Australians — specifically, homebuyers putting in loan applications — are becoming more honest.

That is the finding of the latest UBS Evidence Lab research into people taking out mortgages, looking at those who borrowed money during the 2018 financial year.

For the past few years, UBS has surveyed around 1,000 recent homebuyers about their mortgages.

Across all of those years, the bank has found that between a quarter and a third of borrowers had fudged some of the figures on their loan applications, creating what UBS dubbed "liar loans".

This could have been overstating their income or assets, understating expenses or other debts, or other inaccuracies that often allowed people to borrow more than they should have been loaned.

However, there has been a dramatic change between the first three quarters of the 2018 financial year and the three months to June 30, when the banking royal commission was in full swing.

"During the fourth quarter a record 76 per cent of respondents stated they were 'completely factual and accurate', up sharply from 65 per cent in the prior three quarters," the UBS analysts noted in their report.

"Further, in the fourth quarter there was a statistically significant rise in respondents stating the application process was 'much more difficult' than previous experiences and they required 'much more' documentation and verification."

From these findings, it seems that Australian mortgage borrowers have become more honest because the banks are asking many more questions about their home loan applications.

That is a view shared by ANZ's chief executive Shayne Elliott, in an interview with ABC's The Business program.

"The amount of credit that most people can get has gone down just because of tighter standards," he said.

"Quite understandably — because of the changes with the regulation, because of the scrutiny of the royal commission, because the banks are trying to do the right thing — we are asking a lot more questions and taking longer for people to get approved or they have to come with more evidence."

Sorry, this video has expired Extended interview with Shayne Elliott ( Elysse Morgan )

The UBS analysts conclude that the royal commission has done far more than previous actions by the bank regulator APRA to tighten home lending standards.

"The sharp improvement in underwriting since April corresponds with the beginning of the royal commission," they wrote.

"This suggests that attempts by banks and regulators to tighten underwriting standards (outside macroprudential policy) were largely ineffective, with customers only seeing a tangible tightening of standards in recent months."

The analysts go on to say that this means home loan standards are likely to tighten further, rather than be relaxed, as the commission's interim report is handed to the Government by the end of this month and the final report in February.