Morning Briefing: Major bank ramps up mortgage application security

A major bank is overhauling mortgage operations to increase speed and scrutiny of loan applications... Lender withdraws from investment market...

Major bank ramps up mortgage application security 
A major bank is overhauling mortgage operations to increase speed and scrutiny of loan applications, according to the Australian Financial Review. 

CBA will boost security and transparency of dealing with mortgage brokers, which account for about 45% of loan transactions.

The bank said each application will be individually processed by a'case officer as "prudent" whereas previously the process was split into several separate steps between a number of staff members. 

The bank said it will not impact loan rates, terms or conditions.

Lender withdraws from investment market
Teachers Mutual Bank has temporarily withdrawn from new investment home lending in an attempt to curb growth in this part of its portfolio and meet APRA requirements. 

“We have been working closely with the regulator to manage the growth of our investment lending portfolio,” Steve James, CEO of Teachers Mutual Bank said.  
In December 2014, APRA required that all financial institutions limit their investment lending growth to 10%. According to the banking regulator’s latest monthly banking statistics, Teachers Mutual Bank grew its investment portfolio by three times the limit in the 12 months to March 2016.
    
“The strong demand from our membership base has meant our investment home loan growth has not slowed in line with our expectations, despite the Bank applying a number of micro-policy and pricing disincentives during 2016,” James said.

“In any other context, the strong demand for our investment loan products would be very pleasing, but we take our responsibilities to the regulator extremely seriously, so we have proactively made the decision to temporarily withdraw from investment home lending to new business, effective Wednesday 25 May 2016.”
(Your Investment Property)