Agri loan rates steady

Agribusiness rates on long term loans for machinery or land purchases are now averaging around 8.3 per cent from the main lenders, says the National Farmers Federation (NFF), which has just begun monitoring industry lending rate trends.

Similar residentially secured loans to the business sector are averaging 8.43pc - down about 0.14pc since April - while standard variable home mortgage rates have been flat at an average 7.78pc since December.

For the past year Suncorp has had the most expensive term lending and overdraft rates on the agribusiness monitor - currently at 9.34pc and 10.84pc, respectively.

Rabobank offers the best residentially secured agribusiness loan rate, at 6.85pc, which is unchanged since May, but up from six per cent a year ago (when Rabo also had the cheapest rate).

The lowest residentially secured agribusiness overdraft rate is 8.15pc from BankWest - also unchanged in the past month.

A year ago Rabobank offered the best overdraft ideal at 5.65pc, followed by the Commonwealth Bank at 7.19 and BankWest at 7.6pc.

NFF has joined forces with banking industry analytical service, Canstar Cannex, to produce the new monthly loan monitor, which will shadow Reserve Bank cash rate rate movements and responses from financial institutions, including ANZ, Bananacoast Credit Union, BankSA, Bankwest, Commonwealth Bank, NAB, Rabobank, Suncorp and Westpac.

NFF economics committee chairman, John McKillop, said while banks were bullish about agriculture's current business prospects, they generally appeared more conservative and "choosey" about who they supported with loans than two years ago.

"I get the feeling they've loosened the purse strings a little recently, but it's all about proving that you have good cashflow rather focusing on your equity these days," said Mr McKillop, who also heads the Clyde Agriculture farming group.

"The attention being paid to big debt overseas problems, particularly in Greece and Ireland, is not making the lending environment any easier."

Rate competition has, however started to hot up in the mainstream business lending arena follow some aggressive new packages by BankWest in the past two months, said Canstar Canex agribusiness analyst, Peter Arnold.

TrustDefender and Credit Union BCU Join Forces to Announce an ...

TrustDefender, a leading provider of 'On Demand' Security Technologies, announced today it will partner with leading regional credit union, BCU (Bananacoast Community Credit Union) to provide all BCU customers with the TrustDefender security solution in order to help protect them when they do their online banking with BCU. This 'Australian first' means that BCU is providing its customers with a level of security protection not offered by any other bank or financial institution in Australia.

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"While we have many layers of security, the weak link in the chain is usually the home or business computer. Often people don't even have the basics such as firewalls or anti virus software installed on their computer. By offering TrustDefender to all our customers through our website - free of charge 558 - we know that our customers will have the additional security of having their banking sessions quarantined while they transact," he added.

TrustDefender performs a security health check on the consumer's PC or mobile computing device during the click through period to the login page. This security health check can identify any unknown crimeware that may exist on the consumer's machine which has not otherwise been identified by their firewall or antivirus software before the consumer logs into any online website and enters his / her password, security token keys and other ID protocol.

TrustDefender also applies specific security policies and rules - set by the financial institution - prior to login, thereby ensuring that any online transactions the consumer conducts won't fall prey to an online fraudster or identity thieves… and the consumer has peace of mind that their confidential information is secure before and during the period of their transaction.

"We've always provided free internet banking, so this is just another reason for people to switch to BCU.

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