Brokers are adapting to further changes after another major bank tightened its mortgage lending policies for company and trust-based borrowers
January 13, 2026
On 8 January, Australia and New Zealand Banking Group (ANZ) joined the other major banks in tightening its mortgage lending rules for home loans taken out by companies, whether borrowing directly or acting as a trustee.
Under the new policy, ANZ will no longer issue new company home loans to customers unless they are already established ANZ clients. In addition, the bank has lowered the maximum loan-to-value ratio (LVR) for eligible borrowers from 90% to 70%.
To be considered eligible, applicants must have held an ANZ lending product—either personal or business—for a minimum of six months, or maintained a personal or business term deposit, transaction account, or savings account with ANZ for at least 12 months.
ANZ confirmed that the revised criteria do not apply to loans involving individual trustees and will not impact applications that were submitted prior to 8 January and are already underway.
The changes were disclosed in an email sent to brokers and seen by Broker Daily’s sister publication, The Adviser. Although ANZ did not offer a detailed rationale, it told The Adviser that it regularly reviews its credit policies and settings to ensure they remain suitable and sustainable.
ANZ is not alone in tightening its approach to trust and company-based mortgage lending.
In December, Westpac removed company and corporate trustee home loans from its retail offering, restricting access to its business banking and private wealth channels instead. Under the updated criteria, new applicants must satisfy specific income or asset benchmarks, while existing customers seeking further borrowing must show an active, relationship-managed engagement with the bank.
The Commonwealth Bank of Australia (CBA) has taken a similar stance, scaling back mortgage availability for non-individual borrowers by limiting company and trust loans to existing customers only.
Earlier, in October 2025, Macquarie Bank adopted a more decisive approach by ceasing to accept new home loan applications where the borrower is a trust or a company altogether.
Macquarie said the move was prompted by several factors, including increased application volumes, operational and turnaround time pressures, the growing use of trust-based lending structures, and the additional compliance checks expected under AML Tranche 2 reforms, which will introduce more extensive verification requirements for trust and company borrowers.
