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As the new year is getting into full swing, there's much to look forward to at Bluestone.
In November last year, the lender announced a brand new set of home loan products, which includes its first ever Prime offering. With new rates starting at just 2.99% (3.26% comparison), the new products were designed to be simpler, more competitive, and more aligned to the changing needs of the Australian home loan market.
“It was essential to us to design products that have the needs of our borrowers and brokers at their heart,” says recently appointed Chief Customer Officer James Angus. “We have done away with a lot of unnecessary complexity both within our policies and processes, and we’re extremely pleased to see how enthusiastically our brokers have welcomed these changes.”
With over twenty years of financial services experience across Australia, Canada, and the United States, Angus joined Bluestone with a remit to ensure Bluestone is truly broker- and customer-centric in everything it does.
Looking to the year ahead, Angus says Bluestone will embark on a number of additional initiatives around process, product, and technology that will allow the lender to cut turnaround times, provide added convenience to brokers, and ensure a better and more consistent experience.
“As we are moving into the new year, we are determined to make sure that service levels will remain consistent or improve even as volumes grow due to our new prime offering. High levels of broker and customer satisfaction will form a key performance target across all business units over the coming year.”
At the core of Bluestone’s 2020 broker strategy lies the simple concept of “one”. Bluestone wants brokers to see Bluestone as being on one team with them, sharing one goal. “Our broker’s success is our success, and we want to move away from highly transactional relationships to deeper, long-term partnerships that take a holistic view of our brokers’ goals, circumstances, and pain points.” Angus says.
Additionally, with its new products spanning Prime to Specialist solutions, Bluestone wants brokers to think of it as one lender who can provide home loans for borrowers across the whole credit curve. “Our background in specialist lending means we are highly adept at understanding unique circumstances and providing solutions that fi t them. Our new Prime loan means we can now help an even broader set of borrowers who are not well served by mainstream banking,” Angus says.
Importantly, while Bluestone’s primary customer base is continuing to move up the credit curve, its method of case-by-case credit assessment over automated credit scoring means the lender will retain its ability to service more complex or unusual cases. Angus says, “This will be of great benefit to self-employed borrowers, property investors, and anyone dealing with some level of complexity within their income streams or cash flow set-up. These customers will continue to enjoy individual assessment by our credit team, while also benefitting from the most competitive rates in Bluestone’s history.”
