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Brokers have named ING Direct as Australia’s best non-major lender for the third consecutive year.
ING Direct topped The Adviser’s annual rankings of Australia’s non-major banks with a score of 84.76.
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Macquarie Bank repeated last year’s second-placed finish with a score of 83.13, while Bankwest placed third with 79.61 (full list at bottom).
The survey of 829 brokers voted ING Direct as the standout in 16 of the 23 categories.
ING Direct led the field in product pricing, product range, product policy, channel conflict, commitment to the broker channel, broker communication and broker interaction.
It also scored highest for web presence, online lodgements, online resources and online application status tracking.
The other category wins were for business support, client support, call centre support, product cross sell, and training and education.
Macquarie was voted top in six categories: remuneration, commission structure, turnaround times, BDMs, credit assessment staff and valuation ordering online.
There was also one win for the group of St George, Bank of Melbourne and BankSA, which took out the new category of mobile device interface.
The Adviser’s editor, John Bastick, said the annual ranking was an important gauge of how well the non-majors were taking the fight to the big four banks.
“The thing to come out of the past 12 months is every lender – be they one of the big four, a non-major, a non-bank – is shouting out about price and service and sometimes it’s been hard for the non-majors to get their message heard over the din.
“That said, this year’s rankings certainly highlight the non-majors who’ve managed to ‘rattle the cage’, particularly in the eyes of the broking channel.
“Sure, there’s product and price, but it was the non-majors doing great turnaround times, with the BDM service, the back-end support – they’re the lenders that are really resonating with brokers.”
However, Mr Bastick said that brokers regard the big four banks as market leaders when it comes to technology.
“We all know that technology is becoming increasingly important, so this is one area the non-majors will have to watch closely if they want to take market share from the majors.”
[Related: Last year’s results]
The non-major rankings are explored in greater detail in the October issue of The Adviser magazine.
2014 RANKINGS
1. ING Direct: 84.76
2. Macquarie: 83.13
3. Bankwest: 79.61
4. Suncorp: 78.00
5. Citibank: 76.49
6. St George/Bank of Melbourne/BankSA: 74.20
7. AMP Bank: 74.18
8. ME Bank: 73.07
9. Adelaide Bank: 72.55
10. Heritage Bank: 71.74
