Industry heeds APRA message on lending

APRA's efforts to corral runaway growth in investment lending "is now starting to bear fruit," its chair, Wayne Byres, told a Senate committee yesterday.

Byres said that "Australian ADIs - and particularly the largest lenders - have acknowledged the need for collective action to ensure Australian housing loan portfolios remain low risk and a key source of stability for the banking system as a whole."

 "With our encouragement, we've seen the removal of some lending practices which were, to be frank, less than prudent, and some scaling back in growth aspirations to more moderate levels," Byres said.

This is a reference to the Australian Prudential Regulation Authority's edict late last year to banks to limit growth in investor loans to no more than ten per cent.

"The effects of this are only now beginning to be observed, and will take time to fully flow through," Byres said.

"To that end, we will be watching carefully over the remainder of the year to make sure that revised policies and plans are genuinely being put into effect and maintained by individual lenders."

Byres also offered some context to these policies with respect to housing prices.

"As I have said previously, our success will not be judged by changes in house prices. They are not within our mandate, and in any event there are too many influences on house prices that are beyond our control."