NAB cuts out loans for coal
NATIONAL Australia Bank says it will stop lending for new thermal coal mining projects, becoming the first major Australian bank to phase out support for the sector.
NAB said yesterday it would no longer back new thermal coal mining investment, but would continue to support customers across mining and energy, including those with existing coal assets.
NAB has already cut its exposure to coal mining finance from 9 per cent to 5 per cent since 2016.
NAB corporate and institutional banking chief customer officer Mike Baird said an orderly transition to a low- carbon Australia was critical for the economy and for continued access to energy sources. WESTPAC will pay about $ 11 million in compensation to interest- only home loan customers who were not switched to principal repayments when they should have been.
The refunds will go to 9400 customers who held owneroccupier interest- only variable home loans, most of which had interest- only periods that expired between 2009 and 2016.
A processing error led to these customers continuing to make interest- only repayments after the interest- only period ended, rather than being switched to principal and interest repayments.
As a result, customers were left with less time to repay the principal amount of their loans and would have also have paid more in interest. MYER is hoping shoppers have put off visiting a store knowing they have a full weekend immediately before Christmas Day as a sales slump mars its most important trading period.
Shares in the department store chain have tumbled to an all- time low after it delivered investors an unusual pre- Christmas profit warning.
The news drew fire from Myer’s biggest shareholder, Solomon Lew, who is campaigning to overhaul the retailer’s board and strategy.
“Clearly there Mr Lew said.
Myer yesterday said sales for the first two weeks of December were 5 per cent lower than in the same period a year earlier.
The slump adds to the 2.8 per cent fall Myer suffered during the 13 weeks to October 28, meaning its cash registers are failing to ring during a period that can make or break a retailer’s full- year profit result.
Myer said the poor start to December meant its underlying profit for the first half of the financial year was ex- is worse to come,” pected to be “materially below” the $ 62.8 million it posted in the same period a year ago.
Chief executive Richard Umbers said a general reduction in foot traffic, wide discounting and low consumer confidence were behind the sales slide. Christmas falls on a Monday this year for the first time in 11 years, giving shoppers a full weekend to make a last- minute dash to the shops. This unusual timing made it hard to compare this year with other years as shoppers might be leaving their runs to the final week, Mr Umbers said.
“One of the complexities this year is that we haven’t seen this configuration of days in the run- up to Christmas since 2006,” he said.
“For a lot of shoppers, it would be easy to see why they see there is an additional weekend of shopping and it makes year- on- year comparisons quite difficult.”
Mr Umbers defended the retailer’s $ 600 million turnaround strategy and encouraged shareholders to visit a Myer store to see for themselves.
Shares in Myer closed 9.6 per cent lower at a record low of 65.5c