Changes can’t come fast enough

National’s commerce spokesman Andrew Bayly said before the election a National-led government would repeal the 2020 CCCFA and subsequent amendment regulations. From there it would create a new set of regulations so high cost lenders – the CCCFA’s intended target – wouldn’t prey on vulnerable New Zealanders.

However, he says, this may not be enough because some of the tightened lending behaviour from the past three years was now ingrained into banks’ processes. Registered banks were included in the CCCFA rules and mortgage lending almost stopped in 2021 until two sets of tweaks to the legislation by the outgoing Labour government. A third review was ordered before the election.

Advice HQ founder David Green says mortgages were treated like personal loans by some of the more conservative banks when the CCCFA rules kicked in. “A lot of borrowers were frozen out.

“If National makes the changes it has talked about, it will make a big difference for mortgage advisers. The 2021 original changes to the CCCFA were aimed at solving a problem that wasn’t there. There weren’t and haven’t been wholesale mortgagee sales across the country. Defaults are low and have historically been low.”