The Commonwealth Bank of Australia (CBA) has made a commercial decision to suspend all new applications for its Japan Snowfields Loan product.
The loans, which were introduced last year, were available to anybody who lived in a country that had a CBA branch and would cover up to 50 per cent secured against the Japan-based property.
It is believed the bank reached their original quota of 300 loans and that the AUD/JPY move had effectively doubled their exposure in AUD terms.
CBA general manager Richard Harris said: “The banks risk department in Australia will conduct a review to determine if the bank is prepared to increase its exposure to this market in the future. We expect this review to take approximately two months. While the review is being conducted CBA Tokyo will stop taking new applications.
“All existing purchase contracts where an approval has been issued by the bank will be honoured. This suspension will be in place while we review the total exposure that CBA is comfortable with in this market.”