Despite the ongoing struggles evidenced in both the housing and lending markets, a non-major has reported strong third quarter growth in its banking and mortgage aggregation businesses.
BNK Banking Corporation Limited achieved $41m in settlements for the nine months to March 31, 2019, with settlements growing by 30% in wholesale lending and 7% in the Finsure Group aggregation business.
The group’s overall loan book grew to $38.4bn, up 20% on the previous corresponding period.
BNK managing director Simon Lyons said that the "record levels" evidenced at the end of the quarter are demonstrative of BNK's "strong value proposition in the lending market and to brokers."
Lyons also pointed out that the growth occured in a lending market that sustained a 15.6% drop in overall housing credit for the nine months to March 31, year-on-year.
“We further strengthened our core digital banking platform and implemented various improvements to our proprietary mortgage lending software, which will support growth in our banking and aggregation operations," the managing director explained.
“During the third quarter we also introduced our BNK Bank brand, with the official launch planned for the second half of the calendar year,” he added.
BNK’s banking division – under the BNK, Goldfields Money and Better Choice brands – continued to claim market share, with balance sheet loans of $18.7m and $123.2m in wholesale loans for the March quarter, up 8% and 30% respectively.
The aggregation business has also flourished, Finsure MD John Kolenda explaining that the group's brokers account for approximately one in every 10 broker loans written nationwide.
“Finsure continued to achieve growth rates above its listed peers, with loan writers growing to a record 1,630, up 17% on the previous corresponding period,” Kolenda said.
Additionally, Finsure loan settlements over the nine months were at a record level of $9bn, up 7% from the corresponding period in 2018. This contributed to an aggregation loan book of $36bn, up 21% from the same period the year before.
Looking ahead into the fourth quarter, BNK intends to focus on the conversion and settlement of mortgage applications, as well as improving its capital efficiency through diversifying funding sources.
