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On 8 January, Australia and New Zealand Banking Group (ANZ) became the latest of the big four banks to change its mortgage credit requirements for home loans where a company is the borrower, either in its own capacity or as trustee.
Now, ANZ will not offer new company home loans to customers who are not already eligible ANZ clients, and the bank has also reduced the maximum loan-to-value ratio (LVR) for qualifying borrowers from 90 per cent to 70 per cent.
To qualify, applicants must have held an ANZ lending product for at least six months (personal or business) or have had a term deposit, transaction, or savings account for at least 12 months (personal or business).
ANZ said the updated settings do not apply to lending to individual trustees and will not affect eligible applications already in progress that were submitted before 8 January.
The changes were revealed in an email to brokers seen by Broker Daily sister brand The Adviser. While ANZ did not provide a detailed explanation, it told The Adviser: “We continuously review our credit policies and settings to ensure they remain appropriate and sustainable.”
Speaking on the Broker Daily Uncut podcast, Finni principal broker Eva Loisance said lender policy changes were a clear response to how trust lending had been used in recent years.
She said that she thought the move was a “good decision.”
“It’s actually protecting themselves and the borrower from those tricky situations that people can get into, when they over-leverage in trust or see a trust positively geared and then go and borrow again and everything falls apart,” Loisance said.
“I think it’s a good decision in the sense that they’re still going to do trusts, but they’re going to do it very safely.”
As a brokerage that specialises in property investment, Loisance said that around 30 per cent of Finni’s settlements are in trust, with many of its clients having multiple properties.
She said that while ANZ “does trusts very well,” the changes would present challenges and opportunities for both lenders and brokers.
“For us it’s a big thing,” she said.
“It’s always been a specialty product that the big four were doing well. The issue is now we’ve got so many people that took on that product that probably were not as sophisticated as what it was made for.
“So now it’s like let’s leave it to the specialist lender. They’re going to pick up so much business, and they’re good for that too, so it’s going to be interesting.”
A broader withdrawal by traditional banks
ANZ is not the first lender to change its policy around trust lending to companies.
In December, Westpac withdrew company and corporate trustee home lending from its retail channel and limited access to its business bank and private wealth divisions. Under the revised settings, applicants must meet defined income or wealth thresholds, while existing customers seeking additional lending must demonstrate an ongoing relationship-managed connection with the bank.
The Commonwealth Bank of Australia (CBA) has also narrowed access to mortgage lending for non-individual borrowers, with company and trust-based loans now restricted to existing customers.
In October 2025, Macquarie Bank took a more definitive step, closing its doors to new home loan applications where the borrower is a trust or company.
Macquarie said the decision was driven by a combination of rising application volumes, service and turnaround pressures, the increasing promotion of trust-based lending strategies, and the additional verification requirements expected under AML Tranche 2 reforms, which will require additional verification steps for trust and company loans.
You can find out more about the ANZ changes to trust lending and what brokers think about it in the Broker Daily Uncut podcast, here:
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