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A blowout in the big banks’ servicing times is continuing to hurt the broking industry.
Prior to Christmas brokers were facing turnaround times of more than three weeks in some cases as a major upswing in volumes left many institutions struggling to meet capacity.
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Two months down the track servicing levels have improved but brokers remain frustrated that they continue to experience slow turnaround times at the hands of many major banks.
Brokers have singled out Westpac and ANZ for exceptionally long turnaround times, which both banks claim are being addressed.
A Westpac spokesperson said the bank had also improved its processing service levels. “We’ve taken action to increase staffing levels at our processing unit in order to further improve our service levels following an increase in application volumes late last year,” the spokesperson said.
But it’s not good enough for many brokers. Zoran Malesevic, a broker with Harzed Finance in Sydney, said the big banks’ inefficiencies were putting pressure on his ability to deliver on his key customer proposition – service.
“There are three selling points for home loans – product, price and service – and as a broker service is our only point of differentiation,” he said.
Corey drew, mortgage force’s state manager WA and SA, said a major problem was banks’ centralising of their servicing centres, which made access to staff difficult and meant considerable delays.
But how the major banks will manage the expected upswing in borrowing activity in coming months remains to be seen.
CBA’s head of third-party banking Kathy Cummings told mortgage business the bank had experienced an “unprecedented” volume of loan applications in January. But the improved quality of applications would help keep processing times in check.
“We are closely monitoring these numbers and we are working in partnership with our brokers and their head groups to improve the quality of applications by conducting ‘quality pays’ and conversion education workshops,” she said. “The more error free applications, the quicker the process times.”
At a glance
Approval times of up to three weeks
Westpac and ANZ singled out for exceptionally long turnaround times
Banks’ inefficiencies putting pressure on broker service proposition
