Kiwibank, Westpac, ANZ and BNZ report high demand for mortgage relief

Thursday, 2 April 2020

Banks are letting struggling home loan customers postpone some mortgage repayments.

Tens of thousands of mortgage 'holiday' applications from homeowners and requests for emergency loans from small businesses are pouring into the big banks.

The numbers are changning hour by hour, but figures provided by four of the big five banks indicate nearly 30,000 home loan customers are seeking help as they struggle to meet their mortgage repayments as a result of income drops caused by the Covid-19 lockdown.

At midday on Thursday April 2, Kiwibank had had over 7000 enquiries related to Covid-19, and extended emergency lending to 700 small and medium business customers.

Around 4000 of the requests to Kiwibank were from personal customers concerned they could no longer make their mortgage repayments, and who were seeking to defer repayments, which is being referred to as taking mortgage holidays.

**READ MORE:

Kiwibank has had 4000 requests to Kiwibank from customers concerned they could no longer make their mortgage repayments.

* Here's what you need to know before you take a mortgage 'holiday'

* Government has announced a mortgage holiday scheme**

BNZ had so far had more than 7000 applications for home loan repayment deferrals, and more than half had been actioned.

ANZ said it had had 9500 contacts from customers asking about reducing, or deferring home loan repayments.

Westpac had so far recieved 8500 requests for mortgage repayment deferrals and repayment reductions.

Deferred mortgage payments are added to people's home loans to be repaid later.

Banks were also doing deals to help credit card and personal loan customers get through lockdown.

BNZ had so far had more than 7000 applications for home loan repayment deferrals.

'Around 1000 relate to overdrafts and about 700 are in regard to credit cards,' said Kiwibank spokeswoman Kara Tait.

'At this stage I don't have a break down on which support option was taken up but we're making sure we understand our customer's financial situation and based on this understanding we're providing the appropriate support.

'This could include, home loan repayment deferral (mortgage holiday), extension of home loan term; interest-only home loan payments; emergency overdrafts; interest rate reduction and payment plans for credit cards.'

And, she said: 'We have spoken to well over 1000 business clients to date and provided emergency support to about 700 through granting loan payment deferrals, interest only terms, and temporary overdraft facilities.

'Some of our business clients are still surviving on their own liquidity with supplement from the wage subsidy scheme,' Tait said.

BNZ spokesman Michael Burgess said: 'Teams here are working incredibly hard. Contact centre has received more than double its normal load of calls daily and customers have been grateful and understanding.

'Everyone appreciates we're all in unprecedented circumstances and we're all doing whatever we can to support each other to get through it.'

Applications for the business financial support scheme began at 7am, and Burgess said there had been a steady flow coming through and the bank expected this to increase.

Westpac said it had spoken to tens of thousands of business customers over the past two weeks about how it can support them through the Covid-19 disruption, and it expected thousands to register their for a business support loan.

ANZ spokeswoman Siobhan Enright said the bank had cut interest rates across the board for credit cards, personal loans and personal overdrafts by 1 per cent.

'We have also announced a special interest rate reduction on low-rate and Visa Business products to 9.95 per cent until June 3- during a time of uncertainty for customers.'