When it comes to tailored solutions for borrowers, the non-bank lenders really do lead the way. In a rising-rate environment, particularly, the banks seem to shy away from the out-of-the-box scenarios and retreat to a narrower risk appetite.
But this is a boon for non-banks, which excel in providing flexible lending options and often provide access to decision-makers, like credit specialists or approval team members, facilitating quicker decision making, and allows for a more personalised approach to assessing loan applications.
Add into the mix a growing investment in technology (with more leveraging AI-powered decision engines) and a streamlined accreditation process and the ease of doing business with this segment of the market is really second to none.
Competition among the non-banks is rife at the moment, which has resulted in constant innovation in product offerings. To find out which lenders brokers most favour for their clients’ residential, business, and personal finance needs, we task Agile Market Intelligence to find out.
The 2024 Product of Choice: Non-Banks Survey, conducted between 29 January 2024 and 26 February 2024, sees 226 brokers evaluate and rank non-bank lender products in order of preference.
This year’s survey asks brokers to rank non-bank lenders across 12 different product categories:
- Prime owner-occupied loans
- Near-prime loans
- Investor loans
- Specialist loans
- Personal loans
- Short-term loans
- SME loans over $250,000
- SME loans under $250,000
- SMSF loans
- Commercial mortgages
- Debtor finance loans
- Equipment and asset finance loans
Unlike in previous years, the results say that brokers are using a broader range of non-bank lenders, with a range of lenders being well liked (and well used) for their flexibility and consistency of service for a particular product range. A total of 10 lenders take out the top rankings across the 12 categories, with two lenders coming out on top for multiple categories.
Pepper Money is ranked in first position across two product segments this year: Near-prime loans and Specialist loans, while Prospa comes on top for SME loans under $250,000 and short-term loans.
Other non-banks hold onto their popularity for the second year in a row, with Liberty Financial (Prime Owner-Occupied loans), La Trobe Financial (Commercial mortgages), ScotPac (Debtor finance), and Plenti (Personal loans), all making repeat appearances in the ranking this year.
Resimac is this year named as the non-bank with the best Investor loan offering, while Latitude was top for Equipment and asset finance, Banjo Loans is well reviewed for its SME loans over $250,000, and Mortgage Ezy is popular with brokers when it came to SMSF loans.
In the following pages, we catch up with the top-ranked non-bank lenders from each category to find out what they believe makes their products so popular with brokers.
The Adviser’s Non-Bank Product of Choice Survey is conducted between 29 January 2024 and 26 February 2024.
The survey asks 226 brokers to provide their top three product providers for each of the categories. All respondents are unprompted and provided lenders with their own recognition.
The results are analysed with the scores totalled to identify the winners and highly commended product providers for each category.
