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Non-major lender ING is expanding its commitment to the broker channel, announcing the introduction of electronic lodgement for commercial loan applications.
As one of a growing number of lenders to streamline the processing of commercial loans with an electronic lodgement offer, ING can now better support broker diversification and revenue growth.
“By adopting electronic lodgement, our aim is to make it easier for brokers to branch into commercial lending with small business borrowers by guiding them to enter the correct information into the application,” says ING National Sales Manager – Commercial John Kolyvas.
Kolyvas talks of the reluctance of some brokers who process home loans for small business customers to take the next step into commercial lending, even when the opportunity exists.
“It’s the perception of complexity,” he says. “So we worked closely with NextGen to make our application form in ApplyOnline Commercial similar to what brokers are accustomed to with the ApplyOnline residential model.
“The number of commercial loans sourced through brokers is gaining traction as business customers realise the value of the ongoing services that brokers provide.
“Our aim is to demystify the commercial loan process and make it easier for brokers so they can benefit from this trend.”
NextGen.Net Customer Executive Steven Hudson says, “As part of our delivery, we’ll support not only ING but their brokers as well. ING’s business development managers and sales support team already have a strong understanding of the residential ApplyOnline platform. Now they are ready to support brokers onboarding to grow their small business finance portfolio.”
ApplyOnline Commercial provides a ‘plug and play’ distribution for ING to offer its commercial products to the third-party channel. It offers a streamlined application framework which ensures that accurate information, and the required documentation, is captured at point of sale and provided to the lender.
ING’s offering is a secured commercial property loan.
“By using ApplyOnline it will be more efficient, especially with the ‘Supporting Documents’ service, because commercial loans entail many more supporting documents,” says Kolyvas.
“Electronic lodgement will mean a lot less gaps in the information provided by the broker.”
Referring to the ApplyOnline serviceability calculator, which assesses whether a customer can afford a loan, Kolyvas notes that “this issue is often the big unknown in commercial lending”.
“A lot of brokers resist using a commercial servicing calculator because of their complexity,” he says, adding that ING configured the ApplyOnline serviceability calculator to accommodate its specific requirements.
Hudson says, “We have a metrics engine built into ApplyOnline that looks at lenders’ services. We input a number of parameters, and we have a live metrics calculation that gives green or amber lights to show how a loan services and what the important ratios are.
“It’s a key ApplyOnline feature that contributes to application quality. Having this metrics engine improves the quality of the data being captured so loans can be assessed faster.”
Kolyvas points out that electronic lodgement is the first step in the streamlining of ING’s end-to-end commercial loan processing.
“Step one was to ensure the front end could easily capture accurate information,” he says.
“We’re now addressing everything else, such as how the loan is assessed, how quickly it’s assessed, and how the information gets transposed between our system and ApplyOnline. Ultimately we want to automate the process much as possible.”
