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An Australian bank has revealed its extensive growth plans for the third-party channel after partnering with a handful of major aggregation groups.
The Adviser can reveal that South Australia-based mutual lender Beyond Bank has entered the broker channel in an effort to boost its mortgage distribution capabilities.
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The mutual confirmed that it has partnered with leading aggregation groups including AFG, PLAN, Choice, Loan Market, eChoice, Vow, Ballast and Outsource Financial.
Commenting on the group’s third-party plans, Beyond Bank general manager of distribution Ray O’Brien said it is common knowledge in the banking sector that one in two new mortgages these days is being written through the broker channel.
“We believe that there is an opportunity for us to work with brokers to deliver winning outcomes,” Mr O’Brien said.
“We are a customer-owned bank and our sole purposes is around delivering value to our members,” he said. “Part of that is about meeting their mortgage needs but also fulfilling their financial wellbeing needs. We see the broker channel as being an extension of our other channels.”
Part of the group’s drive is to enter eastern seaboard markets with the support of the brokers to build its presence across the country.
“Aggregators have over 30 lenders on their panel,” Mr O’Brien said. “We have a story to tell about how we are different from the big banks. We are owned by our customers. Our profits are reinvested back into the business.”
Mr O’Brien said the mutual bank’s offering will extend beyond residential mortgages.
“We don’t want to just have brokers originate our loans and leave it there,” he said. “We see us adding value to the broker’s client through our relationship management programs that will see us meet a wide range of their financial needs.”
Mr O’Brien said technology will be one of Beyond Bank’s key attributes.
Industry veteran Darren McLeod joined Beyond Bank last year and has been directing the mutual lender’s entry into the third-party channel.
Electronic lodgement was high on the list of McLeod’s priorities and NextGen.Net’s ApplyOnline system was his choice for the bank’s main interface with brokers.
“We’ve invested heavily in NextGen.Net technology,” Mr McLeod said. “We opted to go with the ApplyOnline Supporting Documents service, which allows brokers to identify exactly what documents they need, upload them and validate that they meet our requirements,” he said.
Beyond Bank will manage its own internal processes for verifying documents online for loan approvals using the ApplyOnline Easy Verify Tool.
NextGen.Net sales director Tony Carn said the tool gives Beyond Bank technological sophistication and an edge over its competitors as documentation remains fully digitised.
“Beyond Bank is well positioned and equipped to deliver great service outcomes for brokers,” Mr Carn said.
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