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The mortgage lender has announced the appointment of Rob Westgarth as its new head of originations.
Bluestone Home Loans stated that Mr Westgarth is a “well-known figure for brokers”, having previously held a senior project manager role with SocietyOne along with being a senior credit risk manager at Investec.
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The lender stated these roles dealt “firsthand with the ever-changing lending and risk environment in Australia and the challenges that face brokers on a day-to-day basis”.
Furthermore, Mr Westgarth held senior roles with major bank NAB, Citibank, and with high-end customers at niche lender businesses Medin and Experien.
Commenting on the new appointment, chief commercial officer at Bluestone, Tony MacRae, said that Mr Westgarth’s “deep lending and credit experience speaks for itself and his reputation is well known nationally among brokers”.
“His background with niche and self-employed customers makes him ideal for what we are looking to achieve here at Bluestone and only strengthens our proposition to the third-party channel,” Mr MacRae said.
“When brokers have clients with a non-standard background, they need to know that there is a lender in the market that actively wants to help them in a way that others don’t.
“Rob will be on the coalface every day, helping us to help brokers.”
On his new role, Mr Westgarth said: “As someone with over 35 years’ worth of experience in credit and risk, I know how hard it can be for brokers to find lenders, especially for non-standard clients.
“Bluestone has underlined their commitment to serving this market and I couldn’t be happier to put my skills towards that goal.”
Bluestone drops buffers
Prior to this announcement, the lender moved to drop its serviceability buffer for near prime and prime loans with up to 70 per cent LVR from 2 per cent to 1.5 per cent.
Bluestone stated the move aimed to “deepen its commitment” to non-standard borrowers, by “stepping up to meet the challenge that brokers often find in placing clients with unique and diverse lending criteria”.
The non-bank added that self-employed borrowers, in particular, were often underserved by the mainstream lenders, which typically have ‘one-size-fits-all’ serviceability requirements.
As such, it noted that brokers can struggle to find solutions for these clients due to serviceability barriers.
It said its decision to drop its buffers for these segments showed that it was “making a serious play at this growing market by positioning itself as the lender of choice for brokers with non-standard clients”.
[RELATED: Bluestone lowers serviceability buffer]
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