Smh:
Non-bank lender Wizard Home Loans was interested in buying RAMS Home Loan Group Ltd’s franchise network but says it didn’t have time to make an offer because Westpac Banking Corporation Ltd moved so quickly.
Wizard, which is backed by multinational giant General Electric, also wouldn’t rule out raising rates on its variable home loans independently of the Reserve Bank of Australia.“We are always monitoring our profitability and it comes down to margin and how long the high costs (of funding) are going to last,” Wizard chairman and founder Mark Bouris told AAP.
In October, Westpac offered to buy RAMS’ 92 branches and all the future business it writes for $150 million about six weeks after RAMS announced higher funding costs had gotten it into trouble.
“RAMS would have been an interesting one for us because it’s a franchise business like ours,” Mr Bouris said.
“But we just weren’t ready for it.
“Westpac just got in ahead of us and I don’t think we could have approved the deal that quickly - it was just done before anyone could blink.
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