A non-major is celebrating having overcome the challenging conditions created by COVID-19 to achieve record lending figures in the December 2020 quarter.
Community First Credit Union saw a 25% spike in home lending and funded over $140m in residential loans in the three month period.
John Tancevski, Community First CEO, sees the “incredible result” as proving the mutual is a legitimate alternative to Australia’s big four banks.
“This dramatic growth was achieved during a pandemic and despite our credit assessment and loan processing teams working remotely since April 2020,” he noted.
As Tancevski sees it, there were both external and internal factors that contributed to the spike in mortgages evidenced at the tail end of 2020, including strong growth in house prices and “excellent internal sales and marketing initiatives” from the bank.
“Many loans written last year were the result of refinancing applications by owner-occupiers taking advantage of record low interest rates, and competitive deals with interest rates starting from sub 2%,” the CEO said.
“We also launched an innovative feature for eligible professional community workers to borrow up to 90% of a property’s value without the need to pay Lenders’ Mortgage Insurance.”
Over the latter portion of the year, Community First heavily invested in its multi-channel marketing strategies.
“Many opportunities we sourced and originated by our…Community First sales teams through both our financial services stores and our direct channels to provide our extensive range of lending products,” Tancevski said.
“Overall, in 2020, we delivered value to our members through service standards superior to our competitors, an extensive range of lending and banking products, lower fees and very competitive interest rates.”
Government initiatives also contributed to the strong figures evidenced, with new buyers drawn in by the HomeBuilder and First Home Loan Deposit Schemes (FHLDS).
Tancevski also confirmed that thus far, the momentum generated last year has seemed to carry into 2021.
