Rich-lister Christian Beck slams ‘paranoid’ banks for cracking down on borrowing

CHRISTIAN Beck is one of the richest people in Australia. But he says there’s a “crazy” reason why banks won’t give him a loan.



WITH an estimated $775 million fortune, Christian Beck is Australia’s 99th richest person.



But even he is having trouble with the banks.

The tech entrepreneur and founder of Australian Technology Innovators — a company with a $231 million revenue last year — says he can’t get a loan as a direct result of “paranoid” banks cracking down on lending thanks to the Financial Services Royal Commission.

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Mr Beck recently told The Australian Financial Review the major banks had tightened their “strict regulatory requirements” after being put under the spotlight by commissioner Kenneth Hayne.

“It’s stupid, it’s crazy, I can definitely afford it,” Mr Beck told the publication.

“If you go to borrow money in Australia, it’s very, very difficult and part of it is all the Australian Prudential Regulation Authority (APRA) requirements and because of the royal commission, the banks are all really paranoid about it and because the banks are so paranoid, all those rules have become really restrictive.”




Mr Beck spoke out after trying to borrow between $4 and $6 million against his property to help fund the foreign expansion of one of his companies for four months.

He said that request had been refused by his own bank, the Commonwealth Bank, as well as other major institutions.

“The bank won’t give it to me because the APRA requirements around serviceability I don’t meet,” he said.

“I did not have a high level of income in terms of salary, so it’s very hard to get a loan.

“I’ve been trying to get a loan for about four months against some properties for things like international expansion but that has proved very hard.”

Mr Beck snagged the 99th position on this year’s Financial Review Rich list and was named as EY’s entrepreneur of the year in 2017, where he was described by judges as a “self-made and self-taught” man.

He skipped university and instead taught himself computer programming and how to code, before building software for his father’s company in his youth. He also founded LEAP Legal Software in 1992.

Last year the millionaire forked out a staggering $8.6 million for a Lane Cove mansion.

According to a new EY report, 24 per cent of Aussie middle-market companies are struggling to access credit, which in turn impacts business growth.