This week in banking news - No RBA cut, UBank’s Accessibility Kit, credit reporting changes, and the ‘tap and go’ trap.

• No movement on the RBA’s cash rate
• Changes to credit reporting set to help Aussies get loans 
• The top 10 banks with the most satisfied home loan customers  
• How big banks are overcharging retailers with the ‘tap and go’ trap 
• UBank launched an Accessibility Kit for its banking app 
• Time to say goodbye to Co-op bookstores as students opt for Afterpay 

All in this week’s banking recap. 

No cut from the RBA: interest rates on hold  

The question of whether the Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) will cut the official cash rate was floated around a lot at the beginning of the week, but the results are in and the board has decided to keep it at 0.75% for the fourth consecutive month. 

Why no move? According to Reserve Bank Governor, Philip Lowe, the unemployment figure had dropped to 5.1% and the CPI figure was slightly higher than expected. 

While he admitted that these figures aren’t particularly strong, he said it eased the pressure and urgency of making a rate cut in February. 

Read the full article: No cut: Interest rates on hold following February RBA meeting, to find out what Mozo’s Banking Expert, Peter Marshall, predicts for future RBA rate cuts in 2020.   

Worried about your credit score? These credit reporting changes could help you get a loan 

Getting a home loan, personal loan or even a business loan could become an easier task for some Aussies, come 14 February 2020. 

This is due to changes being made to credit reporting standards that say that civil court filings will no longer reflect on an individual's credit score (because in case you didn’t know - it currently does). 

The Office of the Australian Information Commissioner (OAIC) has approved the amendments to the Credit Reporting Code 2014 - which outlines that writs and summons will not be considered public information and will be removed from a person’s credit report. 

Read the full article: Credit reporting changes will boost thousands of credit scores this February, and discover who stands to benefit from the changes. 

Roy Morgan uncovered the top 10 home loan lenders that Aussies are most satisfied with - did yours make the cut? 

Ever thought how your bank measured up against the rest? Well think no longer as Roy Morgan reveals the top 10 home loan lenders that they say are the best at keeping their customers happy. 

The survey of 50,000 people uncovered that ME Bank has the highest customer service satisfaction rating, sitting at 91.4% (at least a whopping 18.1% higher than any of the big four banks). 

ING (89.3%) and Bendigo Bank (83.3%) came in a close second and third position, here’s how the others went:

• Bankwest (77.1%) 
• St George (75.8%)
• CBA (73.3%) 
• Suncorp (72.3%) 
• ANZ (72.1%) 
• Westpac (70.4%) 
• NAB (70.3%) 

Read the full article: These are the top 10 banks with the highest customer satisfaction for home loans, says Roy Morgan, to see why Roy Morgan CEO, Michele Levine says consumers are shifting to online banking. 

The ‘tap and go’ trap that’s costing retailers $550 million a year 

This week, Aussie retailers have flagged that big banks and credit card providers have been slapping them with unnecessary ‘tap and go’ fees, which is really hurting small businesses. 

In total, the fees are costing retailers up to $550 million per year due to ‘tap and go’ transactions often automatically being processed through payment networks like Visa payWave and MasterCard PayPass. 

The Fairer Merchant Fees Alliance - a group consisting of many major retailers - said that these payment networks are more expensive, as they charge four times higher than debit cheme networks like EFTPOS. 

Read the full article: The ‘tap and go’ trap: big banks overcharge retailers $550 million a year, and check out why Least Cost Routing could be a solution. 

UBank’s New Accessibility Kit set to revolutionise not only their app but digital banking around the world 

On Tuesday, popular online bank UBank unveiled its new Accessibility Kit which is designed to make banking more accessible to not only its app users, but users around the globe.  

The Kit can be downloaded by any app developer and from there it will automatically audit the app and flag any potential accessibility issues. It’s hoped the Kit will help people with visual auditory, cognitive or motor disabilities and provide developers with a guideline in how to upgrade their accessibility tools - such as improved screen readers for people that are visually impaired. 

UBank’s Chief Product Officer, Peter O’Malley, said he hopes the new technology will spark conversation with other teams that are building apps so that digital accessibility becomes a common part of the app building process. 

Read the full article: “No one is left behind”: UBank’s Accessibility Kit to bring financial empowerment for all, to find out what else Peter O’Malley said about this innovative technology.  

Co-op bookstores set to see their final days as students buy textbooks online using Afterpay 

This coming semester, uni students around the country will bid farewell to Co-ops once and for all. 

Online bookstore giant, Booktopia, has taken over Co-ops and is pulling textbooks off the shelves and moving all sales online. 

According to the Booktopia’s Chief Executive, Tony Nash, one of the reasons for the change is that students are opting to buy online with Booktopia as they are able to use Buy Now Pay Later service, Afterpay, to spread the cost.   

Co-ops will stay open for the first four weeks of semester before they are shut down and taken off campuses.  

Read the full article: Co-op bookstores to close as students buy textbooks online using Afterpay, for handy ways for cutting uni textbook costs.