By Gareth Vaughan
BNZ CEO Andrew Thorburn is confident his bank won't have to cancel any more than the around 150 high loan-to-value ratio (LVR) home loan pre-approvals it has thus far to bring it into line with Reserve Bank restrictions.
But he's not confident the Reserve Bank's restrictions will achieve their goal.
Thorburn told interest.co.nz ASB's move in late September to give customers with pre-approved above 80% LVR mortgages short notice to draw them down or lose them had seen demand for high LVR mortgages from BNZ rise.
And his bank's conversion rate of high LVR pre-approvals into actual loans had stayed higher than expected.
After cancelling about 150 pre-approvals in recent days, Thorburn said the bank was "pretty confident that 150 is definitely the final number," but it could conceivably be lower as BNZ was continuing to talk with potential borrowers.
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