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Document Type: | General |
Publish Date: | 6 November 2015 |
Primary Author: | Mr. Malcolm Edey |
Edited By: | Tabassum Rahmani |
Published By: | Australian Property Institute’s Queensland |
The Bank has a longstanding mandate for financial stability, affirmed for example as part of the Wallis reforms in 1998. In the post-Wallis world, this has not been primarily a regulatory function. The Bank does have regulatory powers in some areas relating to financial stability, notably in its oversight of payments systems and financial market infrastructures. But the financial stability function goes well beyond that to the Reserve Bank’s wider role in the financial system. It includes the Bank’s role as liquidity manager for the system and as the provider and operator of core payments infrastructure. It also includes coordination with other regulators. At a formal level, this is done through the Bank’s role in chairing the Council of Financial Regulators, but there are numerous less formal channels for coordination and for sharing information and analysis. These arrangements were reviewed and supported most recently in the Murray Inquiry. One important component of our financial stability work is the provision of timely risk analysis, to help inform the policy debate and also to help inform the decisions of lenders and investors. I have given a summary of our most recent analysis today, and I hope you will find that helpful in informing your own investment decisions. As in the housing market, conditions have not been uniform across the country, and they have been noticeably firmer in Sydney and Melbourne than in other centers. But in aggregate, the major categories of commercial property have all seen downward pressure on yields over recent years. Strong demand from foreign buyers has contributed to this, reflecting the global environment of low-interest rates and “search for yield”.