NAB may be in box seat for Wizard
National Australia Bank is close to finalising terms for the purchase of Wizard Home Loans from GE Money, The Australian reported.NAB will buy Wizard's distribution business, including an estimated 170 branches, and at this stage may plan to pay less than $100 million for the business and the brand, according to the newspaper.Negotiations continue over whether NAB will take over and fund the existing loan portfolio of Wizard, which the newspaper puts at a $12 billion loan book.At an investor briefing yesterday, and in response to a question framed around bidding for Suncorp, Cameron Clyne, NAB's CEO designate, said the bank did not have much appetite for mergers and said the bank favoured organic growth.On Suncorp, Clyne said the government's guarantee on deposits had changed views and that any sale of that business (which is not now, formally, on the market) would be drawn out.