Westpac tightens; ANZ loosens lending criteria

Westpac has told mortgage advisers that it will no longer accept applications for home loans where the deposit is 20% or lower. 

The move comes after the bank had been on the market telling mortgage advisers it was still doing loans over 80%.

Westpac said it needed to stop accepting new applications for loans over 80% to make sure it remained within the Reserve Bank's requirement that no more than 10% of loans written are n the low equity category.

“All exemptions will remain and applications which meet these exemption criteria will be considered. Approvals which are currently in place will continue to be honoured,” it said.