Westpac has made changes to its lending policies designed to improve access to finance for childcare centre operators and help more women into home ownership.

It will make lending criteria for childcare centre operators more flexible, including lower equity requirements, competitive rates and lower establishment fees. It will dedicate business bankers to support childcare businesses looking to expand.

The bank said the measures were designed to support government plans to grow the childcare sector. The New South Wales government has committed A$5 billion to a childcare growth plan and other governments are pursuing similar policies.

In other changes, Westpac has updated its criteria for LMI waivers to include eight additional health professions, which have strong female workforce representation. Eligible customers can access a loan with a loan-to-valuation ratio of up to 90 per cent without LMI.

The additional health professions include speech pathologists, occupational therapists, audiologists, osteopaths, podiatrists, psychologists, radiographers and sonographers.

And it has made changes to its employee development program to give more female staff the opportunity to move into home and business lending roles.

Westpac chief executive consumer and business banking, Chris de Bruin, said in a statement that women have historically been under-represented in lending roles in the bank.