SENIOR Australians Equity Release Association of Lenders, Australia’s peak body governing the reverse mortgage lending, has appointed Over Fifty Group’s Chris Martin as its new chair and ABN Amro’s Martin Lynch as deputy chair.
A not-for-profit organisation, SEQUAL members represent over 95% of reverse mortgage lending in
Martin was one of the founding members of SEQUAL.
“The reverse mortgage market is growing so rapidly that SEQUAL’s input is vital to establish sound guidelines for product development and ensure the sector’s ethical growth, via lenders and educating their distribution channel,” Martin said.
Lynch said the director of reverse mortgages at ABN AMRO, a division of the bank he established in 2005. Prior to this he worked in reverse mortgage sector for years in the
“The
As part of this commitment, SEQUAL recently made significant changes to its Code of Conduct to tighten conditions on No Negative Equity Guarantees. The changes came about after extensive liaison with key consumer and regulatory groups including Uniform Consumer Credit Code, ASIC and consumer watchdog, Choice.
The Code of Conduct has been strengthened by clarifying the minimum standards for the application of the ‘No Negative Equity Guarantee’, improving the process for managing defaults under contracts, setting minimum default standards for loan calculator tools and clarifying the steps SEQUAL members must take to ensure borrowers seek appropriate legal advice.
The ‘No Negative Equity Guarantee’ is a mandatory component of SEQUAL’s code of conduct. It guarantees that borrowers can never owe more than the value of their home.
SEQUAL’s executive director Kieren Dell said the reverse mortgage sector has more than doubled since SEQUAL’s inception in 2005.
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Australian Property Journal
