BNPL facilities with ongoing lines of credit will be treated as a credit card, and fixed-term facilities will be treated as a personal loan, as first reported in Banking Day.

Short-term arrangements between four and six instalments will be treated as general living expenses.

Afterpay typically uses an instalment program, while Zip typically uses an ongoing arrangement.

The big bank previously treated all BNPL arrangements as general living expenses, and a spokesperson from ANZ told Savings.com.au the bank had been receiving increased numbers of questions from brokers on how to treat BNPL arrangements.

Broker assessments can then be used to determine mortgage serviceability, and ultimately how much a borrower can borrow. 

Credit cards can still attract interest rates in excess of 20% p.a, while unsecured personal loans can exceed 10% p.a interest rates.

Financial Counselling Australia CEO Fiona Guthrie says there's a "loophole" in the Credit Protection Act of 2009 that "will have to be closed".

"ANZ is being a prudent and diligent banker...ANZ is just belling the cat," Ms Guthrie told Savings.com.au.

"BNPL is debt and so should be treated like all other debt and factored into capacity to repay assessments."

Previously, ANZ has said there is 'no value' in BNPL.

"It doesn’t really fit into improving the financial wellbeing of our customers. I’d rather that we put every dollar and every moment of our time into being better at the core things we do," ANZ CEO Shayne Elliot told The Australian.

See Also: Would Credit Regulations Kill BNPL?

ANZ's note to brokers comes after a large US bank banned BNPL debt on some of its platforms.

In September, NAB and CommBank introduced 'zero interest' credit cards, that mimic BNPL in many ways, but do attract a monthly fee when in use.

CommBank also has a $300 million investment in BNPL provider Klarna.

Westpac sold its 10.7% stake in Zip in October after it launched a 'banking as a service' partnership with Afterpay. 

Photo by Tierra Mallorca on Unsplash



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