This month’s Broker Pulse results indicate that many of Australia’s largest ADIs are finding it difficult to keep up with demand from the increased activity within the property market but a handful of lenders have improved their position. Meanwhile, the non-ADIs have managed to largely recover from their pre-christmas increases.
ADIs (Major and Non-Major banks)
Westpac, St.George Banking Group and ANZ continue to experience the longest turnarounds of close to and above 20 days to their initial credit decisions. Each of these lenders have had a difficult 2020 and have started 2021 in a similar position. Commonwealth Bank’s turnaround times have continued to worsen again this month after losing ground last month. Brokers who worked with the Commonwealth Bank in January noted significantly worse turnaround times compared to the month previous who now sit at similar levels to Suncorp and ME Bank at around 18 days.
Meanwhile, ME Bank has been able to significantly improve its turnaround times during this period. Lenders such as Macquarie Bank, ING, AMP and Adelaide Bank have continued to provide fast credit decisions to brokers with turnaround times at below approximately 6 to 7 days.
St.George Banking Group was the most commonly used lender by Broker Pulse participants in January for residential mortgages. This is a major shift compared to the previous 6 months where Commonwealth Bank, ANZ and Macquarie Bank were the most commonly used. However, St.George’s experience for brokers has varied with only 29% of brokers stating their experience was “easy” or “extremely easy”. For comparison, 93% of brokers who used Macquarie found the experience easy.
ING Bank continued its stand out performance, just behind Macquarie, in terms of giving brokers an easy experience. 83% of brokers who used this lender found the experience easy. Meanwhile, brokers experiences with lenders such as ANZ, St.George Banking Group, Westpac and Suncorp had less than positive experiences with many finding the experience much more difficult. This is likely due to the increased turnaround times of these lenders.
Non-ADIs (Specialist and non-conforming lenders)
This month’s Broker Pulse results show that the increases for many of the non-ADI lenders in December 2020 have been restored to normality on January 2021.
Firstmac, Pepper, Resimac, Advantedge and La Trobe Financial have all recorded decreases in their average turnaround times. Each of these lenders have moved back in line with their pre-December levels.
The non-bank lenders have continued to provide strong experiences to brokers compared to their ADI counterparts. This month’s Broker Pulse has found that the most commonly used non-bank lenders continue to be Advantedge and Resimac. Both of these lenders provided positive experiences for brokers, especially Advantedge who had 89% of brokers who found the process easy.
Pepper Money, in particular, scored a perfect rating for their interactions with brokers in January 2021 with all of the brokers rating their experiences as “easy” or “extremely easy”. Meanwhile, lenders such as Liberty Financial, AFG Home Loans and Virgin Money have either maintained or increased their turnaround times slightly. However, all of these lenders are still providing much faster turnaround times than their ADI counterparts.
This month, the Broker Pulse surveyed 192 brokers between the 1st and 9th of February to uncover their experiences with lenders through January 2020.
Thank you to all the brokers who participated in this month’s survey. This community-driven initiative is powered by brokers who want to unlock the collective experiences of their fellow brokers to make more informed decisions.
For any questions about this survey or results, please contact us by emailing [email protected].
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