The non-majors: a who's who

"The aim is to make the customer experience simpler and easier"

Heritage bank recently celebrated 16 years in the broker channelbut David Ure, head of contact centre and intermediaries, says the lender is now squarely focused on the future.

“We are currently carrying out an end-to-end review of our loans approval process, looking to streamline and improve the customer experience wherever possible,” Mr Ure says.

“This has exciting possibilities for both our broker partners and our loans customers, with improvements planned across the whole process.

“The aim is to make the customer experience simpler and easier.”

While Heritage is a relatively small lender, Mr Ure says that what it lacks in size it makes up for in quality.

“We have six BDMs, but what’s more important is that their average time in the role is 10 years.

“Our BDMs are highly experienced and well regarded in the industry, and backed by large processing teams in Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane,” he says.

In 2012/2013, Heritage recorded its 14th consecutive year of record pre-tax profit. According to Mr Ure, Heritage’s continuing growth is a sign of the bank’s strength.

“We have opened three new branches in the last 18 months, and we created 40 new jobs at Heritage in the last financial year,” he says.

Macquarie Bank

"We will continue to respond by further refining and enhancing our overall offering"

After a brief hiatus following the global financial crisis (GFC), Macquarie has re-entered the broker channel and seen impressive results. The bank was rated second overall in The Adviser’s 2013 Third Party Banking Report – Non-Major Lenders.

James Casey, head of product for Macquarie Mortgages, says the recognition is a result of Macquarie’s continually listening to brokers so as to be able to fine tune its offering – something Mr Casey says the bank will continue to do.

“We appreciate we have more work to do though, as it’s important not to become complacent,” he says. “We will continue to respond by further refining and enhancing our overall offering in a transparent and simple way.”

In the past year, Macquarie has increased its network of BDMs from 15 to 23 and MrCasey says the bank is looking to expand further in order to support its brokers as much as possible.

“Our proposition – of being ‘Built around Brokers’ – is central to the way we operate and engage with the broker community,” says Mr Casey.

In the next 12 months, Macquarie will continue to work with the third-party channel, he explains.

“We’ll [keep] listening and taking on board feedback from brokers to further enhance our products and processes to ensure a streamlined and market-leading experience for our brokers,” he says.

Suncorp Bank

"We've worked hard to deliver an exceptional service"

Over the past 18 months, we’ve worked hard to deliver an exceptional service proposition to our broker partners. Our focus is now working with more brokers to allow them to experience what we have to offer,” says the bank’s general manager, intermediaries, Steven Heavey.

Suncorp Bank has invested heavily in its back-office processes to deliver “scalable,reliable and consistent processing”, he says.

 The bank has also improved its technology capacity, launching a comprehensive broker website, ‘Business Partners Online’, and the ‘Broker Mortgage Manager’, a tool that allowsbrokers to track applications in real time.

And according to Mr Heavey, there is still more technology to be unveiled over the next 12 months.

“We are investing heavily in mobile technology for instant access, and better communication systems, to ensure our brokers are equipped with the latest information,” he says. 

Suncorp Bank currently has 23 BDMs offering on-the-ground support to brokers.

Adelaide bank

"We're truly a 'broker only' bank"

The only way to get a mortgage with Adelaide Bank is through a broker.

“We’re truly a ‘broker only’ bank,” says Adelaide Bank’s general manager, third party mortgages, Damian Percy.

“We deal exclusively with brokers and the absence of a retail model means we can focus entirely on our partners, their clients and creating value for each,” says Mr Percy Adelaide Bank’s proposition to customers and brokers is built around four foundation principles of reliability, simplicity, affordability and advocacy.

“We offer efficient, well-designed products and processes that make life easier not harder,” he says. “We keep the costs of borrowing low.”

Over the next 12 months, Mr Percy says, the bank is investing heavily in its broker offering to rejuvenate the Adelaide Bank-branded proposition, ensuring that it continues to put brokers first in everything that its team members do.

Bankwest

"Bankwest's continued success comes down to its constant efforts to improve"

Bankwest was one of the very first entrants into the broker channel, more than 30 years ago. The  bank is a major player in the third-party space, with 22 BDMs and 21 origination agreements with aggregation companies.

Ian Rakhit, head of broker sales, says that after 30 years, Bankwest’s continued success comes down to its constant efforts to improve.

According to Mr Rakhit, the bank is working hard to implement new technology such as optical character recognition to scan digitally and read ancillary loan related documents.

“This removes manual touch points and subsequently reduces the hours and even days out of time to approval,” he says.

AMP Bank

"Watch this space"

AMP Bank has added 10 BDMs in the past 12 months, which Rob Slocombe, the bank’s chief operating officer, says is a great indication of its commitment to the broker channel.

Mr Slocombe says the past year has been a very exciting one for the lender, with the introduction of a new suite of products around self-managed super fund (SMSF) lending.

“At the end of 2012, AMP Bank launched the AMP Super Edge loan for self-managed superannuation funds,” he says.

“We also backed this up with a comprehensive SMSF education program for brokers, and in July of this year we launched a range of SMSF deposit products.”

AMP Bank is represented on all of the major aggregator panels and offers a wide range of cross-sell products.

“Brokers with AMP Bank can arrange deposit products for customers. This allows brokers to present a wider range of product solutions to customers,” Mr Slocombe says.

