ANZ mortgage service standards on the mend

ANZ are getting their mortgage approval turnaround times back to normal after a blowout in recent months that saw some banks taking weeks to approve a home loan.

ANZ general manager mortgages, Michael Bock, said the big banks did not budget for the recent strong revival in demand for home loans or the amount of business that would flow their way, and were short of troops in their mortgage processing centres.

According to the latest Australian Bureau of Statistics figures, the $22.4 billion of housing lending in May took total housing loans outstanding to $875 billion - 16.6 per cent up on May 2008. Bank share of new lending is running around 92 per cent.

Bock said ANZ's approval times for broker originated loans went out to nine days, compared to the two or three day turnaround that brokers expect.

He said ANZ is getting back to normal approval times but is not there yet.

Brokers have been upset because approval times for loans originated through direct channels have been faster.

Bock dismissed suggestions that the big banks were using their market power to put the brakes on brokers and siphon business into the direct channels.

He said ANZ was channel neutral. The reason for the difference in approval times was that the direct channels used a more automated approval system that was not so sensitive to staffing issues.

ANZ launched a new loan yesterday, a rare event in a market that has seen little product development in the past 18 months.

The Portfolio loan is a line of credit for property investors and will allow borrowers to open as many as 12 sub-accounts, with different payment conditions (fixed, variable, interest only) and in different borrower names.

Bock acknowledged that other lenders have had portfolio loans in the market for some time, but said ANZ's product would be competitive.

The bank will discount its standard variable rate (currently 5.81 per cent) by up to 70 basis points, depending on the size of the credit line.

Bock is anticipating strong demand from property investors. The bank's economics team is forecasting quarterly growth rates of 2.5 to five per cent for all the Australian capital city markets by the September quarter next year, accelerating to growth of four to five per cent in all capitals in the December quarter.

Bock said: "Our research tells us that 50 per cent of property investors have two or more investment properties in their portfolios and that 60 per cent use the equity in their homes to leverage into investment property.

"A line of credit product gives that type of investor a lot of flexibility."