NAB ‘reviewing’ clawback position: Adam Brown

The major lender’s recently appointed executive, broker distribution Adam Brown told NAB Broker’s Forward View event yesterday (23 November), that it was "reviewing [its] position on that [clawbacks] and looking forward to, in the early part of 2024, giving an update and letting brokers know what that’s going to look like going forward”.

Several lenders have revised their clawback policy in the last six months - including Westpac (which dropped down to an 18-month clawback period earlier this year) and the Commonwealth Bank of Australia (CBA), which moved to a staged clawback approach after 12 months.

Some non-bank lenders, such as Rate Money and Mortgage Ezy have been moving to abolish clawbacks entirely, while Pepper Money removed clawbacks on commercial finance products earlier this year.

La Trobe Financial has been one of the few non-bank lenders to have no clawbacks on upfront commissions.

The moves come as the broker channel has been advocating a more equitable clawback policy, particularly given the surge of refinances as the ‘fixed-rate cliff’ arrives and borrowers hard-hit by the cost of living look to take advantage of cashback offers.

NAB seeks to build broker strategy

As well as reviewing clawback, Mr Brown stated that the bank was looking to grow the number of loans introduced to the bank through the broker channel in 2024, building on its “bank behind the broker” tagline.

Mr Brown commented: “Seventy per cent of our home loans in the country are originated through brokers and within NAB, it’s somewhere around 63–64 per cent of all our loans are introduced through the broker network.

“So, over the course of the next 12 months, that’s probably going to increase, truth be told, and that’s what I’m really looking forward to.”

NAB’s head of broker stated that cost of living continued to escalate as “one of the major stresses” for consumers, with brokers on the frontline in “a really important role in helping support their customers”.

“Having broker support and giving them help, guidance, and advice is a critical part of what they do and what they do really, really well,” Mr Brown added.

He also emphasised the importance of the broking industry as borrowers continue to roll off fixed loans, stating that the bank was only “about 60 per cent of the way through”, with the remaining customers “rolling off fixed rates over the next 18 months”.

Mr Brown noted: “Part of that roll-off is helping customers adjust to different repayments when they do roll off and we’ve really invested in that part of our business to support those customers.

“Some 140 people we’ve added into that part of our business and the role that brokers play with customers around that and how we support our customers is going to be critical to helping our customers continue to adapt.”

The continued expansion of NAB’s simple home loans product was another focus for the bank’s head of broker moving forward.

Mr Brown said that the platform was enabling brokers to get responses within an hour: “We are seeing more and more examples going through our new platform where brokers are getting responses, not just to an unconditional, but to docs in the hands of their customers, within an hour.

“We are seeing one in four, one in five, of all of our broker home loans that go to unconditional going through that new platform and what we’ll see over the course of the next year is even more,” Mr Brown said.

Looking ahead, Mr Brown revealed that he’ll be touring the country for The Adviser Better Business Summit and commented that “it will be great to see so many brokers at all the events around the country in the first part of 2024”.

To get your tickets for The Adviser Better Business Summit click here.

[Related: NAB selects new head of broker]