Brokers drive mortgage growth for regional bank

“This was a key contributor to improving growth towards system levels,” the bank noted in a trading update yesterday.

“We believe we can continue to drive growth through our existing strategy, especially when you consider we’re still below our peers’ market share in the broker channel, and we have further upside through BOQ Specialist as well as Virgin Money Australia, where we expect to launch mortgages within 12 months,” BOQ managing director and chief executive officer Jon Sutton said.

“Lending growth headed back towards system levels as a result of the strategic initiatives BOQ has implemented in recent years, including expansion of the mortgage broker channel and investment in the business bank’s presence and capabilities,” Mr Sutton said.

BOQ’s third-party expansion saw an additional 746 brokers accredited over the six months to February, taking the lender's total broker numbers to 1,932.

“The majority of these brokers are providing portfolio diversification outside of Queensland; however, this half [year] saw the addition of 262 brokers in Queensland which should be supported by the strong brand appeal in our home state,” BOQ noted.

Housing lending grew at an annualised 6 per cent to $27.3 billion over the February half.

The BOQ brand housing book also experienced increasing diversification, with 57 per cent of applications originated outside of Queensland this half-year.

“This was largely driven by our expanding broker channel, which contributed $420 million of loan growth and accounted for 18 per cent of applications,” BOQ said.

“This half saw our expansion into the Queensland market with 285 accredited brokers, which is supported by our strong brand resonance in our home state,” it said.

“We have also increased our broker footprint across the country with a total of 1,932 brokers nationally, and remain on target to accredit 2,500 brokers by the end of the financial year.”

[Related: Regional bank grows broker settlements by 175pc]