have enough wealth to cover all our borrowings, we don't save enough.

Banks need more term deposits and less switch accounts according to
Basel 3, as part of their reserve structure, so that is where they
will be paying higher rates. I suggest you buy a few bank shares,
then you'll get the annaul report sent to you, which explains their
funding costs and problems.

At the end of the day, after costs, banks are left with around 1%
of assets as actual profit. So a very small % in what they pay can
make a huge difference to their bottom line. That is hardly a rip off.

My impression is that we have a huge volume of super funds, sloshing around, looking for a home.

In view of the lousy, or actually negative, returns the super funds have produced for some time now, perhaps they should be cutting the banks out of the housing market, & at least earning some return in that market.

Sure this would involve some costs, but they would be minimal compared to the cost of watching share prices disappear down the plug hole.

The banks become almost as incompetent as government, as they get bigger. Perhaps that's why they become rip off merchants. I had accounts, insurances, some investments, & even loans a long while ago with the Metropolitan Building Society. They were great. Metway bank as they became were less good to do business with, but when they merged with Suncorp the rot really set in.

The only thing I have left with them now is a couple of auto 3Rd party policies, & that's only because I'll probably get rid of those cars before the rego is due again.

To pinch pennies they have tried a "one size fits all" system. I am not sure what pennies it's saved, but it will need to be quite a lot, just to make up for my business, & that of friends, that they have lost.