New bank to enter broker channel

Speaking with The Adviser, national manager for third party distribution at Teachers Mutual Bank Mark Middleton said the bank had listened to the demands of brokers prior to entering the market.

“We are aware of the size of the market, and according to the MFAA and [the Australian Bureau of Statistics] there’s 43 per cent of the market we’re missing out on.

“We’ve listened to what brokers have had to say in the past through a number of publications and what we found was that brokers can get frustrated when they aren’t able to get in contact with the BDM.

“So we’ve created a model whereby if the BDM is not contactable, that we have a liaison officer at the office. That way, they can talk to them anytime about the progress of a transaction or if a deal is worthwhile putting up.”

In addition to providing brokers with a backup contact, Teachers Mutual Bank has also given brokers direct access to the credit team.

“If there’s a question, instead of going through a third party to pass on a message from the broker, we are giving the credit team direct contact to the broker and vice versa,” Mr Middleton said.

The lender has already partnered with aggregator groups Connective and eChoice Home Loans and will continue talks with other aggregators.

While there are no broker-exclusive products yet, Mr Middleton claimed he had a few surprises up his sleeve.

“We want to listen to brokers and get some feedback on our products. We’ll continue to evolve our solutions and there’ll be some new, innovative ideas coming out in the New Year,” he said.