Newcomer to the broker market, Teachers Mutual Bank, one of Australia’s largest mutual banks, has a clear objective: satisfy the needs and requests of brokers.
When Teachers Mutual Bank entered the third party space in November 2013 it stated that listening to brokers and accommodating their requirements was a top priority.
High on the agenda was electronic lodgement and this was put in place ready for Teachers Mutual Bank’s entry to the broker channel, rolling out to the market on day one with the leading electronic lodgement tool,
NextGen.Net’s
ApplyOnline.
“We engaged in comprehensive research into electronic lodgement systems, protocols and providers before choosing NextGen.Net,” Mark Middleton, National Manager, Third Party Distribution at Teachers Mutual Bank maintains.
NextGen.Net was the front-runner in all the criteria we were looking for.
“Ease of use was paramount. But the big thing was NextGen.Net’s professionalism and communication. Their team clearly explained the system’s capabilities, which let us arrive at solutions. They also asked questions, which facilitated us articulating our long-term strategic plans and achieving the right solutions moving forward,” Middleton said.
NextGen.Net Sales Director, Tony Carn, congratulates Teachers Mutual Bank on making a “significant strategic decision to make broker distribution a key channel”.
“We were pleased to be able to provide an easy, quick, deliverable program to enable Teachers Mutual Bank to kick-start their relationship with broker groups,” Carn said.
The advantages of
ApplyOnline and its capabilities are already proving highly beneficial.
Middleton talks of
ApplyOnline allowing assessment metrics used by Teachers Mutual Bank to identify any potential hitches with data entry.
“One major benefit is that it will be very clear to brokers what our deal requirements are, which means they can weed out ones that won’t fly,” he said.
“Brokers will potentially have a higher conversion rate than our mobile lenders
. So that’s a saving to us right there.”
Straight-Through Processing will mean a far greater portion of loans ready for assessment at the time of lodgement, which will radically reduce rework rates.
The implementation of
ApplyOnline is prompting the mutual bank to take a critical look at the way it is currently doing loan processing.
“We’re using this as an opportunity to observe the benefits of electronic lodgement and assess how we can originate loans for our mobile lenders workforce and our business development teams,” Middleton said.
“By using this as a tool for our third party, we get the teaching; so we’re benefitting two-fold. While it’s serving our brokers, it’s permitting us to look at over-arching it for our first party.”
“A big issue has always been missing information requests (MIR),” Middleton admits.
“
ApplyOnline displays green ticks when information has been completed. Our credit assessors love this part because when they see submissions coming through with lots of green ticks, they’ll know they’ve got all the required information. Our existing system doesn’t have that capability.”
NextGen.Net has also been able to deliver an all-of-market solution for Teachers Mutual Bank through a recently established service that allows receipt of applications from brokers that don’t use
ApplyOnline.
“It allows this small number of brokers to lodge deals directly with Teachers Mutual Bank. It’s one more very effective solution that NextGen.Net provides,” says Carn.
