Lender adopts ‘stricter’ compliance guidelines

According to the lender, the model was designed in consultation with mortgage aggregators to ensure that home loan applications “meet responsible lending expectations common to most lenders” and that they are processed in line with HomeStart’s “Service Level Agreement” commitments.

HomeStart added: “It is also designed to manage serious incidents, if they arise, in a specific, measurable and objective way.

“We have enhanced our supporting activities to help our brokers submit quality applications, which will provide customers with better experiences and outcomes.”

“This model will target specific areas of omission or error in lending applications, which stem from a breach of compliance and responsible lending obligations to your [broker’s] customer, your aggregator and your lender.”

HomeStart noted that once the model is launched, brokers must submit loan applications with the following to avoid “serious incident”:

• full disclosure of debts
• evidence of customer capacity to repay the debt
• verification of customer stated living expenses
• customer ID certified
• privacy consent and declaration forms signed

The lender added that if the criteria are not addressed or are addressed in error in any application, the below escalating process will apply:

• First incident - First formal notification
• Second incident - Second formal notification (aggregator notified)
• Third incident - Accreditation temporarily revoked (aggregator notified), with brokers required to re-sit the HomeStart’s responsible lending/compliance module
• Fourth incident - Business development specialist meeting for explanation around severity of the situation (aggregator notified/involved)
• Fifth incident - Suspension of HomeStart accreditation, with a recommendation to aggregator to consider permanently revoking broker’s HomeStart accreditation

The new compliance guidelines will apply for all new applications lodged from Thursday, 4 April.  

[Related: SA lender joins Aussie panel]