The Australian Retail Credit Association has appointed former Experian Australia managing director Kim Jenkins as its new chief executive. ARCA plays a role in administering the comprehensive credit reporting regime, as well as encouraging its development. It is an area Jenkins knows well from her previous role but she will have her work cut out for her, as implementation of CCR in Australia has been disappointingly slow. The Australian Taxation Office has determined that a distribution of A$202 million of capital to Genworth Mortgage Insurance Australia shareholders in March will be taken as an unfranked dividend paid out of profits and included in assessable income. When Genworth announced the capital reduction measure it said it was seeking an ATO ruling that no part of the proceeds to Australian residents would be a dividend. The capital management initiative was approved by shareholders at the company's annual general meeting in May, even though the tax question was unresolved. CUA released the results of a review of its lending policies yesterday, announcing a number of changes. The maximum loan-to-valuation ratio for home loan and investor refinancing will rise from 90 per cent to 95 per cent. Flexible repayment arrangements will be introduced for borrowers on parental leave. Granny flats and other additional dwellings will be recognized as acceptable security against a loan, along with granny flat rental income. Investors will be given a maximum interest-only term of ten years, while other loans will have a maximum interest-only period of five years (up from three). Fitch Ratings has set Credit Union Baywide a long-term issuer default rating at 'BB' with a "stable outlook". Fitch said CUB has a higher risk appetite than most of its domestic peers, with a focus on higher loan to value mortgages and consumer lending. Fitch believes this may increase the susceptibility of its loan performance to a weaker operating environment through the cycle. "Asset quality has improved in the last few years, supported by a favourable operating environment and a reweighting of its portfolio towards residential mortgages. However, residential mortgage growth has largely been driven by higher loan/value ratio lending during a time of increasing macro risks," Fitch wrote in a pre-sale media release. Online marketplace for home loans, HashChing, has doubled the value of loans negotiated through the platform in only three months. It reached its first A$1 billion loan milestone within a year of operation, and now, only three months later, it has doubled that figure to over $2 billion worth of home loan applications, generated by the firm's 4000 paying customers. This was sent to over 290 mortgage brokers who are registered on the platform. HashChing connects customers directly with verified mortgage brokers who further negotiate better rates from lenders.