Yesterday, while rooting around in the ABS 5232 National Accounts: Financial Accounts (yes, I'm bored) this blogger turned up an extraordinary fact. Sometime in the June quarter of 2008, the national government appears suddenly to have deposited $12 billion into Australian ADIs.
A quick look at the above chart showing the history of such deposits, clearly illustrates that this was unprecedented.
Interestingly, the ABS records this under its transferable deposits category, suggesting the money is not in a term deposit.
This blogger queried the ABS and received the response that the sudden jump was the result of a 'reporting anomaly'. That is, a shift in the methodology that measures a subject. Apparently there was a re-categorisation of state to federal debt. So there was no net inflow of cash to the bank/s. The fact there has been ongoing high deposit measurements since supports the explanation.
Perhaps it is the recent revelation that the US Federal Reserve and its Term Asset Facility helped bail out NAB and Westpac that has this blogger is feeling suspicious. But the timing of the anomaly is intriguing given it's the quarter leading up to the Lehman bust.
Just to be sure, a clarification has been requested of APRA.
4 comments:
Interesting, but I'm not sure I understand. The government has been depositing money into the banks? Shoring them up? Safeguarding against a run? Or providing them with liquid capital?
Future fund giving the banks a hand?
Thought you might like this... Mr Swan has swung his rhetoric 180 degrees again and is attempting to "build on our efforts to support competition in the face of the worst global financial crisis in 75 years,"
Wish he would make up his mind - are we "safe as houses", or combatting the "equivalent of a rolling national crisis".....
Did anyone see Charlie Rose interview Paul Keating on Bloomberg the other night? Apparently Australia is a 'very flexible' economy that's still growing at 3.5% pa...
Post a Comment