Australia's Westpac closes RAMS Financial to new home loans amid regulator scrutiny
Recasts paragraph 1; adds share moves, details from paragraph 2 onwards
Aug 6 (Reuters) -Westpac WBC.AX will be shutting down its under-scrutiny RAMS Financial business to new home loans immediately, the Australian bank said on Tuesday, but it would continue to retain the ongoing loans under the unit that it had earlier tried to sell.
After the announcement, shares of the Sydney-listed lender rose as much as 1.3% to A$28.04, as of 0133 GMT.
"Existing RAMS customers' loans will remain in place, and customers will continue to access service through the RAMS app, website and call centre," Westpac said in a statement.
The country's corporate regulator, the Australian Securities and Investments Commission, had placed the group and its franchisees under evaluation, following an internal review identifying "prior issues that have the potential to impact our customers and our reputation".
After a review announced last November, the lender has decided that it offering home loans through RAMS franchisees is not right for the company.
According to media reports, the lender was planning to sell the home loans unit earlier this year but had to drop the plan after lack of interests.
Westpac will retain the RAMS mortgage portfolio of loans and will provide other opportunities within the company to the current RAMS employees.
Originally founded by philanthropist John Kinghorn as Registered Australian Mortgage Securities, the unit's closure is not expected to have any material impact on the Westpac's results for fiscal year ended September 2024, it added.
Reporting by Sneha Kumar; Editing by Sherry Jacob-Phillips and Rashmi Aich
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