APRA crackdown forces Bendigo to pull line of credit products
Australia's regulatory crackdown on investment lending has sidelined part of Bendigo and Adelaide Bank's third party mortgage funding operation.The bank has withdrawn a line of credit products that were packaged with a secured Visa card while it redesigns the offerings to comply with new restrictions introduced by the Australian Prudential Regulation Authority.Bendigo is yet to confirm when the lines of credit, which are branded under the Adelaide Bank moniker, would be reintroduced to the market.The products, which include interest-only and principal & interest features, were marketed through mortgage managers across the country.In a notification to industry clients on Monday, the Adelaide arm of the bank attributed the funding suspension to the new regulatory requirements."Following the introduction of the regulatory interest only requirements, it has become necessary for the bank to suspend all line of credit products and linked secured Visa product until further notice," the bank told mortgage managers."System and contractual amendments to the products are needed for the bank to meet the new requirements."This relates to both interest only and principal & interest line of credit products."Banking Day understands that the main compliance problem relates to the duration of the interest-only period of one of the products.The bank offered the line of credit on interest-only terms for up to ten years.APRA's new standards impose a cap of five years on interest-only terms.The suspension is affecting a raft of niche mortgage managers across the country, including the WA-based Bluebay Home Loans, which yesterday notified aggregators of the funder's decision.Bendigo suspended the products on Monday.