Lihle Mtshali

Lihle Mtshali

In a scenario similar to Y2K computer glitches, three of the big four banks suspended their homeloan applications when phase two of the National Credit Act was rolled out on Friday.

Standard Bank and Nedbank were reported to have shut their doors to homeloan applications on Friday, while Absa had stopped taking applications as early as Thursday. Old computer systems at the banks were not ready for the conversion to the new system that will now be used to process credit applications.

But banks are refuting claims that they were not receiving applications for homeloans.

"Those reports were incorrect," said Ross Linstrom, spokes-man for Standard Bank.

"We were accepting applications, but not processing them due to the changeover from the old system to the new."

Phase two of the act deals with compliance and all credit transactions entered into from Friday must comply with the act. Tighter controls have been put in place for credit granters before they can issue any credit. As a result, banks had to change their systems and methods of capturing data.

Louis Malherbe, National Credit Act business analyst for Nedbank homeloans, said: "We did not accept any applications for homeloans on Friday because of transition issues, but everything is running perfectly well now."

As part of the compliance requirements, banks and other credit granters must now issue a quotation to the customer before any agreement is signed. Malherbe said that this was the reason for Nedbank's inability to accept or process any homeloan applications on Friday.