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By: Jessica Darnbrough
St George is standing firm by its requirement for brokers to settle at least four loans per calendar year, stressing this will ensure brokers remain up to speed with its products and policies.
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While the bank does require its brokers to sit a re-accreditation "exam” every 12 months if they settle less than four loans in a calendar year, there is no charge for the refresher course.
St George’s general manager intermediary distribution Steven Heavey said the bank’s minimum volume requirements were not heavy handed and ultimately helped improve the broker proposition.
“The accreditation process is in place to ensure brokers are knowledgeable about our products, policies and processes and can ultimately provide the best possible experience to mortgage customers,” Mr Heavey told The Adviser.
“We feel it is an operational risk for brokers to sell our products if they haven’t dealt with us in over a year. For brokers whose accreditation with us has expired, we ask brokers to take a refresher course, free of charge.”
Mr Heavey said brokers should not fear sitting the re-accreditation exam, because the whole process takes just 40 minutes.
“We feel this is more than reasonable and a good step to ensure that brokers who offer our home loans are well-educated, up-to-date and can offer their customers the best possible St George experience,” he said.
Earlier this week, MFAA chief executive officer Phil Naylor told the Austalian Financial Review: “We told them [ASIC] our members feel as though there is a conflict of interest in how they provide advice and asked for guidance on how to manage that."
