In a brief note, Moody’s acknowledged that the bank’s recent moves to adjust their residential loan criteria could be positive for their credit ratings, but also underscored a number of potential risks in the Australian housing sector including elevated and rising house prices, declining mortgage affordability, and record levels of household indebtedness. As a result, they believe more will need to be done to tackle the risks in the portfolio.
Moody’s says the recent initiatives are credit positive since they reduce the banks’ exposure to a higher-risk loan segment. At the same time, it is likely that further additional steps will be required because the growing imbalances in the Australian housing market pose a longer-term challenge to the Australian banks’ credit profiles, over and above the immediate concerns relating to investment lending.
Therefore they expect the banks first to curtail their exposure to high LTV loans and investment lending further over the coming months; and second, they will gradually improve the quantity and quality of their capital through a combination of upward revisions to mortgage risk weights and capital increases. This is likely to happen over the next 18 months or so.
