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Heritage Bank has revealed plans to grow its third-party sales through new products after its broker business went backwards in 2013/2014.
The mutual bank reported a $35.8 million net profit for the 12 months to 30 June 2014. That was 3.5 per cent down on the 2012/2013 result, although 0.1 per cent up on last year’s underlying profit.
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Loan approvals grew 7.5 per cent to $1.4 billion, while Heritage added 20 staff on top of an additional 40 the previous year.
Head of contact centre & intermediaries David Ure said about 40 per cent of Heritage’s loans came from the broker channel, although this business declined during the financial year.
“Originations in the 2013/2014 financial year were four per cent down from the 2012/2013 financial year, however the last six months of the 2014 financial year were particularly strong,” he said.
Mr Ure told The Adviser that brokers are integral to Heritage's growth because they provide almost half its loans and give the Toowoomba-based lender a presence throughout Australia.
“We are targeting an uplift in sales via mortgage brokers in 2014/2015. This will be supported by new products to be introduced and a strong focus on making Heritage easy to do business with,” he said.
“What will remain unchanged are our high service levels and our great reputation within broker channels, as well as our goal of 90-plus per cent customer satisfaction levels.”
Chief executive John Minz said Heritage had performed strongly in the face of fierce competition.
“All financial institutions are fighting extremely hard to attract loan customers,” he said.
“Our success in growing both our lending volume and our retail deposits in 2013/2014 shows the strength of our brand and our people-first promise to customers.”
[Related: Smaller banks call for levy on big four]
