A rebranding exercise has been an outstanding success for Qudos Bank, with strong volume growth corresponding with a name change (previously Qantas Credit Union) and a cleverly executed transition into the broker channel.
“Entering the broker space has been vital to our growth,” said Qudos Bank broker relationship manager Rob Maloney.
“Underpinning this growth has been our partnership with
NextGen.Net and the ApplyOnline platform, which has been key for us to scale for the volume.”
Qudos Bank, which despite its name change remains a customer-owned bank with profits going back to its members, has embarked on a technology enhancement phase. NextGen.Net’s ApplyOnline, the industry standard for electronic lodgement of loan applications, is the foundation into which Qudos’s technology expansions are anchored.
“When I came on board here in January 2015 I took on the role of preparing the broker channel,” said Maloney. “A big part of that was ensuring the ApplyOnline platform was up and running in time for the launch, because a number of the groups I approached hit me up front with the same question about offering brokers online lodgement. Invariably they wanted to know if we had ApplyOnline.
“When I had my first meeting with tech-savvy
Finsure and LoanKit, one of the first remarks from their national sales manager, Simon Bednar, was, ‘We’ll only come on board with you if you have ApplyOnline’.”
Previously, applications along with their supporting documents were retrieved from Qudos Bank’s ApplyOnline Application Centre Viewer and rekeyed into their existing loan processing system. Qudos Bank wanted to eliminate this rekeying. This meant replacing their existing loan processing system.
Qudos Bank implemented ApplyOnline, along with a suite of tools for more efficient processing, including the ApplyOnline Supporting Documents service.
Today close to 100% of Finsure’s applications come to Qudos via ApplyOnline.
Over 70% of all applications coming into Qudos Bank utilise the ApplyOnline Supporting Docs service, which Maloney says “makes the whole process far more efficient and secure”.
“Some brokers still don’t realise that emailing a customer’s documentation is an unsafe practice. The ApplyOnline Supporting Docs service not only allows the broker to easily and efficiently adhere to a lender’s verification requirements, it also maximises efficiencies at the lender’s end,” says NextGen.Net customer account manager, Steven Hudson.
“Receiving, reviewing and confirming all supporting documents securely on-screen without touching paper is best practice, and Qudos are really seeing the efficiencies created internally.”
Using the ApplyOnline Supporting Documents service (the identification of supporting document requirements at POS and validation against lender policy requirements), brokers can submit applications electronically for all Qudos Bank loans and include all required supporting documents. Qudos Bank is also able to verify internally all supporting docs online, significantly speeding up the process and decreasing time to approval.
Maloney credits ApplyOnline with helping Qudos Bank scale its business “without having to bring new people on board”.
“The feedback I’m getting from a lot of brokers is that they are very pleased with our offering,” said Maloney.
“Finsure and LoanKit consistently sees us as one of their Top 10 lenders and we were recently awarded Mozo’s Experts Choice Award for Home Loan Bank of the Year and three Outstanding Value Canstar awards.”
Maloney is particularly enamoured with a recent ApplyOnline Supporting Documents service upgrade, which offers a number of new functionalities and gives more power to lenders to better configure the service to gain additional efficiencies.
The update delivers a refreshed state-of-the-art, condition-driven UI (user interface) that allows brokers to review lender requirements, then bulk upload documents to meet the specific requirements.
The new UI means lenders can move to a situation in which all documents are uploaded securely.
“We are heavily promoting the new bulk document upload function,” Maloney said. “With this new feature brokers can upload documents into the application and submit them all as one.”
Complimenting Qudos Bank on its “reinvention”, Hudson said: “NextGen.Net recognises the value mutual lenders provide to the broker channel, and we’re delighted to be able to support Qudos Bank during their growth journey”.
