Earlier this week we got full year results for one of Australia's biggest banks, Commonwealth Bank
In which a topic of concern was raised ... bad loan provisions; for example: The Commonwealth Bank's bad loans suddenly jumped
More along the same lines now from Reuters:
- Westpac Banking Corp said on Thursday its level of stressed assets edged up in the three-months to June
- Cited mining downturn leading to higher corporate as well as consumer defaults
And, note this (bolding mine);
- Westpac increased its bad debt charges to a six-year high in the first-half in anticipation of a rise in bad debts, but said in a limited third-quarter update that bad debt ratios were still near all-time lows.
So, depending on the picture you want to see its either bad, or not so bad. But, yeah, the mining investment boom is long since past and the economy is ticking along at below trend growth so there will be some increase in bad debts.
