Teachers Mutual Bank has announced plans to broaden its third-party distribution footprint by launching its UniBank brand to brokers.
UniBank – formerly Unicredit – merged with Teachers Mutual Bank in August last year and services the tertiary education sector. Teachers Mutual Bank national manager of third party distribution, Mark Middleton, told Australian Broker that UniBank’s third party launch will give brokers access to over four million university graduates and their families.
“The UniBank piece is a much larger, broader, and more significant opportunity for brokers,” Middleton said. “The reason for that is we are focussing on graduates of university as one of our key segments.
“There are four million graduates out there and we have got brokers who continually want to be able to send us business, and this will be the gateway to make that happen.”
Middleton said UniBank will offer competitive variable and fixed mortgages for both owner-occupiers and investors, however, its big draw card will be its first home buyer product targeting the four million graduates.
“We have a specific My First Home Loan product. The My First Home Product lends to 98%, inclusive of mortgage insurance and with a 40-year-term,” he told Australian Broker.
“Some people might not like a 40-year-term but I can tell you now, not everyone will go the full term. We understand – and that’s the difference – that for a first home buyer, their income stream is much lower. They can still pay as much as they want off that loan but we are helping them get into that market [with that term].”
The product will also feature a 100% offset account.
Middleton told Australian Broker that the decision to launch UniBank to brokers was a logical one, given the success Teachers Mutual Bank has seen through the channel.
“We have had tremendous support from the third party channel. It has been instrumental in our achievements,” he said.
“We are now seeing 25% of our flows coming through [the broker channel]. It was a logical fit considering we were so successful in the channel.”
