Liar loans shift to centre of Banking Royal Commission

Via The Australian today comes the story of Fran Jones, 72-year-old pensioner and lollipop woman:

…Commissioner Kenneth Hayne has made it clear his inquiry will be looking for systemic issues and can’t order compensation for anyone wronged by the banking industry. It is difficult to tell how many loan applications are fraudulent — people who are keen to borrow money are unlikely to complain that they received what they were seeking until something goes wrong.

Ms Jones and her husband got their loan through broker Smart-Link Finance, run by Queensland man Daryl Doherty. Firstmac, which specialises in “low doc” and nonconforming loans, refinanced existing borrowing from CBA after, the bank refused to lend the couple more money, according to Ms Jones.

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About the author

David Llewellyn-Smith is Chief Strategist at the MB Fund and MB Super. David is the founding publisher and editor of MacroBusiness and was the founding publisher and global economy editor of The Diplomat, the Asia Pacific’s leading geo-politics and economics portal. He is also a former gold trader and economic commentator at The Sydney Morning Herald, The Age, the ABC and Business Spectator. He is the co-author of The Great Crash of 2008 with Ross Garnaut and was the editor of the second Garnaut Climate Change Review.