But for former Creswick resident Ian Ellis, it has come as too little too late.

The first payment of 20 cents in the dollar was made yesterday to provide some initial relief to investors.

Mr Ellis said he had lost a substantial amount with the collapse of Bankisa earlier this year – a situation he believes should have been avoided in the first place.

He said the return investors would now receive was “not going to save the world”.

“It makes it very hard when you’re retired,” he said. 

“It’s been a long wait and I thought all sorts of things – that we would have to sell up, downsize to try and get a bit of cash going again. We’ll keep going as long as we can.”

Receiver Tony McGrath said he hoped the first distribution provided some initial relief to investors following the failure of Banksia. 

He estimated a total repayment to investors of between 50 and 65 cents in the dollar. 

The receivers’ estimated total returns to debenture holders are included in a report they released yesterday.

It showed Banksia had outstanding commitments to debenture holders of $663 million as of October 25 and had advanced 956 loans to individual borrowers totalling $527 million.

Mr McGrath said in addition to recovering loans and making repayments to debenture holders, the receivers were now focused on investigating the reasons for the companies’ failure. 

“The receivers attribute the failure of the companies to several factors including a general reduction in property values, difficult credit market conditions, inadequate provisioning in the loan books and a mismatch between the timing of debentures due for repayment and the recoverability of borrowers’ loans,” Mr McGrath said. 

The receivers expected to make a second distribution to Bankisa debenture holders before June 30, 2013. 

rachel.aflick@fairfaxmedia.com