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The chief executive of the mutual lender has said the bank is focused on growing its broker channel, under the stewardship of its new broker partnerships manager Stu Ronneberg.
Four months on from taking up the helm at customer-owned lender MOVE Bank, CEO Mike Currie has said that a core focus for the mutual bank will be building its presence in, and offering to, the broking channel.
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The Queensland-based bank has been expanding its reach in the broker space over the past few years, after first entering the third-party distribution arena in 2019.
According to Move Bank CEO Mr Currie, more than 50 per cent of the bank’s mortgage flow comes from the broker channel and more than a third of its mortgage loan book is secured by property held outside of Queensland.
After taking the reins in March following the departure of CEO Therese Turner, Mr Currie told The Adviser that one of his key priorities was to understand how the organisation had been engaging with the third-party channel and build a sustainable broker strategy.
He commented: “The strategy here had been to use the third-party channel to offset some of the geographic concentration that we have here in Queensland, with our proprietary channel.
“While that still is the case, it’s also about looking at what we can do to strengthen that engagement and back that with some process and technology improvement to make it better for our partners.”
According to Mr Currie, this digital transformation roadmap aims to enhance the home loan experience for members and brokers.
The first cab off the rank will be digital signatures, digital valuations, and e-verification of identity as well as improving “micro-processes” to streamline the back-end process, before moving to a “technology-based solution which will enable end-to-end straight-through processing” in the next few years.
Mr Currie told The Adviser: “The broker channel will continue to be a key part of our business and continue to be responsible for more than half of what we’re doing in mortgages.”
He added that given the customer-owned bank was small enough to be nimble and “work closely with borrowers to find solutions, unlike than the bigger banks’ ‘sausage factory’”, he said MOVE Bank would likely be increasingly attractive to brokers in the coming months as they aim to help mortgage prisoners.
The CEO said: “We will do what we need to to help people and make it work ... The attraction of being a small organisation — whether it’s for the brokers or a direct-to-bank customers — is you can deal with the specialist here who will take them right through the process. The credit people sit in the same offices as the lending specialist, so it’s a fairly seamless process to get through the time to ‘yes’.
“We do pride ourselves on striving to achieve an outcome. With 99 out of 100 customers that come through the front door, we will look for a way to say yes. That’s a factor of being a small organisation ... It’s really the personal touch that sets us aside.”
As part of its focus on broker transformation, MOVE Bank recently appointed a new manager for the third-party channel.
Stuart Ronneberg, a former Queensland state manager at Lendi Group and qualified mortgage broker, took up the position as broker partner manager in May.
Commenting on his new position, Mr Ronneberg said: “After eight years at Lendi in the Queensland state manager role, my next project was always going to be in an environment where I could use the skills learned at a start-up in change and Agile project management but in an environment that was ripe for development and process improvement.
“MOVE appealed as they have a very high focus on member service, have just entered the third-party space, and are poised to move into the tech space; everything my skill set is aligned to.
“Coming from a broker background I have a unique understanding of what brokers want.
“To this end, my primary goals and first priorities are to build a strong communication channel with specific aggregators at the management and broker level; deliver a smooth integration of tech in electronic documents, digital valuations and biometric VOI; and build sustainable growth from the third-party channel based on communications and service.”
[Related: How mutuals are steaming ahead]
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