Australian lending industry's e-commerce standards set

09.03.2007
The Lending Industry XML Initiative (LIXI) and National ICT Australia have developed a set of protocols that promise to reduce home loan application processing from two days to two hours.

The protocols, written using a Credit Application Language (CAL) have been developed over five years and will be available to LIXI members after its launch on March 7.

NICTA empirical software engineering program industry liaison Paul Mackie said the protocols will standardize the interactions between banks and property valuers.

"The standards will mean that when Web services come along the lenders and property valuers will take a common approach to it," Mackie said.

"Banks, in many cases, will fax off requirements to a property valuer who will take them along to the property and mark the checklist off on a notepad. An extrapolation of this could lead to requests sent in a digital format, with property valuers making notes on a PDA."

"A standard architecture and reference implementation framework is something industry has been very keen to receive and we expect it to be eagerly received."