After two non-major banks announced new commission incentives last week, brokers have come forward saying that the service a lender provides beats bumps to commission every time.
Rebekah Gould, mortgage broker at
Smartline, says the best incentive a bank can offer is teamwork.
“The most important thing for me is a lender who builds a relationship with both my client and I, where I know they are going to work with us as a team.
“It is my job as a broker to understand my clients and educate them so they can make informed decisions. Therefore, I want a lender who wants to join our team – so when a client makes a decision about which bank will finance their home loan, we all have very sure expectations about what is going to happen each step of the way.”
Josh Bartlett, mortgage broker at
Loan Market, says turnaround time is more important than commission incentives.
“I can get guaranteed four hour turnaround time with one lender who might not pay the best commission, but I like to give my customers some absolute comfort around their approval rather than think about what bank is going to pay me the best trail.
“Also, turnaround time when it comes to getting answers from the bank is important. I value a lender whose BDM is honest, proactive and can get back to me promptly with an answer. Banks should invest in solid training for their BDMs before investing into new commission structures.”
For both Gould and Bartlett, a change to the clawback system would mean more to brokers than any new commission incentives.
“As a broker, keeping in contact with my clients after settlement to make sure they are still happy with their situation is a big part of my job. However, if I ring a client a year later and they tell me they have found a bank with a better rate and they would like to refinance their loan, I can get clawed back if I help them refinance.
“There are these two opposing forces – brokers wanting to keep a relationship with their clients and wanting to help their client, but at the same getting penalised by clawbacks for doing so.” Bartlett said.
Gould added, “Brokers often do more than is required of our job, because we care about our clients and we want to look after them. We don’t just want to get them to settlement, but we become a personal banker for them after settlement too. Brokers can’t control what the client is going to do or what is going to happen two years down the track, so clawbacks are just unfair.”
