Alistair said he disclosed this fact in his online application and confirmed it in the follow-up documentation. He had, therefore, fulfilled the loan condition of providing satisfactory supporting documents. He also said the bank should have made it clear in its online application form that it did not include overseas income when assessing loan applications. It had not. Alistair said he felt misled by the bank. 

Our investigation

We found that Alistair had not actually disclosed that he earned income from overseas in his loan application although he had indeed provided the necessary supporting documents afterwards. However, the bank was entitled to decline the loan application if it did not meet its criteria. Also, the bank was not obliged to disclose its lending criteria in the online loan application, but it could have spelt out that applicants had to meet its lending criteria before it could approve their applications.

Outcome

We considered the bank had not misled Alistair, a decision he did not accept.