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MyState Bank has made a number of significant investments in its back-office systems and support teams as it looks to ramp up its share of broker-originated home loans.
Sandi Sims, head of broker at MyState, told The Adviser that the broker channel is an important priority for the group, which has led her to drive significant change and improvements in the lender’s processes in recent months.
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“A lot of the changes made have been operational – we have focused on our processes to get a quicker, easier turnaround time and build consistency for scale,” Ms Sims said.
“We realised last year when we really started to put the accelerator down that we weren’t built for sustainable growth. So we have taken the opportunity to review our current process and made some changes to that, including some simple things like a broker checklist, giving brokers a clear guideline of what we need to decision the loan first time.”
In addition, MyState has rolled out electronic lodgements, which means less duplication for brokers. While this accelerates the loan approval process, Ms Sims said it has also been beneficial in keeping brokers updated as they can receive back channel messages.
“We also did a bit of work around recruiting the best BDMs in the industry," she said. "Relationships are always first and foremost.”
Ms Sims, who previously worked with brokers as NSW state manager for St George Bank, said working with a smaller lender means she is able to engage with brokers directly and then implement change.
“Because of our size we are nimble and I am able to influence,” she said. “I actively seek out feedback from brokers. I’m very hands-on and visit brokers in their offices and take their feedback on board. Being [with] a smaller bank, I have the ability to talk to the right people to make change happen.”
Over the past two years, the Tasmania-based bank has seen 22 per cent growth on the mainland. Growing the business nationally has been an important goal and the third-party channel has been an integral part of its growth strategy, according to MyState.
In its half-yearly results, the bank recorded a surge in its loan book of 6.6 per cent from 30 June 2015, increasing to a total of $3.8 billion. Critically, 90 per cent of the bank’s loan book growth came through the broker channel.
With the recent developments in its back-end systems, Ms Sims believes MyState is primed for growth.
“I’m out on the road every day, spending time with aggregators, brokers, understanding their businesses,” she said.
“We are in a really good position now to meet the needs of the brokers and their customers. We are looking to write more business but also continue refining the process where we can to make the partnership with brokers even stronger.”
The bank recently selected Rubik Financial to help transform the group’s digital channels and customer experience offering. MyState CEO and managing director Melos Sulicich said the partnership with Rubik will ensure that the bank is not only able to modernise its platform but, more importantly, to provide better customer engagement.
[Related: Brokers responsible for 90% of MyState's mortgage growth]
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