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Mortgage brokers are coming to terms with lenders' need to improve shrinking margins, St George general manager of third-party and specialist distribution Steve Heavey told Mortgage Business today.
Mr Heavey’s comments follow the bank’s recent decision to change arrangements on broker commission clawbacks.
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From 1 May 2008 any broker-originated St George loan that expires within 12 months will attract a 100 per cent clawback on upfront commissions. Those discharged within 18 months will also lose 50 per cent of upfront commissions.
The bank currently claws back 50 per cent of upfront commissions if loans are discharged within the first 12 months.
Mr Heavey said that since informing third-party distributors of the changes, he’d not had one negative response.
“I think brokers really understand – more so now than ever before – what’s going on with the credit crunch and the need for lenders to have these sorts of provisions in place,” he said.
“We are actually one of the last major lenders to move on our clawback arrangements,” Mr Heavey said, explaining that the new arrangements would simply bring the bank in line with the rest of the market.
“Third-party distribution is an important vehicle to us and we held off as long as possible."
Published: 26-03-08
