Suncorp yesterday highlighted how dependent it had been, and to a degree still is, on the hot money of the wholesale debt market.David Foster, group executive banking, told an investment conference organised by Macquarie Equities that as of June 2008 Suncorp relied on short-term wholesale debt markets to fund 27 per cent of its lending book.As of April 2009 this was reduced to 11 per cent.The past reliance on what is now flighty and pricey wholesale money, especially short-term wholesale funding, is the primary driver of the bank's second or third review in a year of what constitutes core and non-core business.Foster said Suncorp lifted the classification of loans as non-core to $16.8 billion, up from around $12 billion when management last talked publicly (at the interim profit briefing in late February).Of these assets $6.3 billion are in development finance, $3.4 billion are in corporate banking, $5.1 billion are in property investment and $2.0 billion are in equipment finance. Including the latter as a non-core business appears to be a new decision, and robs business borrowers of one more, albeit minor, potential source of asset finance.Half the non-core assets are in Queensland and a third in New South Wales.Foster noted that at the time of the initial assessment in late 2008 traditional middle market development finance and property investment were included in the core portfolio. He said at the time Suncorp set a limit of $50 million on new funding. In fact the lending teams did no new funding.Foster said the fact that property development was effectively funded from wholesale liabilities made the margins unpredictable and informed the decision to treat this long-standing or "heritage" business as non-core.Some growth aspirations remain, with Suncorp persisting with efforts to develop a challenger brand strategy in select markets such as Western Australia.