NAB executive for commercial broker, Chris Thomas, has spoken exclusively to Australian Broker about his confidence in the Australian business sector’s resilience and the vital role that commercial brokers can play in the post-pandemic recovery.
“The resilience of the Australian business community is remarkable,” he told our print magazine. “Once again it’s risen to the challenge and found new ways of overcoming obstacles.”
“We’re seeing good levels of growth in most industries. It’s wonderful to see. Many Australian businesses are now roaring back to life, and the level of business confidence is now above average at plus 15 based on our March NAB business survey. Business conditions also rose eight points to a record high of 25 index points in the March survey.”
Brokers are at the heart of the route back from the pandemic, with commercial brokers working closely with NAB to get financing to SMEs and other businesses.
“Relationships with our valued brokers are of paramount importance to us,’ said Thomas. “It’s a great credit to our brokers that they’ve earnt the title of trusted adviser with their clients...so we see the most powerful thing we can do as a business bank is to be the best partner for those brokers when it comes to forming the right solutions that meet their customers’ needs.”
“We have to understand the broker, so we take a lot of time in really trying to get underneath what their business strategy is and what is important to them.”
NAB has 4,000 accredited commercial brokers and 650 bankers that deal with them on a daily basis.
“The strongest part of our value proposition remains that we have more bankers in more places across Australia,” Thomas added. “The broking community is a national one, spread everywhere from regional locations into the capital cities. We have 160 business banking centres across the country.”
“We like to believe that we can provide brokers with access to the whole of NAB better than any other lender in the market, and with they’re tapping into that experience, that understanding of the local markets, and really working those partnerships to the maximum value.”
This is an extract from the latest edition of Australian Broker, which hits desks on Monday 17th May.
