Loan Origination Standards¶


Code	`CRE-004`
Domain	Credit Risk
Owner	Head of Credit Risk
Status	Draft
Applicability	Platform
Jurisdiction	NZ + AU
Business domain	BD05
Review date	2027-03-25

Regulations: CCCFA 2003 · APS 220 Credit Quality · NCC Act 2009 (NCCP)¶

Purpose¶

Define the minimum standards for loan origination including documentation requirements, eligibility conditions, approval authority, settlement gates, and loan file integrity obligations. Ensures every loan advanced has satisfied all required pre-conditions and is documented to the standard required by applicable legislation.

Scope¶

All loan origination for retail and small business customers in NZ and AU. Covers the full origination sequence from application receipt through to loan settlement and first drawdown.

Policy statements¶

No loan SHALL be settled without all of the following conditions being satisfied and evidenced in the loan file: a completed and passed affordability assessment (CRE-002); a signed and witnessed loan agreement including all prescribed CCCFA or NCCP Act disclosures (CON-004); verified customer identity meeting AML-003 standards; AML/CFT and sanctions clearance (AML-007); and any product-specific eligibility conditions documented in the product terms.

The origination pipeline SHALL enforce the settlement gate conditions programmatically. No settlement SHALL be processed by the system where any gate condition is unresolved.

Loan approval authorities SHALL be defined in the Credit Delegation Schedule and reviewed annually by the CRO. No originator SHALL approve their own loan application. Dual approval is required for loan amounts exceeding the defined escalation threshold.

All pre-approval commitments SHALL be conditional on final verification of identity, affordability, and AML clearance at settlement. Where any condition changes materially between pre-approval and settlement, the credit decision SHALL be reviewed at the appropriate authority level before settlement proceeds.

Changes to loan parameters — amount, term, interest rate, or security — between pre-approval and settlement that exceed the defined tolerance threshold SHALL require re-approval at the appropriate delegation authority level.

Loan documentation SHALL be complete, legible, and retained immutably for the period required by CCCFA (NZ) and NCCP Act (AU). The minimum retention period for a closed loan file is 7 years from the date of loan discharge.

The loan origination process SHALL be subject to a quality assurance review programme. A sample of settled loans SHALL be reviewed monthly against origination standards and the results reported to the CRO.

All origination records, approval decisions, settlement confirmations, and quality assurance results SHALL be retained per the retention schedule.

Satisfying modules¶

Module	Name	Mode	Description
MOD-139	Financial hardship formal variation workflow	`LOG`	All hardship applications, assessments, decisions, and variation agreements are logged for regulatory examination and responsible lending audit.

Part of Credit Risk · Governance overview Compiled 2026-05-22 from source/entities/policies/CRE-004.yaml