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Last Updated: 9th December, 2021

What do you do when a bank won’t honour your accountant’s degree?

Backed by your degree, you are looking to get a waived LMI (Lenders Mortgage Insurance) home loan for accountants . As a Certified Chartered Accountant (CA), you could be eligible for a home loan for Chartered Accountant, along with LMI waiver, which could save you a fortune in the LMI fees on professional home loans.

But what would you do if your bank dismisses your professional degree?

Find out how we were able to assist a couple get a pre-approval for their first home loan in a scenario as tough as this one.


Summary

Details Description
Clients Marianne and Ben Simmons
Broker Prakash Rai
Purpose To achieve a home loan approval based on a non-recognised but a valid accountant’s degree.
Loan amount $1.6 million
Security Pre-approval – TBA EMV: $1.8 million
LVR 90% LVR (LMI Waiver – Certified Chartered Accountant)
Interest 3.07% (var, P and I)
Problem CBA won’t honour Marianne Simmons’ accounting degree.
Solution Communicating with another bank to convince that the customer is indeed a registered Certified Chartered Accountant and is, thus, eligible for the accountant home loan with waived LMI.
Key takeaways Banks don’t have to act on your best interest. So they don’t always make a genuine effort to recognise your degree. Even if they do, their employees, who aren’t updated, may fail to process the client information correctly. But there are banks that may recognise the degrees the other banks won’t.

The Story

Marianne and Ben Simmons are a married couple with two dependents (5 and 8 years) – looking to purchase their first home. They both have very strong income and good credit scores (Equifax: Marianne – 940, Ben – 939). Marianne also has a single credit card with a $12,000 limit on it from CBA.

Marianne already had a pre-approval for a home loan for $1.3 million with CBA. But, they found a property worth $1.765 million and wanted to increase their loan amount. Why?

Because of the limited savings, they had to increase their loan to 90% LVR (Loan To Value Ratio). This would cost them an LMI of around $40,000 on the premium payment.


Much like Marianne and Ben, you may also like to adjust your borrowings accordingly. To get a general idea about the size of mortgage you can easily borrow, talk to one of our brokers by calling 1300 889 743 or by filling in our online-assessment form today.


The Problem

Since Marianne was an accountant and had a good income, they discussed the option of the Waived LMI loan for professionals with CBA. CBA did not recognise her accounting degree as it was not listed in CBA’s list of acceptable accounting degrees.

Marianne is a Certified Chartered Accountant registered with The Chartered Institute of Management Accountants (CIMA). It has been only a month since she started working as a Chartered Accountant (CA).

Earlier on, she worked as an accountant with a major bank for four years and ten months.

CBA declines to accept her degree on the grounds that CIMA (her accounting institute) is not on the list of professional accounting bodies it approves for the accountant home loan.

And, probably also because she’s quite new in her current role as a certified CA.


The Solution

Marriane and Ben got in touch with Prakash Rai, one of our specialist mortgage brokers, who after a thorough assessment, instead went to another bank. He pieced together a strong case explaining the new bank why a CIMA accounting degree should be accepted for the accountant home loan.

Prakash highlighted the mutual recognition agreement between CIMA and CPA to provide recognition of their respective members’ prior qualifications. So, essentially, a CIMA registered CA should be eligible for the accountant home loan just as a CPA Australia registered CPA is since CPA Australia is on the new bank’s list of recognised professional accounting bodies.

Following that, Marianne and Ben received a pre-approval for $1.6 million at 90% LVR with waived LMI from this new bank.


Conclusion

Every now and then, bank staff are unaware of the affiliations among different accounting bodies. And, it’s sometimes quite difficult to make them listen to you because they aren’t obliged to act or think on your best interest.

Also, sometimes banks may recognise degrees differently. So even if one bank rejects a degree, the other bank may accept it. While banks can only accommodate you based on their own lending criteria, our specialist brokers will certainly listen to you and find you the right bank.

But professional mortgage brokers at Home Loan Experts know their way around the intricacies of banking practices. More often than not, they are able to make compelling cases to the suitable banks on your behalf, and get you approved for the 90% LVR, LMI waived accountant home loan.


Are you looking for a lender that clicks for you?

Our mortgage brokers are experts at finding you a perfect match when it comes to lenders. If there’s a right lender for you, with their incredible industry expertise, they will find it.

Speak to one of our mortgage brokers by calling 1300 889 743 or by filling in our online-assessment form today.