CEO’s brutal honesty; help for first home buyers; why optimism matters

CEO’s brutal honesty; help for first home buyers; why optimism matters

News in brief

Bendigo Bank is winning over young Australians. Its digital platform, Up, now has 1.2 million users - 40% of the bank’s customer base. Mortgages are up, deposits are soaring, and the bank is tapping into the next generation of borrowers.

 

Labor is fast-tracking its promise to help first home buyers purchase a property with a 5pc deposit, but economists warn the early advantage could quickly be swallowed up by higher property prices. 

 

Safetrac, one of Australia’s top compliance training companies, is under police investigation, accused of spying on staff working from home. The company allegedly used software to secretly turn employee laptops into listening devices, recording up to 10 hours a day.

 

Plug-in hybrid vehicles are surging in Australia, defying predictions that full-battery electric vehicles would dominate. In just two years, hybrids have risen from about a tenth to a quarter of EV sales.

 

Optimism, not intelligence, may be the strongest predictor of career success with research showing that happy employees perform better, earn more and receive stronger evaluations than their less positive peers.

Fear-o-meter

Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow at University of Canberra, writes for The Conversation about the federal government's changes to help first home buyers into the market.

 

"The Albanese government is bringing forward by three months to October 1 implementation of its 5% deposit guarantee for all first home buyers purchasing properties up to a specified limit.

 

The bring-forward, from January 1, is part of a flurry of government activity after last week’s economic roundtable that paid a lot of attention to the housing affordability and shortage issues.

 

With the guarantee, buyers avoid having to pay expensive lenders mortgage insurance. The government says that for the average first home buyer the revamped scheme will cut years off the time they require to save for a deposit, and will save people tens of thousands of dollars on lenders mortgage insurance. It expects first home buyers using the scheme to avoid about $1.5 billion in potential mortgage insurance costs over the next year.

 

A first home buyer will be able to buy a $844,000 home – the median home price nationally – with a $42,200 deposit. On the government’s figures, they could save up to eight years in the time needed to get together a deposit, and avoid about $34,000 in mortgage insurance."

Fear & Greed Q+A today

On the three key takeaways from the big bank results - including the potential for innovative startups using AI to steal market share from the big four.

 

"That would be the real worry. On top of all of this increasing competition from your non-bank financial institutions and the smaller banks who are more agile in some ways, you also have APRA talking about an easier pathway to your banking license. And so if you're a startup today with all of the capabilities of AI in front of you, you could make a really compelling customer-first, expense-lean operation, and go out there and get a huge market share.

 

So if you're one of these majors, you really have to be patient, you've got to lean in, you've got to spend a bit more to get over that hurdle to your actual efficiency gains that you can get from AI."

It’s Tuesday the 26th of August. The boss of plumbing supplies giant Reece has offered a masterclass in transparent leadership in a wide-ranging investor call after profits tanked 24pc, and the share price tumbled 16pc. One of the biggest challenges according to CEO Peter Wilson is getting staff back into the office. But he also emphasised problems with its expansion into the crowded and competitive US market, where Reece acquired a company in 2018 for $US1.9 billion. It draws comparisons to James Hardie's woes in the US following its $14 billion purchase of decking company AZEK.

Greed-o-meter

Athlete	Sport
Roger Federer	Tennis
LeBron James	Basketball
Tiger Woods	Golf
Phil Mickelson	Golf
Cristiano Ronaldo	Soccer
Lionel Messi	Soccer
Floyd Mayweather	Boxing

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Source: Forbes