Weekly Credit Crunch 8th December 2025

Bank of Melbourne – Important Update for Company & Trust Applications 🏛️

Back in July, Bank of Melbourne shifted the processing of company and trust borrower home loans from the Mortgage Operations team to the SME team while they build this capability into the residential mortgage origination platform.

To keep things consistent during this transition, from 18 December 2025, brokers will no longer be able to submit company or trust borrower home or residential investment loans through ApplyOnline (AOL).

✔️ What’s NOT changing

You can still submit company and trust applications via the Westpac business banking process exactly as you do now.

Bank of Melbourne will issue further updates as this rollout progresses.

Bankwest 🧡🙅😭

Effective Friday, 5 December 2025, Bankwest is introducing changes that impact applications using self-employed income.

📉 REDUCED Maximum 80% LVR for Self-Employed Applications😭

All applications involving self-employed income will be restricted to 80% LVR max.
Any application >80% LVR will be declined and exceptions won’t be approved.

🌟 The Good News

For self-employed applications with LVR ≤ 80%, existing policies still apply:

Salaried Self-Employed
1-year financials accepted for Full Verification

📌 Important Reminder

Bankwest does not lend to company or trust structures for residential lending. They lend to individual borrowers only.

💰 Bonus Income

80% of bonus income used
Bonus must be permanent & ongoing (monthly, quarterly, half-yearly or annually)
Evidence required via either:
• Employer letter, or
• Payslips showing bonus amounts

MyState Bank 🏦

A couple of handy improvements:

Living Expenses worksheet now includes a study loan estimator 🎓
Directors' Salary worksheet now includes a company type dropdown (Standard vs Base Rate) with definitions in the instructions tab

Zeus Bolt – 0% Buffer Serviceability Calculator Now Live ⚡️

The new LMG Serviceability Calculator has been released and is built to keep things sharp, compliant, and moving at Zeus speed.

🧮 0% Buffer Serviceability Calculator

Internal check using:

0% buffer
No income shading
No extra buffers on debts

📁 Keep on file for LMG Compliance.
⚠️ No need to send this calculator to Zeus.
🔑 LMG brokers can access it in BrokerHub or MyCRM.

📊 Eligibility / Rule-Based Calculator

This is the lender’s rule-based check. You send this one to the lender. Also available in BrokerHub & MyCRM.

Zeus Bolt Now Open to All LMG clients🚀

You can now use Zeus Bolt to refinance any eligible client, not only those you originally placed.

Why brokers are loving Zeus Bolt ❤️

✔ Policy niches the majors can’t touch (Company and Trust borrowers, Expats, Self Employed and even foreign income!!)
✔ Streamlined refi: 24–48hr SLAs
✔ Docs in 48hrs
✔ Pricing from 5.33% (O/O, P&I ≤80% LVR)
✔ Full features: offsets, redraw, Zeus app, Visa debit card
✔ Loan sizes to $3.5M + cash-out to 80% LVR

ING – End-of-Year Policy Wrap-Up 🎉

Lots of updates to finish the year strong!

1️⃣ Self-Employed – One Year Financials Now Accepted

Eligible customers can now use one year of income with:

Max LVR 80%
90% shading
No debt consolidation
NOA required
Prior year removed from financials (not redacted)
Min 2 years trading

2️⃣ Directors With 50% Ownership Can Use Company Profits

If applicants jointly own ≥50% and one is a director, they can use profit proportionate to their share.

3️⃣ Single-Layer Trust Income Now Accepted

Single-layer trust structures now acceptable (e.g., company → family trust).
❌ Multi-layer trusts still not acceptable.

These changes = more flexibility + faster approvals for self-employed clients. 💼✨

🔶 Refinance Up To 90% LVR (With LMI)

Available from 1 December 2025 for new customers. Existing customers expected in 2026.

🏡 Holiday Homes & Secondary Residences – New Classification

APRA changes mean a borrower can only have one PPOR.

Other properties (holiday homes, family residences) = investment loans.

To qualify as a genuine holiday home:

Must be a reasonable distance from PPOR
No rental income declared
No rental income in servicing

BDMs can request OO pricing for genuine cases.

Members We Helped This Week 🤝

Scenario: Self-Employed • Foreign Income • Mid-Construction 🛠️🌍

Our member came to us with a client who was already with ANZ, mid-way through a construction project, and needing to increase their loan. The challenge? Heavy foreign income shading meant serviceability wasn’t evident, and ANZ would not consider an increase. This one needed some deeper digging, so we asked a LOT more questions up front to assess the true pathway:

Key questions we asked the member:

What is the currency, and how is the foreign income derived (self-employed, investment, salary, etc.)?
Is there a fixed-price build contract with a registered builder, or is this effectively cash-out for an owner-build?
Has a valuation been completed with ANZ? What was the result, and were any red flags noted?
Is the property incomplete or uninhabitable? (Critical, as no lender will hand over a large lump sum for a partially completed build without a fixed-price contract.)

We also suggested the member jump into our Construction Hub – Incomplete Builds module for a deeper understanding of the process and lender expectations.

