Citibank narrows retail product
Citibank has cut commercial mortgage lending and also personal instalment loans from its product offering. The bank will continue to concentrate on residential home loans and credit cards.Steve Ramage, head of mortgages, said the bank needed to invest more in commercial mortgages to meet the servicing standards expected by brokers and the bank preferred to prioritise the residential book.Commercial mortgages used to account for around 15 per cent of the bank's mortgage lending but was 10 per cent or less in recent months.Ramage said the decision was made locally and not driven out of the region or from the United States.He noted the opportunity to pick up more home loan business as other funders, such as those dependent on securitisation and also GE Money, pulled out of the market."It's about making sure we're here," he said, to compete against the four major banks.Between 90 per cent and 95 per cent of Citi's mortgage customers are sourced through brokers. The bank deals with most aggregator groups, though not Aussie Home Loans or Mortgage Choice.Personal instalment loans represent about five per cent of Citibank's unsecured consumer lending. The bank will continue to promote its revolving line of credit and credit card business in which the bank has in the past been a buyer of banks' portfolios.