Push for wider deeper credit checks

The banks want more access to your credit history. The industry is pushing for changes to privacy laws that would allow them to check out borrowers who have never defaulted but might have maxed out available credit with other lenders.

Australia and New Zealand are two of the only countries in the developed world where banks are unable to do credit checks of customers in these circumstances, reports the Sydney Morning Herald.

The banks say it will help them be more responsible and avoid lending more money to people who cannot afford the loans they already have.

A bank industry taskforce spokesman says they will not be pushing for the opportunity to use that information in marketing campaigns, as happens in the USA.

The taskforce is expecting to make its report to the Federal Government by Easter.

Yesterday the Commonwealth Bank warned that a rise in key mortgage rates – regardless of further RBA rate rises – was inevitable because of the increased cost of credit thanks to the sub-primes crisis in the US.