Bendigo and Adelaide Bank says it is "prepared to engage" with other mortgage debenture firms should the boards of more struggling businesses seek an exit.Bendigo bought the A$240 million loan book and related assets of mortgage fund Southern Finance at a small discount in December. Mike Hirst, Bendigo's chief executive, said the acquisition was not a bail-out.He said the bank closed its subsidiary, Victorian Securities, which was similar, last year."They [Southern's board] came to the same realisation, perhaps hamstrung by the collapse of Banksia Securities."They spoke to us. We put in a credit team. The credit was pretty good. We ended up buying the assets and the financial planning business.'"It's good for the communities we are in, in western Victoria. There's some risk of contagion risk because of Banksia. "The opportunity for the other Provic companies [an umbrella group operating 10 mortgage funds], I think we probably are a bit of a natural acquirer. The companies are Victorian-based. "ASIC put out new guidelines last week that call for a minimum capital of eight per cent. I think that'll be a stretch for a lot of those companies, so there may well be other opportunities."Where there are good books, we'll acquire them at the right price. We're prepared to engage with them."