The volume of loan products at Bluestone Mortgages targeted to SME owners has increased by 37% from the second to the third quarter this year.
The firm attributes this trend to the growth of the lending sector as well as the company’s constantly evolving range of products.
“We’re solely focused on specialist lending, and channel our efforts exclusively on providing brokers with solutions designed to assist and benefit more customers – especially for self-employed borrowers,” said Royden D’Vaz, the lender’s national head of sales and marketing.
“We continue to receive positive feedback about the accessibility and flexibility of our self-employed products that are designed to resonate with the millions of Aussies who traditionally have found it difficult to source finance.”
Examples of this flexibility include allowing borrowers to access financial solutions after only three months of trading – as opposed to the standard 24-month period.
Bluestone Mortgages also offers a line of credit facility for day-to-day operations and an increased LVR of 85% for select products. The lender has also removed the need for loan mortgage insurance. By adjusting the way that the firm views borrowers in a Part 9 or Part 10 agreement, borrowers don’t need to meet lending guidelines of LMI providers.
Encouraging the broker community
Bluestone has also unveiled a new creative campaign that shows off its focus on the development and enhancement of its SME-targeted products.
“We’ve developed a marketing communications platform that actively encourages brokers to help self-employed clients more often and in the process, improve their value proposition, broaden their customer base and benefit from a new revenue stream,” D’Vaz said.
The campaign uses a slice of watermelon to prompt brokers to ask what slice of the $4 billion specialist lending market they are tapping into.
“This is a fun, quirky tool that supports diversification, and entices brokers to realise the potential of tapping into the SME market which equates to 69% of the workforce.”
The campaign is playing to where opportunities are for the broking community, D’Vaz told
Australian Broker.
“Rather than telling them, we want to show them,” he said. “We don’t want to tell them, ‘You’ve got to write this business. This is where you’re missing out. This is where your income is going to be’.
“We’re saying, ‘Here’s the market. Here are the stats. We’ve seen an increase in self-employed borrowers,’ and that’s where we’re trying to get their buy-in.”
Growth and a better experience
To accommodate future growth, Bluestone has announced it will expand its national team of BDMs and credit assessors. The aim is to support brokers in finding the right financial solutions for their SME clients, D’Vaz said.
“Our team is geared to streamline the application process and help facilitate the best outcome for self-employed and small business clients, no matter what stage their business is at.”
This is going to be achieved by putting more resources into the BDM team to better tackle brokers’ number one priority: quick turnaround time, D’Vaz told
Australian Broker.
“I’d like to say, ‘We’ll get it done as soon as we get the deal’. It doesn’t matter what happens along the line, as long as from a broker experience and the customer experience, we are making the broker look good in the customer’s eyes. That’s what we want to do.”
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