Tasmanian-based lender MyState Bank has announced plans to continue its national growth by expanding its broker channel through a targeted support program.
Two years ago, two thirds of the bank’s loan book was inside Tasmania; currently, half its loan book lies outside the island state.
Brokers have been a key part of this growth, helping increase the MyState loan book by 30% from $2.8 billion to $3.7 billion in the two years prior to 30 June 2016.
“We want to work with brokers who are looking for an alternative to the big banks,” said the lender’s CEO
Melos Sulicich.
“Our goal is to make a difference to our partners, customers and our communities. With brokers we will do this by being accessible, being exceptional communicators and having a shared passion to serve and make things happen.”
The bank’s team of broker relationship managers (BRMs) has been aligned to strategic aggregator alliances in each state,
Paul Herbert, MyState’s newly appointed head of broker channel, told
Australian Broker.
“Over the last 90 days we’ve gone from four to seven BRMs across Australia,” he said. “This enables us to have a strong link between our broker partners in each of the states – in particular in Queensland, New South Wales and Tasmania.”
In addition, MyState plans on building its BRM capabilities, Herbert said, ensuring the team can build on the bank’s promise and vision while supporting brokers as well.
“The other thing we’re doing to make it easier to do business with us is improving our operational capability. That means enabling our brokers to be able to deal with the people making decisions. We’ve been trialling that for the past four weeks in our state-based pod system.”
This has allowed the bank to significantly reduce turnaround times and make it easier for brokers to get business approved.
“We intend to move to a model where our brokers can deal with one team on a regular basis,” he said. “What that’s allowed us to do already is build stronger and deeper relationships with brokers in those particular markets because they’re dealing with similar people every time they put a loan in.”
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