Banks’ more stringent credit checks seem to be affecting the way they approve new home loans, two of the biggest Australian lenders say.

In a Reuters report, NAB interim CEO Philip Chronican said the stricter lending rules are affecting loan approvals and are inhibiting loan growth.

“Most borrowers who previously would have qualified for a home loan continue to qualify for a home loan,” he said before the House of Representatives Economics Committee in Canberra.

However, he said potential borrowers now have to verify up to 13 claims about their spending.

“However, the documentary requirements that are now being asked of our frontline bankers are such that it slows the process down and as a result, we are lending less in home lending that we might otherwise be able to,” he said.

NAB chief financial officer Gary Lennon shared the same insight, adding that while home-loan approval rates remain unchanged, the number of applications numbers have significantly gone down “as a result of the difficulty getting all the information together.”

Speaking at the same hearing, ANZ chief executive Shayne Elliott said the banks are still willing to lend despite the greater focus on responsible lending.

“Let me assure you that ANZ is ready to lend, especially for housing and small businesses. After a period of perhaps being too cautious, ANZ is easing back towards a sensible equilibrium,” he said.

However, Elliot noted that the debate on responsible lending has led to banks becoming more conservative in approving home loans.

“As a result of that, Australians … some, not all, will find it a little bit harder to either get credit or get the amount of credit that they would have otherwise had in the past or would like, and I’m not suggesting for a minute that’s wrong, it’s just the reality,” he said.

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After facing public backlash due to the controversies revealed by the royal commission, the National Australian Bank announced that it would discontinue its home-loan referral scheme to rebuild its reputation and regain the trust of borrowers.

In a statement, NAB’s acting chief executive, Phil Chronican, said NAB will no longer pay commissions to members of the public who refer new home-loan clients to the bank.

“Like other businesses, we will still welcome referrals and will continue to build strong relationships with business and community partners,” he said.

NAB’s referral scheme, also known as the Introducer Program, involved payment of a spotter’s fee to people who successfully referred fresh home-loan borrowers to the bank. According to a report in The Sydney Morning Herald, NAB paid roughly $100m in referral payments between 2013 and 2016, providing introducers with commissions of 0.4% of the loans.

During its investigation, the royal commission found that many of the introducers were real estate agents, lawyers, and sports club members. One of the many red flags the investigation uncovered was the commission paid to a gym owner whose profession was not qualified for the program.

The commission also discovered the alleged involvement of some NAB introducers in a bribery ring in Western Sydney.

In response to these findings, NAB initially pledged to bolster its introducer program, creating regulations which would make qualifications for an introducer more stringent. This initial response was in line with Commissioner Kenneth Hayne’s suggestion, which was to improve the regulation of introducer schemes.

“Introducers must only act within the confines of their prescribed role. Entities must have systems in place to ensure that introducers do not exceed this role. And entities should not regard the role of the introducer as modifying their own responsible lending obligations,” he said.

However, Chronican said the bank’s decision to ultimately scrap the scheme is fitting to meet community expectations.

“We want customers to have the confidence to come to NAB because of the products and services we provide – not because a third party received a payment to recommend us,” he said.

Patrick Veyret, policy and campaigns adviser of consumer advocacy group Choice, told the Herald that commission-based schemes would only be detrimental to the industry and to the community it serves.

“As we’ve seen across the industry, percentage-based commissions create conflicts of interest, where advisers, such as introducers, are incentivised to recommend larger and less affordable home loans to maximise their own pay cheques,” he said.

PROFESSIONAL MORTGAGE BROKER KENWICK

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