Let me say that if the latter is true, it can be a painfully long and expensive process benefitting none and does not help in our efforts to achieve true financial inclusion. Therefore I would urge upon the banks and MSPs to get their acts together.
It is also very unusual for households actually to withdraw equity from their houses, to use for other purposes, but for a few years in the mid-2000s that seemed to have been occurring. Of course, Australia was not alone in seeing trends like this. There were qualitatively similar trends in several other countries, particularly English-speaking countries that experienced financial innovation.