No merit in Wizard brand

Aussie Home Loans will retire the Wizard Home Loans brand, with the franchised outlets rebranded, the Financial Review reported. Aussie negotiated the purchase of Wizard from GE Money in late December.

Wizard's business model was flagging even before the credit crunch hit in mid 2007, with the business missing targets and the number of franchised outlets slipping under the 200 mark. The AFR reported that Wizard now has only around 160 franchises to transfer to Aussie in one measure of the changes in the business.

The pricing of Wizard's home loans also lost its competitive edge as GE faced stiffer increases in funding costs than banks.

Presumably Commonwealth Bank, which bought a one third stake in Aussie last year, will emerge as funder of new Aussie (and Wizard) originated loans, though ANZ remains the funder of Aussie branded home loans for now.