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Following the concerted expansion of its business development team, an online lender has charted significant growth in broker-generated loans over the past year.
Online SME lender OnDeck has reported a 70% increase in broker channel lending year on year and its broker sales team (BDs) tripled in size over the same period.
Further, the data showed brokers are using the tools made available by the lender to make the transition into commercial lending.
“The broker market is a significant pillar of support for Australian SMEs, and we expect our broker-generated lending to continue to outpace our other channels well into the future,” said Michael Burke, head of sales at OnDeck.
According to Burke, the royal commission has pushed brokers to consider new levels of innovation and creativity when servicing customers. OnDeck provides resources to support broker expansion into commercial lending, including the option to utilise co-branded or white label marketing collateral.
However, the “key support” comes from the BDs.
“We might be an online lender, but for us that’s never at the expense of customer service or broker contact. We encourage brokers to partner with their OnDeck BD," said Joshua Edmondston, BD associate for NSW and ACT.
“OnDeck is about long-term relationships with our broker partners. The growth of our broker channel, coupled with our success with repeat enquiries, is testimony to the high level of support we offer brokers.
“We really act as an extension to the broker’s team. Reflecting this, we always triage broker enquiries upfront so that their customer won’t have an unnecessary credit enquiry recorded on their credit file, and to save the broker valuable time,” added Mr Edmondston.
Over the past year, OnDeck has also joined a number of aggregator panels as part of its “push into the broker channel,” most recently partnering with FAST.
