Ann: Appendix 4E and Annual Report, page-22

I fully agree with your comments @LuckyBloke. I am banking on the fact that they are proving a majority of their loans to existing or previous customers that have demonstrated in the last few years that by successfully fulfilling their debt agreement obligations that they can be trusted to meet their ongoing financial commitments. That would be the perfect lending model, having financial data going back five years on a reformed customer who is unable to borrow from the banks because of a financial history caused by some hiccup years ago that has been ironed out.

There are external sales, so it will be interesting to find out what criteria they use to weed out potentially risky borrowers not known to them. So far, they seem to be getting it right, time will tell!

Westpac will be making FSA contribute 30 cents for each dollar borrowed to a customer so Westpac are still being somewhat cautious. This requirement will restrict dividends for the next two years.