He is, however, tight lipped about the bank’s plans for the next 12months, saying simply, “Watch this space” but conceding that future plans “will involve more growth through the broker channel”.

Wide Bay Australia

"The division provides clarity to the market and all stakeholders in everything that we do"

In the past 12 months, Wide Bay Australia has established a dedicated third-party division. General manager for third party, Charlton Nevis, says creating the dedicated division has enabled Wide Bay to focus its efforts more clearly on the broker channel.

“The benefits are that the division provides clarity to the market and all stakeholders in everything that we do in the third-party space,” says Mr Nevis.

Wide Bay has been active in the broker channel since 1998 and currently has 11 BDMs across the country.

“Our BDM force will continue to grow as the business volumes continue to increase,” Mr Nevis says.

Over the next 12 months the lender is looking to improve its relationships with brokers through a number of initiatives, including through improved technology solutions, according to Mr Nevis.

“We are evaluating a number of technology solutions that will enable us to improve our connection with brokers,” he says.

Wide Bay also has plans to raise its profile, both with brokers and with customers, and Mr Nevis says the banking group is currently making further investments in marketing.

“We have a specific marketing calendar for our business that will manifest in targeted campaigns being launched to the market through the course of the year,” he says.

St George/Bank of Melbourne/Bank SA

"Our mobile deal tracking and online serviceability calculator have been ground breaking"

The St George/Bank of Melbourne/ Bank SA Group has a direct agreement for funding with 122 active broker groups across Australia. With this type of industry involvement, it’s no wonder the St George Group has one of the larger BDM forces in the country.

The lender currently has 23 BDMs supporting the broker channel as well as an additional five BDM support officers helping them.

In the past 12 months, the banking group has focused on improving technology.

“Our mobile deal tracking and online serviceability calculator have been ground breaking,” says Clive Kirkpatrick, general manager for mortgage broking at St George Banking Group.

The lender aims to launch even more technology solutions over the next 12 months.

“We’re excited about launching ‘Supporting Docs Online’, a new function in ‘Apply Online’ that enables the broker to upload their supporting docs and attach them to the application,” he says.

The group offers a wide range of cross-sell products, including a range of credit cards with no annual fee.

Citi

"We have developed a deep and mutually respectful relationship with brokers - a true partnership - and still today, over 75 per cent of our business comes from brokers"

Citi has been operating in Australia since 1985 and in the broker channel for more than 15years. Vibha Coburn, managing director, head of mortgages at Citi Australia, says the channel is essential to the lender’s business.

“Citi is wedded to brokers as this is our channel of distribution for the majority of mortgage business,” she says.

“Through the years, we have developed a deep and mutually respectful relationship with brokers – a true partnership – and still today, over 75 per cent of our business comes from brokers.”

Citi prides itself on the bank’s BDM network. “Our BDMs continue to be recognised by the industry as being of the highest quality – everyone at Citi dealing with brokers is passionate about providing the best support and service possible,” says Ms Coburn.

“The relationships we hold have been long and enduring, mutually beneficial, collaborative, honest and rewarding.”

According to Ms Coburn, many of Citi’s products are designed for a target segment of affluent and globally-minded customers, such as investors, the self-employed and those who travel for business.

Many of Citi’s products include innovative rewards programs such as the Citibank Dining program, through which customers can get a free bottle of wine when dining in partner restaurants.

ING DIRECT

"As a customer-focused bank, we place great emphasis on the experience our customers have with us from start to finish"

The broker channel has always been an integral part of ING DIRECT’s distribution model, according to head of broker relationships Mark Woolnough.

“It’s been 15 years since ING DIRECT first started offering mortgages through brokers, and the relationships we have are going from strength to strength,” he says.

ING DIRECT’s mortgage business relies heavily on referrals from the broker channel. Mr Woolnough adds: “Last year, over 90per cent of all our new home loans were introduced to us via our brokers.” “It’s how our customers prefer to secure their property, so the channel is clearly a huge priority for us.

“As a customer-focused bank, we place great emphasis on the experience our customers have with us from start to finish, and our brokers play an important part in their journey.”

According to Mr Woolnough, the bank is now focused on developing the broker channel into a multi-financial services channel – and this is opening up new and exciting possibilities.

“The days when our broker business was based solely around home loans are over; we’ve seen some early success with our Orange Link pilot, which revolves aroundreferrals on our Orange Everyday,andwe are looking forward to taking this to the next level,” Mr Woolnough says.

ME Bank

"Our greatest achievement over the past 12 months has been the accreditation of over 4,000 brokers"

ME Bank entered the broker channel in 2011 after research showed that half of the bank’s five million customers would use a broker.

Stewart Saunders, national manager for brokers, says the bank is now working hard to establish itself as a leader in the third-party channel.

“Our greatest achievement over the past 12 months has been the accreditation of over 4,000 brokers, enabling these brokers to be able to offer ME Bank’s great home loan products,” he says.

ME Bank introduced commission campaigns in March and September of this year to entice brokers to try their products.

“This has seen competition increase between banks through commissions, which is great for brokers across the industry,” says Mr Saunders.

In the next 12 months, brokers will see big improvements in technology and process as the lender implements a technology transformation project, according to Mr Saunders.

“These changes will unleash product and service innovations, improve customer experience, enable us to bring products to market faster, and provide big gains in operational efficiency,” he says.