Commonwealth Bank has announced a brand new strategy to help mortgage brokers, with the aim of reducing turnaround times for loan approvals down to as little as one to two days.
Adam Croucher, Head of Third Party at Commonwealth Bank, spoke exclusively to Australian Broker to explain how Australia’s biggest lender was changing to adapt to the needs of the broker channel.
“Our new strategy focusses on improving overall experience for brokers, and that’s where we’ve been working exceptionally hard,” he said.
“We’re really focussing on making our partnerships stronger, and what underpins that is trying to make sure that it’s simpler and easier to do business with all of our brokers. That’s been the backbone of our new strategy.”
Croucher explained that CBA had adapted based on extensive consultation with the broker channel and with the aim of improving processes for third party partners across the board.
“We’ve listened to our broker partners and their feedback over the last 12 months and beyond,” he said.
“We’ve made significant investments off the back of that feedback on our operating model, our broker application system and processes around efficiency in our credit offices and system, all to help and support brokers in the channel.”
“Over the last 12 months, we’ve seen unprecedented volumes and we’ve been making sure that we can scale up and make is easier to do business with us.”
“We’ve seen a real direct impact from that investment, and our service levels have improved significantly. Hopefully the market has seen that, especially over the last few months.”
“Our current turnaround times are one to two days for simple deals, between two and four days for more complex applications. We’re thrilled to be able to be back at those turnaround times for our brokers, and to be able to deliver good to exceptional customer outcomes.”
“Certainly, our aim is to be around 1-3 days, and we’re hitting that at the moment. If you put in an application sub 80% with us today, PAYG, we will have that in our credit queue for a day before you get an answer.”
“Pre-qualification, add another day or two at worst, but right now, within around three days, we’re getting back to the majority of customers. More complex applications are around three to four days but we’re bringing that in and we have room for improvement there as well.”
Tech is playing a part, in reducing those turnaround times, as well as educating staff and brokers to improve systems efficiencies.
“One of the big parts of our investment, not only in our turnaround time, is also our credit training,” said Croucher. “We’ve expanded our relationship management team by an extra 12 over the last six weeks to make sure that’re providing the training and listening to brokers to get through to the next stage, where we can have sustainable uplifts.”
“A lot of that as well is the investment is launching our Digidocs process in Victoria, New South Wales and South Australia. That helps from a certifications levels as well, as it allows customers to receive, sign and return their documents, meaning faster settlements, and putting that overall customer experience where we want it to be.”
“Focus has been around turnaround time at the front end, but we’ve making sure that our investment continues right through the value chain.”
