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Bank of Queensland (BOQ) has outlined its mortgage distribution strategy in which it aims to accredit 4,000 brokers in 2016.
Speaking at a BOQ strategic update yesterday, group executive of retail Matt Baxby noted the significant growth of the third-party channel, which has become a ‘key priority’ for the group.
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“The broker market in Australia has continued to forge ahead and broker flows are now at 52 per cent,” Mr Baxby said. “That’s up from 35 per cent a few years ago,” he said.
“The first key priority for BOQ is continuing to scale up our broker channel.”
Mr Baxby said BOQ has been one of the few market participants that hasn't leveraged third-party distribution heavily.
“As a result of that, every dollar in the door for us from the broker channel represents incremental growth,” he said.
The BOQ group executive said he often gets asked why brokers should give the non-major lender their next dollar, beyond product and commission.
“There are two parts to that answer,” Mr Baxby said.
“One is, of the brokers I talk to, they highly value the diversification of dealing with an alternative lender. They like less concentration from the majors,” he said.
“The second is our local service proposition. We have deliberately structured our BDM team and broker support unit to be as close to the broker as possible. If that means simple things like answering the phone, giving status of where deals are up to, and giving them certainty as to where a customer’s loan is up to – that is what we do.”
BOQ exited 2015 with broker-originated loans north of 20 per cent.
Also speaking at yesterday’s presentation was BOQ chief executive Jon Sutton, who highlighted the lender’s success in the third-party channel.
“If you go back three or four years ago, we weren’t even in the broker channel,” he said. “The team has done a great job of getting us where we need to be.”
Over the 2015 financial year, BOQ partnered with mortgage aggregation groups Loan Market, Finsure and Beagle Finance.
[Related: BOQ lifts investor rates beyond 6%]
