Briefs: No rate wait for Beirut and Unicredit, Lloyds maximises loan proceeds, APRA defers conglomer

Unicredit, a small Perth-based credit union, was a rare lender to publicise a decision on interest rates yesterday. The mutual cut its variable rate home loan by 25 basis points, the same as the cut in the RBA cash rate announced on Tuesday. Unicredit also cut its rates last month, by 50 bps, also the same as the RBA. Beirut Hellenic Bank cut its home loan rate too, by 25 bps.

Lloyds Banking Group sold a portfolio of troubled property loans in Australia for more than was reported last week. Lloyds said it sold Â£809 million in loans at 48 cents in the dollar to the Morgan Stanley Real Estate Investing and Blackstone Group. It said the loans generated losses of Â£183 million in the year to December 2011. This sell-off means the bank has cut its non-performing loans in Australian by 92 per cent.

The Australian Prudential Regulation Authority will defer the implementation of its "Level 3" prudential framework for conglomerate groups until January 2014. APRA wrote to chief executives of potential Level 3 groups last week, advising them of the change. It said a number of related domestic and global prudential reforms could affect proposals and it wanted to make sure the changes were co-ordinated with the life and general insurance capital review, the Basel III capital reforms and the Stronger Super reforms.