The new CEO of customer owned Newcastle Permanent Building Society, announced late last year, has officially stepped into the role this week.
Bernadette Inglis, a former Westpac executive, is excited to usher the bank into its next stage, namely in drilling down and developing its digital proposition.
“Whenever we work with our broker partners or directly with our customers, we’re endeavoring to make the complex simple for them,” she explained.
The bank is aiming to take the friction out of the lending process, improving turnaround times and refining communication.
“Customers can now do more of their home lending needs online. This is an area that we will continue to drive and develop,” said Inglis.
“Part of that is listening to our broker partners to understand what is important to them as they help customers, how digitisation enhances their business, and how we can cooperate with them in providing those capabilities from us, to make their businesses more efficient and more effective.”
According to Inglis, working with brokers is a natural extension of the customer-owned bank’s driving goal.
“Our focus – and my focus – has always been and always will remain firmly on customers and the people in our community. Because brokers also have that aspiration, there’s a very good partnership there,” she said.
Noting that the bank’s physical presence is contained to the Newcastle region, Inglis voiced appreciation for the wider reach provided through mortgage brokers.
“Those partnerships are critical in our being able to help the people in our community. Home ownership is an incredibly important part of our business because it is so core for our customers,” she said.
Inglis also praised the quality of the clients brought to Newcastle Permanent through the broker channel.
“We’re all about putting people in a position where they can afford their home, and they can – with comfort – own their own home, so that quality aspect is really important to us,” she explained.
Yesterday, Newcastle Permanent announced it would be passing July’s 25bps cash rate cut through in full to all home loan products.
“Customers may choose to maintain the amount they pay off their home loans, effectively paying off their loan balance sooner, or enjoy the benefit of some extra space in their monthly budget,” said the new CEO.
