Bendigo Bank to launch home loans to brokers

As detailed in the group’s digital transformation road map, it has planned to enable a Bendigo Bank Home Loan proposition for brokers within the 2022 and 2023 financial years.

Currently, Bendigo Bank does not offer loans through the broker channel, with its sister brand, Adelaide Bank, being considered as the group’s third-party banking division.

“As part of the bank’s plan to simplify and reshape its business for the future, we are in the early stages of exploring options that would enable a Bendigo Home Loan proposition for brokers,” a Bendigo and Adelaide Bank spokesperson told The Adviser.

“Partners are an important part of our distribution capability and we are dedicated to offering the best possible products and services, and a superior experience for brokers and customers alike.”

The group has also signalled the roll-outs of other new digital propositions over the coming years, as well as a new product and pricing engine in the financial year 2022/23.

Bendigo and Adelaide Bank has projected that around 90 per cent of the group’s home loans will be assessed with automated credit decisioning by FY24, reducing its overall 22-day turnaround average in FY19 down to a one-day time frame.

Further, the group is aiming to have 60 per cent of home loans originated through the digital channel, compared to the 19.2 per cent proportion of sales in FY19.

While Up, the group’s digital banking subsidiary, has targeted younger customers as a stand-alone offering, it has also served as a way for Bendigo and Adelaide Bank to test technologies.

“We’re also seeing Up as a testbed opportunity for accelerating the way we deploy capability into Bendigo digital channels,” Ryan Brosnahan, chief transformation officer at Bendigo and Adelaide Bank told investors.

“So it’s a really unique market of 430,000 customers, that we have an ability to test and learn really quickly. That enables us to actually deploy with less risk, similar capabilities into the broader Bendigo customer base.”

At the same time, it has aimed to consolidate what was 13 brands in FY19 down to three in FY24, as well as merge its eight-core banking systems down to one.

There are now 10 brands operating under the Bendigo and Adelaide Bank Group: Bendigo Bank, Adelaide Bank, Rural Bank, Community Bank, Up, Leveraged, Delphi Bank, Sandhurst Trustees, Community Enterprise Foundation, Alliance Bank and Homesafe Solutions.

As outlined in the group’s digital transformation road map, it plans to commence the integrations of Dephi Bank and Alliance Bank in FY22 and FY23, before completing the integrations of Rural Bank and Adelaide Bank in FY24.

The presentation was made after Bendigo and Adelaide Bank bought fintech Ferocia for $116 million in August.

The software development company, which has been operating Bendigo Bank’s banking app and e-banking plaform for the past nine years, also owns the banking app, Up.

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