Bank Asset Impairment Charges
The best way to obtain an understanding of the value or cost of insolvencies is to examine the level of new impaired assets declared by Australian Banks. That figure will exclude all non-Bank bad debts but still provides a very useful indicator of the value of insolvencies.
The value of All Bank New Asset Impairment Charges has more than quadrupled to $33.1 billion in the year to September 09 when compared to the $4.4 billion for 2007.
The relevant data is released by the Reserve Bank of Australia which obtains the information from the Australian Prudential Regulation Authority. The information is released quarterly, with the latest information available being up to the end of September 2009. The value of new impaired assets will include all Bank impaired assets, including corporate and personal. We collate the data on a rolling 12 month basis.
