The Fiji National Provident Fund has announced changes to its Housing Assistance withdrawal policies from next Monday, as it continues to meet members housing needs and to safeguard their interests and retirement savings.

FNPF Chief Executive Officer Aisake Taito said the revised policy aims to secure members interest through loan and mortgage arrangements that ranks their interest ahead of the commercial lenders.

He said it has also been designed to reduce the processing time for applications whilst requiring stringent documentation evidence from members.

Taito said the village housing policy has been broadened to include detailed qualifying conditions for various assistance pertaining to the village housing scheme and these include a minimum housing eligibility requirement of $8,000 for the construction of a new home and $5,000 for upgrading and extension.

Taito said withdrawal figures have reduced significantly since the last review of the partial withdrawal policy in April.

He stressed that IMF, World Bank and International Labour Organization conducted actuarial valuations on the Fund to guard against excessive withdrawals by members as this was a deviation from FNPF's core function.