ANZ to arm brokers with cutting-edge tools

The toolkit was developed in conjunction with Stargate Group and incorporates feedback from brokers.

It can be accessed at any time from desktops, laptops, Macs, iPads and Android devices.

ANZ slipped from second to third this year in The Adviser's annual major bank rankings, partly because brokers felt it needed to improve its technology.

ANZ's head of third-party relationship channels, Keiran Evans, said the step-up from the old toolkit to the new version would be like "moving from analogue to digital".

Mr Evans told The Adviser that one key feature of the new toolkit is the advanced modelling that allows brokers to share a range of scenarios with clients.

"As an example, it now has multiple income groups, which means that at the ticking of a box you can include one applicant's income or exclude it," he said.

"That then means the broker can work with the customer to model different scenarios, for example joint applicants or guarantors."

Brokers can also model multiple loan splits with their clients, so they can discuss how much of a loan should be fixed and variable, and how that would affect their repayments.

Mr Evans said the new toolkit draws on the same calculation methodology as the bank's loan assessors, and contains up-to-date information regarding policies, pricing and valuations.

"Customers want to be dealing with expertise, and the toolkit gives brokers this expertise and credibility," he said.

"Buying a home is always an anxious period for customers; what this does is give them quick feedback."

The new toolkit also includes a self-employed income calculator.

"The self-employed calculator asks questions, whether the client is a partnership or a sole proprietor or a company or a family trust," Mr Evans said.

"Once you answer those questions, the next layer of questioning of the client's income is driven by those answers."

Mr Evans told The Adviser that the new toolkit took four months to develop – and that it fits in with other improvements that ANZ has been making.

"Our turnaround times now are predominantly same day. The reason why we can do that is because brokers are having high-quality conversations at the outset with their customers and this toolkit enhances those conversations," he said.

[Related: ANZ wins prestigious home loan award]