The dual ASX and NZX payments network company, Smartpay, announced a full year after-tax profit of A$2.2 million (an improvement on the last financial year's $200K result). This was the company's best result to date, with 37 per cent revenue growth in Australia through the Smartpay retail terminal network, alongside the sale of terminals to an Australian bank and the introduction of SmartConnect - a new cloud-based payments platform. Total revenue and "other income" was $21.8m (prior year $20.4m). EBITDA was $9.6m (up from $8.1 million in 2016). The performance of Australia's car loan backed securities deteriorated in the three months to 31 March 2017. But despite the overall increase in delinquencies during 1Q17 (they rose to 1.72 per cent, up from 1.43 per cent at 31 December 2016), default and loss levels remained low. Macquarie Leasing 's SMART transactions had the lowest weighted-average 30-plus day delinquency rate (1.22 per cent, up from 0.98 per cent at 31 December 2016). Liberty Financial's transactions had the highest delinquency rate (9.02 per cent, up from 7.74 per cent) Real estate investment management firm Qualitas has raised A$500 million from institutional investors for the first fund of a multi-billion dollar construction finance programme that will provide loans of up to $125 million for residential and commercial development projects. The closed-end fund is a core part of Qualitas' rapidly expanding real estate debt strategy that the firm argues fills a gap created by a pull-back in bank lending.  The new fund will provide capital at a loan-to-value ratio of up to 75 per cent for projects that meet its robust risk assessment criteria.