Bendigo and Adelaide Bank said customers who borrowed money from the bank to invest in Great Southern’s managed investment schemes (MIS) will still have to keep paying interest on their loans.
At this stage no decision has been made to freeze the loans or abolish interest payments, even after administrators Ferrier Hodgson were appointed to Great Southern.
“So as far as the customer is concerned nothing has changed about the loan as opposed to the investment, in which case they need to speak with Great Southern or the voluntary administrators,” a Bendigo spokesperson said.
“The loan is not linked to the ongoing success of the MIS scheme.”
It has been reported that the agribusiness giant had 43,000 customers, although Bendigo had nowhere near that, the spokesperson said.
It was also still too early to say if Bendigo would take a writedown on its financing to Great Southern’s customers.
“There are still assets there clearly and that’s what the voluntary administrators are working through,” the spokesperson said.
“At the end of the day these are still full recourse loans back to the borrower.
“Obviously we’re working with our customers for the best resolution and we will continue doing that but for now it’s business as usual.”
An ANZ spokesperson said Great Southern is not a material issue to ANZ in terms of writedowns.
“Since our last reporting for the six months to 31 March, there has not been a need to provide any disclosures to the ASX regarding provisions,” the spokesperson said.
Spokespeople from Commonwealth Bank of Australia and National Australia Bank decided declined to comment. Ferrier Hodgson were unavailable for comment.
