Briefs: PEXA moves into the ACT, debt management gets mobile, new Credit Clear director, tighter LVR

Online property exchange network PEXA Group has been granted approval to operate an electronic lodgement network in the Australian Capital Territory. Financial institutions and other PEXA subscribers will be able to settle and lodge conveyancing transactions in the ACT using the PEXA exchange. The company said it is still working with the Registrar General to fix a launch date.

ChapterTwo Australia, a “debt solutions” business that is part of Credit Intelligence Group, is taking debt management mobile, with the launch of an app that will allow users to list all their debts in one place and make a single monthly payment to ChapterTwo, which will negotiate payment plans with creditors and manage repayments. Credit Intelligence claims it is the first technology of its kind in the Australian debt management industry.

Receivables management company Credit Clear has appointed Hugh Robertson to its board as a non-executive director. Robertson is the director of equity capital markets at Bell Potter Securities. The board is chaired by Gerd Schenkel.

Despite criticism that new tougher loan to value lending rules will mainly affect first home buyers, the Reserve Bank of New Zealand is going ahead with its proposed tighter LVRs. The new LVR restrictions mean New Zealand banks are restricted to just 10 per cent of mortgage lending over 80 per cent LVR, down from 20 per cent. The start date has been pushed back from October 1 to November 1 because of the disruption from current heightened COVID alert levels, but the RBNZ says it expects banks to “comply with the spirit of the new restrictions immediately”. It says house prices remain above their sustainable level and the risks of a housing market correction continue to rise.