Our Guidance

Given the situation, we recommended looking at Funding (LMG panel) or ORDE, which the member had already mentioned. Both lenders are suitable, likely more cost-effective, and importantly:

✔ Both accept foreign income
✔ Suitable for short-term funding
✔ Allows the broker to refinance the client back to a mainstream lender once construction is complete

When ready to refinance, our Foreign Income Module will help identify lenders with strong policies in this space.

Important Note on Foreign Income

The type of foreign income and the currency matter significantly. If the income is derived from a business, most lenders will decline it — as it’s treated as self-employed foreign income, which is high-risk and unacceptable for many.

A few lenders we recommended for foreign income as a stage two refinance after completion:

Bankwest
Bank of Melbourne / Westpac
CBA
Zeus Bolt Streamlined refi by LMG– accepts self-employed foreign income under the streamlined refinance product. A great option once the build is complete. Rates from 5.33%, with offset and redraw available.

Member Scenario 🧾 “For a NAB loan where a company is purchasing a residential property (no trust involved, just two individual guarantors), will NAB issue e-docs or manual documents?”

TBB Response 💬 Thanks for reaching out — great question, and definitely one worth clarifying early so you can set the right expectations for your clients. I popped your scenario straight into Brokerchat.AI, and here’s exactly what it returned:

Document Type Issued: 📄 Manual (Paper) Documents
NAB will not issue e-docs in this scenario. The loan will be issued as manual (paper) documents.

Here’s why:

Company Borrower Rule 🏛️
According to the NAB Digital Signing Eligibility Matrix (Aug 25), any loan where the borrower is a company is automatically ineligible for digital signing.
→ Outcome: Manual documents will be issued.
Guarantor Rule 🧍‍♂️🧍‍♀️
The presence of guarantors also renders the loan ineligible for e-docs.
→ Outcome: Manual documents will be issued.

Even if the deal had only one of these factors, it would still fall into the manual-docs category — but in this case, you have both.

Final Answer for the Member ✅
Because the borrower is a company and there are two individual guarantors, NAB will issue manual (paper) loan documents for signing

Member Scenario – SMSF Purchase of Student Accommodation

Clients are looking to purchase two x one-room bedsitter/student accommodation apartments inside their SMSF. Both properties are independently managed, and essentially small one-room units with their own bathrooms.

TBB Response

This space gets very niche — small specialised securities inside an SMSF will narrow your lender pool significantly. But don’t worry, we’ve dug into the policies and here are the realistic options available right now. 👇

✅ Lenders That Accept Student Accommodation in an SMSF

These lenders have explicit policy support (or close equivalents) for this type of specialised asset.

1. Australian Financial

Policy Insight:
They offer a specific SMSF commercial policy designed for specialised properties, and student accommodation is explicitly listed as acceptable security.

Key Details:

Max LVR: 60%
Security Type: Student Accommodation
Location Requirement: Must be in a Metro or Larger Regional Centre
Product Type: SMSF Commercial

This is the most direct match for your scenario.

2. Go Flexi (Pepper Money)

Policy Insight:
While they don’t say “student accommodation” word-for-word, their SMSF policy accepts boarding houses and rooming accommodation, which is often how lenders classify small bedsitter/student units.

Key Details:

Max LVR: 60%
Security Type: Boarding House / Rooming (functionally equivalent to student accommodation)
Action Step:
It’s best practice to check with your BDM to ensure your specific property fits their definition — especially given the size and configuration.

🔍 TBB Tip

Specialised securities inside SMSFs are always assessed with extra caution. You’ll want to:

Confirm strata/management arrangements
Validate size and layout (many lenders have minimum size requirements)
Check the exact classification with the valuer early, as this drives lender acceptance
The valuation will be imperative

Member Scenario – Pre-Approval to Purchase Commercial Property

Member Summary:

Client is looking for pre-approval to purchase a mixed-use commercial property: takeaway/café space, convenience store, bottle shop (with liquor licence), plus a 3-bedroom apartment.
The commercial area has been fully renovated but never opened or leased.
Licences and approvals are all current.
Client may operate their business and potentially holiday-let the apartment.
Current scores are 547 and 361
Short Term Funding needed only

TBB Response Given the credit scores, the mixed commercial/residential nature, and the need for a short-term solution, mainstream lenders will struggle here. Jump into the Commercial Module and Short-Term / Alt Doc Module:

Commercial Module:
https://www.thebrokersbible.com.au/products/membership/categories/2155770742/posts/2174872409
Short-Term / Alt Doc Module:
https://www.thebrokersbible.com.au/products/membership/categories/2155770847/posts/2179681300

Based on the scenario, I would start with:

La Trobe Financial – Commercial Advantedge (Short Term)
Bluestone – Commercial Product
Pepper Money – Commercial

Plus, Brokerchat.AI pulled together a strong shortlist of short-term commercial funders for this exact type of deal.

Other Lenders Offering Short-Term Commercial Finance

La Trobe Financial
Maxiron Capital
Thinktank (Private Lending)
Funding
Resimac
Aquamore
Finsecure
Credit Connect
ORDE Financial

That's it for the updates this week! See you next week for our final credit crunch of the year!!👋

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