29% of Australian Bank Employees Worried about Ability of Customers to Repay Loans, 43% Pressured to Sell Products; Bernanke is Wishin' and Hopin'

Judging from of Australian bank employees, Australia's debt bubble is ready to implode soon. Please consider Bank workers fret over customer debt.

The survey by the Finance Sector Union showed that 29 per cent of its members felt uncomfortable about their customers' ability to meet their financial obligations with new debt products.

About 43 per cent said they were ''are under pressure to sell debt products, even if customers don't ask for them and may not be able to afford them''.

Worries from bank tellers and workers come as the total Australian mortgage debt for owner-occupied housing hit a record $774 billion in April, while debt for investment purchases totalled $330 billion, according to data from the Reserve Bank. Personal loans totalled $141 billion in April.

Of the major banks, Westpac-owned St George ranked the highest with 75 per cent of workers reporting an emphasis on debt selling. For ANZ and credit unions, 64 per cent of employees noted an increase in debt selling.

For Commonwealth Bank, 63 per cent of workers reported the debt-selling pressure, while 53 per cent of Commonwealth Bank-owned Bankwest employees reported the focus.

Less than half of National Australia Bank employees, or 49 per cent, said they had been instructed to push more credit on customers.

Bernanke Sees Recovery Gaining Traction

Australia is all set to implode but in the US Bernanke sees recovery gaining traction.

Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke said Monday he is hopeful the economy will gain traction and not fall back into a "double dip" recession.

"My best guess is we will have a continued recovery, but it won't feel terrific," Bernanke said.

That's because economic growth won't be robust enough to quickly drive down the unemployment rate, now at 9.7 percent, he said in remarks to the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, a nonpartisan research group.

Asked when the Fed will start raising interest rates, Bernanke quipped "in the future."

Wishin' and Hopin'

Bernanke is clearly Wishin' and Hopin' and I have just the video sing along for it.



If you don't like that version here is another



I have a message for Bernanke: Recoveries are not built on loose monetary policy, nor imprudent fiscal stimulus, nor taxpayer bailouts of banks, nor Wishin' and Hopin'.

Mike "Mish" Shedlock
http://globaleconomicanalysis.blogspot.com
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