Banks deny home lending clamp-down

Three of New Zealand's four major banks say they haven't recently changed the amount of information they ask for when someone applies for a loan. Photo / File

Three of New Zealand's major banks say they have not made any recent changes to how they assess home loan applications despite brokers' claims that lenders are asking for more details about people's spending habits.

Last week multiple mortgage brokers told the Herald that banks were drilling down more into people's spending and debt details and that was cutting back on how much people were able to borrow.

They said the changes had increased in the last six months in the wake of Australia's Royal Commission into misconduct in the financial services industry and there had also been pressure from local regulators the Reserve Bank and the Financial Markets Authority.

The inquiry revealed in March that Australia's banks were taking a lax approach to checking people's living expenses.

But three of the four major banks here have said they have made no policy changes.

An ASB spokeswoman said that while the bank regularly reviewed and adjusted its loan servicing criteria it had not made any recent changes to the servicing information requested from home loan applicants.

"ASB's lending criteria takes into account a range of factors when assessing an application for a home loan. One of the most important factors we consider is the borrower's ability to afford their repayments, in line with our responsible lending obligations.

"While we regularly review and adjust our servicing criteria, we have not made any recent changes to the servicing information requested of home loan applicants.

"Given each customer situation is different, we assess lending applications on a case-by-case basis."

A spokeswoman for BNZ said it hadn't made any changes since June 2015 when the Credit Contracts and Consumer Finance Act rules and responsible lending code came in.

"We capture customers' declared expenses and have a process to check those expenses are reasonable on a case-by-case basis.

"As a responsible lender, it's all about looking at customers' ability to service the loan they are asking us for not only at today's rates, but if interest rates go up and their payments are higher."

An ANZ spokesman said it had made no changes to the information it required from customers.

However a Westpac spokesman indicated it had made changes.

In a statement he said: "The methodology that we use is always evolving and is influenced by regulatory and community expectations."

During an April hearing for the Royal Commission internal board documents for Westpac, the parent of Westpac in New Zealand, were released revealing an independent report carried out by PwC.

According to the Australian Financial Review the report found only one out of 10 lending controls required by the prudential regulator were operating effectively.

Of the 420 loans the report analysed 38 or 9 per cent did not meeting the serviceability criteria of the regulator.