Two Melbourne loan brokers were yesterday convicted in the Victorian County Court of conspiring to defraud financial institutions by the creation and use of false documents in support of over 600 home loan applications. The men, Aizaz Hassan and Mohamed Radhi Maki Ebrahim Ahmed, were each sentenced to five-year Community Corrections Orders and 400 hours of community service. The charges followed an ASIC investigation of their company, which had traded as Myra Financial Services.  Both men avoided jail by admitting they conspired with Najam Shah to submit false documents on behalf of their clients. Shah is awaiting trial, set for February 2016. Moody's Investors Service reports that loan to value ratios for Australian residential mortgage-backed securities have fallen due to rising house prices, creating additional equity to absorb potential losses. Over the seven years to September 2015 - a period representing the weighted-average seasoning of the Moody's-rated Australian RMBS portfolio - house prices in Australia have appreciated by an average of 44 per cent. The improvement in the portfolio's indexed weighted-average LVR has provided an additional 14.2 percentage points of equity to absorb potential losses. Prices in Sydney (up 70 per cent) and Melbourne (56 per cent) have risen the most over the past seven years, with the other capital cities are up by about ten per cent. Auswide Bank, via a statement to the ASX yesterday, said it has entered into "a significant strategic relationship and equity deal" with MoneyPlace, Australia's second fully licenced peer-to-peer lender. The long term relationship, with teh bank claims as "the first of its kind in Australia", includes a 5 year deal to fund up to A$60 million to invest in consumer loans. Additionally, Auswide Bank is taking a 20 per cent equity stake in MoneyPlace. MoneyPlace launched in October after receiving its retail and wholesale Australian Financial Services licence and provides loans of $5000 to $35,000 through its P2P platform.