Debelle highlights ‘rich potential’ in regulatory data

Many regulatory reporting requirements came into effect this year, and the Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) is already finding useful information in the data, according to assistant governor Guy Debelle.

Speaking at the Australasian Finance and Banking Conference in Sydney today (December 16), Debelle said there was "very rich potential" in the data for both the RBA and market participants, and highlighted some initial findings.

For example, data on lending by different institutions shows that while borrowers from major banks have sizeable repayment buffers, the buffers are thinner among borrowers from non-banks. Overall, two-thirds of borrowing is covered by a buffer of at least a month, and as the data is updated, Debelle says it has the potential to become useful information for monetary policy.

Other data displays how arrears are distributed across different states, and the loan-to-value ratio of mortgages underlying securitisations.

"From our point of view, the data provide us with a great deal of insight into the contingent risk that might at some point reside on our balance sheet," Debelle said. "But clearly, the data are also very useful for financial stability and monetary policy considerations too."