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The recent tightening of investment lending practices by the Commonwealth Bank of Australia only apply to those loans coming through the third party channel, it has been revealed.
Last week, it was reported that the CBA had halted any new refinance applications for standalone mortgages.
A notice sent to the bank’s broker network stated: “To ensure we continue to meet our commitments, from Monday 13th February we will be suspending the acceptance of new refinance applications for Investment Home Loans, until further notice.
“Applications which include both Investor and Owner Occupier loans are not impacted.”
While the notice appeared to apply to all refinance investor loans, the major bank has now told Australian Broker that these changes apply solely to intermediary-sourced loans. Borrowers will still be able to access refinance investor loans via CBA’s retail branches.
“We’re committed to meeting our responsible lending and regulatory obligations and to ensure we continue to meet this commitment, we are unable to accept new refinance applications for Investment Home Loans from our broker partners,” a CBA spokesperson told Australian Broker on Wednesday.
“The vast majority of our single property investment home loan refinances come to us through our broker partners so the decision was made to address this in the first instance to ensure we continue to meet our regulatory requirements.”
“We constantly review our products, policies and processes to ensure we’re meeting our customers' financial needs,” the spokesperson said.
This decision comes soon after CBA subsidiary Bankwest announced it too would halt all new applications from customers looking to refinance their standalone investment lending.
