Personal Finance

NAME OF ORGANISATION
Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS)

OVERVIEW
This collection is a monthly collection of Personal Finance commitments by Australian-resident lending institutions. Personal Finance is considered to be lending commitments to individuals for personal (non-business) use.

The collection results are released monthly in Lending Finance, Australia (ABS Cat No 5671.0) and are also accessible through Ausstats (the ABS subscriber service). Detailed state, lender type and purpose of loan estimates may be available upon request.

PURPOSE
The value of commitments for Personal Finance are considered to be a leading indicator of private consumption expenditure and as an indicator of the confidence of the household sector in the prospects for the economy. These statistics are used for analytical purposes within the ABS and by financial institutions, the Reserve Bank of Australia, governments, policy advisers, industry bodies, researchers and economists.

SCOPE
The survey population is all Australian-resident lending institutions.

The survey frame which seeks to cover the survey population comprises all banks authorised under the Banking Act of 1959, permanent building societies and credit unions, all lending institutions bound by the Financial Corporations Act (FCA) of 1974, and is supplemented by other known significant lending institutions such as insurance companies and superannuation funds, general government enterprises, and institutions subject to state government regulation.

The frame coverage is conceptually good for banks and financial institutions subject to the FCA, where we are informed by the Reserve Bank of any additions to the frame. For other lending institutions where no definitive lists exist, we rely on the success of media scans and other sources to maintain frame coverage.

All banks are included in the sample of lenders for the Personal Finance statistics. For other lenders, the largest lenders to individuals for total personal finance are included so that, together with banks, at least 95% of total Australian Personal Finance commitments are covered, and at least 90% of each State total is covered. In addition, lenders are included in the sample so that at least 70% of total Personal Finance commitments by Credit Unions, Finance Companies, and Other Lenders are covered by the sample of lenders.

An annual collection is conducted to maintain and update the survey coverage. New lenders are included as their lending for Personal Finance becomes sufficiently large.

The sample selected in June 2002 for the 2002-03 year is the final sample to be selected using the method described above. In future years, sample selection will use asset information collected by APRA. See for details of the proposed new sample selection method.

Conceptual framework
The Personal Finance collection measures the value of commitments made by lending institutions to individuals to provide finance for personal use (non-business use) during the reference period (a calendar month).

A finance commitment is a firm offer to provide finance which has been accepted by the client. For a commitment to finance, a loan contract between lender and borrower should have been signed or be about to be signed. A commitment is published by Lender Type according to the lender on the loan contract.

Lending institutions included are banks, permanent building societies, credit unions, life or general insurance companies, general government enterprises, superannuation schemes, corporations registered under the Financial Corporations Act 1974 (known as Registered Financial Corporations after July 2002 amendments to relevant legislation).

Main outputs
1. Value of commitments for personal finance for a fixed period.
2. Value of commitments to provide revolving credit facilities to individuals for personal use (including increased limits)

Classifications
State (standard classification),
Lender Type (Banks, Credit Co-Operatives, Finance Companies).

Other concepts (summary)


GEOGRAPHIC DETAIL
Australia
New South Wales
Victoria
Queensland
South Australia
Western Australia
Tasmania
Northern Territory
ACT

Comments and/or Other Regions


COLLECTION FREQUENCY
Monthly

Frequency comments
The Collection is an annual longitudinal collection, where repeated measures are taken of the annual selected sample - one measure each month for a total of 12 annually.

COLLECTION HISTORY

• The collection began collecting monthly personal finance in January 1985.
• Detailed purpose breakdowns of personal fixed lending commitments for Banks (and hence All Lenders) became available in March 1987. Prior to March 1987 the detailed purpose breakdowns was only available for non-banks.
• Personal Finance as separate publication (5642.0) was discontinued in July 1993, and has since been published in the compendium publication Lending Finance Australia (5671.0).
• From June 2000, all estimates for Lender Types within States were no longer published. State estimates (for all lenders) and Lender Type estimates (for Australia) continue to be published.
• From the October 2001 reference month, minor modifications were made to the Ausstats tables for Personal Finance, with some small reductions in the level of detail provided in the State and Lender Type tables. There were no reductions of detail in the Australia level tables.