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Athena Home Loans has been building deep partnerships with brokers to bring innovative, co-designed lending solutions to the channel. We hear from Cam Bradley, chief customer officer, and Raj Kapoor, head of broker distribution, about how co-creation is changing home lending for good.
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When did you start working with the broker channel and why?
Cam Bradley (CB): Athena started designing for the broker channel not long after our initial launch in 2019. The business set a baseline to build an unparalleled broker experience, and a proposition and product set to service their customers’ more complex needs. In 2021 we co-designed our solution and experience with a group of excellent LMG brokers (FAST brokers at the time) for a pilot that ran during 2022. Our approach has been to co-design products and processes with brokers, for brokers.
Tell us how this approach to developing white-label solutions works.
Raj Kapoor (RK): In 2022, Athena partnered with Mortgage Choice to co-develop the Mortgage Choice Freedom white-label offering. The Mortgage Choice team and broker networks have been central in the design of the end-to-end product, even down to detailed policy settings and the broker and customer digital experience. In effect, they have co-authored the entire proposition.
A year since its launch, the Mortgage Choice broker network continues to iterate and improve the entire offering via continuous feedback loops and co-design workshops.
To Athena, brokers are exceptional partners. Rightly, there is incredible demand for brokers’ services – now reaching 74 per cent of the market share. We want to see that demand continue to grow and be a lending partner who adds deep value to their businesses through exceptional experiences and solutions.
Why is a strong broker channel important to you, and what is your top priority for the broker channel at the moment?
CB: Athena believes a strong broker channel is fantastic for the Australian mortgage market. Brokers work in the best interest of borrowers and help them navigate the complex market of offerings. They provide a fantastic service to customers, whilst helping to drive lender competition which benefits both Australian borrowers and Athena.
We are continuing to expand our product suite so we can provide competitive solutions to meet a broader set of broker customer needs. Our product extensions are driven directly by broker insight into gaps in the market.
In July we released our Lite doc and 80-85 per cent no LMI solutions which have been extremely well received by our broker partners. We’ll soon be releasing additional products for investor trusts to support an underserved customer segment.
RK: Another focus is continuing to partner deeply with Mortgage Choice, LMG and their respective brokers. We are co-developing solutions, and working to bring those to life, to help meet the needs of the brokers whilst also focusing on providing a fantastic experience for brokers who choose to write deals with us. We know every deal is important.
How is Athena’s broker proposition helping to change the game?
CB: There are three pillars to the Athena broker value proposition:
1. Pragmatic policy and a commercially minded team: Maximising serviceability is Athena’s superpower, coupled with a commercially minded BDM and credit team who take a practical and individual approach.
2. Reliability and consistency across decisions and service levels: The growing BDM team knows that brokers run businesses, and this means being available and consistent. Their assessment teams work to contact the broker via phone for all non-standard Missing Info requests (MIR’s).
3. Leading Broker support tools: Athena’s proprietary Broker Portal allows brokers to track all deals in progress, complete MIR’s, and manage their entire Athena portfolio. The custom-built origination platform delivers speed and efficiency, with integrations and automations that often result in same-day approvals, and consistently maintains SLAs of max three business days.
Why should a broker look to partner with you?
CB: Athena’s appetite to enable brokers to build their businesses is evident across all levels of the company.
We have developed our entire broker business in direct partnership with the industry, and what’s more, we understand that Athena’s ability to achieve our own mission – to change home loans for good – simply isn’t possible without brokers.
RK: On a more micro level, our BDM portfolios are designed to maximise capacity to support brokers and their customers on their loan journey.
Our SLA’s are fast and consistent, our assessors are pragmatic and business minded, our products and policies are designed to help borrowers maximise their borrowing power, and we have built best-in-market digital tools to deliver end to end efficiencies – not only for brokers, but for the benefit of their customers.
But perhaps most importantly, we never declare victory – we have a relentless focus on refining and improving our proposition to best meet broker and broker customer needs.
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