The ASX has communicated to all market participants of an industry-wide ASX settlement failure that occurred on Friday the 20th of December. This failure has meant that CHESS was not able to complete market settlement on Friday and has deferred settlement to Monday the 23rd of December. For those clients who had sell trades settling on Friday we have ensured those sale proceeds have been made available to you for trading on Monday. Stock delivery for clients who had buy trades settling will need to wait until Monday before the shares become available to sell. We apologise for any inconvenience this ASX outage has caused.
With the official cash rate at just 1.5% for the past two years, many Australians have become used to historically low rates on their mortgages – and their deposits. In addition, at the peak, 40% of all home lending in Australia was originated on interest only terms. Warnings of rising rates may feel overblown as the RBA maintains a neutral stance, and yet the funding pressures on lenders are increasing. So what does this mean for your portfolio?