NSW-based building society Newcastle Permanent has notified brokers of a slowdown in its mortgage application process.
In a note to brokers released on Wednesday (4 October), Brad Wright, mortgage lending specialist team leader, said that service levels had changed due to a reduced number of team members and higher volumes of applications.
The note was sent out as part of a “proactive engagement” that Newcastle Permanent has with its member brokers, CEO Terry Millett told
Australian Broker.
“That's an important part of the proposition in dealing with us. This piece is about keeping [brokers] informed of where we are at so they can manage their own expectations plus their customers'.”
The reduction in staff has to do with the combination of school holidays coinciding with a bout of illness floating around the Newcastle Permanent offices, he said, while the increase in volume stems from the spring home loan season. While around $150m of total home loan approvals came in during the month of August for Newcastle Permanent, this increased to around $180m in September and is expected to hit $200m in October.
The time to pick up applications after receipt has extended out to four days for non-premium brokers, which is double Newcastle Permanent’s service level agreement (SLA) of 24 to 48 hours.
Premium brokers who use the lender frequently will still retain the same turnaround times however.
“For many of the major banks, the kind of processing time they're operating on is five to 10 days while other organisations can be significantly longer than that,” Millett said.
“I only give that as a point of reference because obviously we set our own service standards. What we're trying to do for our customers and for our mortgage broker partners is to be better than the main players.”
Credit analysts will take three days from submission of pre-assessment to approval while documents will continue to be issued with 72 hours of approval.
Until the team regains its members, Newcastle Permanent has the ability to move resources around from other areas which are appropriately trained and accredited, Millett said.
“That's the kind of flexibility you've got when you're our scale and you've got 1,000 people and not 500 or 100 people.”
This is the first time in several years that Newcastle Permanent has moved outside of its SLA, he added.
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