The Australian Prudential Regulation Authority (APRA) has today increased the minimum interest rate buffer it expects banks to use when assessing the serviceability of home loan applications. In a letter to authorised deposit-taking institutions (ADIs), APRA has told lenders it expects they will assess new borrowers’ ability to meet their loan repayments at an interest rate that is at least 3.0 percentage points above the loan product rate. This compares to a buffer of 2.5 percentage points that is commonly used by ADIs today. APRA’s decision, which reflects growing financial stability risks from ADIs’ residential ... (full story)