New third-party bank forecasts broker expansion

The Chinese investor market has been recording strong growth, but a spokesperson told The Adviser that the bank planned to target the entire Australian mortgage market.

"Currently, we offer home loans and small commercial property loans via brokers," the spokesperson added.

"We are making development in our SME lending business, so we would like to offer more products when we are ready."

The spokesperson said Bank of China would offer brokers "dedicated BDMs" as well as "competitive product features, such as competitive interest rates and fees".

Bank of China currently has six BDMs, and will increase this as its third-party business grows, according to the spokesperson.

"We will try to keep our turnaround times within five working days, giving conditional approval within 72 hours and unconditional within five working days," the spokesperson said.

AFG is currently the only aggregator on Bank of China's panel. The spokesperson said the bank had yet to have internal discussions about whether to expand the panel.

APRA reported last week that Bank of China had $672 million of owner-occupier and investor loans on its books as of 30 September 2014. That marked an 18.5 per cent increase on the previous year.

Bank of China's strong growth was driven by a 23.9 per cent jump in the investor book to $405 million. However, the portfolio of owner-occupier loans fell 1.1 per cent to $267 million.

Bank of Sydney has also moved into the third-party channel, with the lender conducting a "soft launch" of its broker business ahead of a full launch in the first quarter of 2015.

Connective director Mark Haron recently told The Adviser that some smaller banks had also been showing interest in using brokers to distribute their products.

[Related: China expert reveals how to crack booming market]