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A non-major lender has announced that it has suspended pre-approvals for loan applications indefinitely.
Heritage Bank has announced that effective from 23 April, it no longer accepts pre-approvals until further notice, with the exception of loans for existing customers and the construction portion of a land and build loan.
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The bank attributed the decision to “consistently high volumes” and the “impact of public holidays”.
“On 18 April, we communicated that we had come to the difficult decision to temporarily suspend accepting pre-approvals due to the consistent high applications volumes that we had received over the previous months," Heritage's head of broker distribution, Stewart Saunders, told The Adviser.
“Combined with the large number of public holidays, our service levels had deteriorated and we are working to address this, with the suspension of pre-approvals being one of the measures we’ve implemented.
“Heritage recognises the importance of being able to meet broker and customer expectations and is completing an end to end review of its mortgage processing. We recognise the value that pre-approvals provide customers, and will continue to review our position.”
Heritage said that it is unable to provide further guidance as to when the suspension would be lifted.
“Unfortunately, we are unable to commit to a specific date for when we will be accepting pre-approvals,” it said.
The bank said that it would advise brokers once it commences receiving pre-approvals for loan applications.
[Related: Lenders change home loan rates]
