Login
ISCOVER
Brokers contributed around 70 per cent of all Great Southern Bank home lending in its first year as a bank, quantifying increasing consumer preference towards the broker channel.
Great Southern Bank (GSB) — a former credit union — in its first year, issued record new lending of $5.28 billion, up 58 per cent, and helped more than 20,500 customers buy a home, the bank confirmed today (19 September).
To continue reading the rest of this article, please log in.
Looking for more benefits? Become a Premium Member.
Create free account to get unlimited news articles and more!
Looking for more benefits? Become a Premium Member.
Strikingly, the bank’s loan book passed $15 billion, with Great Southern Bank’s home loan growth significantly outpacing the sector average at around 1.6 times system.
In a key acknowledgment of the impact of the broker channel, GSB — Australia’s largest customer-owned bank — had doubled the number of brokers in its network to 5,100 through the addition of three aggregators in recent months — SFG, Loan Market and Lendi Group.
These brokers contributed around 70 per cent of all GSB home lending over the 12-month period, in line with the increasing consumer preference towards the broker channel, the bank highlighted.
The correlation between increased broker capacity and customer preference for the skillset underpins GSB’s customer satisfaction [Net Promoter Score (NPS)] ending the year around three times higher than any of the “big four” banks, the ex-credit union underlined.
“Our strong growth has been made possible by our absolute commitment and focus on our purpose to help all Australians own their own home,” said GSB CEO and managing director Paul Lewis.
“Against a backdrop of high house prices and rising interest rates, we are continuing to help more Australians find alternative paths to home ownership, including first home buyers and single parents who may have historically found it difficult to get on to the property ladder.
“We are well on the way towards our aspiration of doubling our size and capacity through either organic or inorganic growth, becoming an even stronger alternative to the major banks,” he stated.
The growth in home lending coincided with the first full year of Great Southern Bank’s new branding and its three-year growth strategy, it explained.
Strong lending and the great Aussie dream
According to the bank, the strong lending result for the 12 months to 30 June 2022 reinforces the bank’s purpose to help all Australians to own their own home.
The bank’s continued focus on helping Australians find alternative pathways to home ownership includes participating in the Australian government’s Home Guarantee Scheme, it stated.
Lending to first home buyers or single parents with at least one dependent using government home buyer schemes saw a 40 per cent increase on the previous year, GSB explained.
A number of major investments and projects were completed during the year, including a transformational home loan origination system; open banking; the cloud migration of key technology infrastructure; and a new transaction monitoring system.
“These substantive investments, particularly in our home lending systems, have significantly reduced our time to decide on an application — for almost half of our applications, it’s now under 48 hours,” stated Mr Lewis.
“We expect the foundations and systems we’ve put in place will be a key enabler for growth over the years to come.”
Happy customers underline GSB focus
Customer satisfaction, reflected in the bank’s NPS, ended the year three times higher than the big four banks, Great Southern confirmed.
The outstanding value provided by the bank’s products — particularly its home loans and savings accounts — recently earned the bank the title of Canstar’s Customer-Owned Bank of the Year, GSB reminded.
Additionally, the bank took some of the biggest steps in its 75-year history in addressing its Indigenous and environmental responsibilities, launching its first Reconciliation Action Plan and publishing its first Climate Action Plan with a commitment to reach net zero by 2040.
This work builds on the bank becoming carbon neutral in the 2021 financial year.
Since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, the bank has received double the usual number of applications for financial assistance, with more than 2,600 applications over the past year, it confirmed.
Around $200 million in financial assistance was agreed, with COVID-19 and natural disaster claims making up around a third of the overall amount.
The bank also implemented a pilot with UnitingCare to provide additional support to customers experiencing financial vulnerability, including independent financial counselling, support for incidents of family violence and help accessing government service.
JOIN THE DISCUSSION