Staff Reporter
The second annual Australian Lending Awards will be held on the evening of 23rd February 2012 at the Sofitel Sydney Wentworth, the organisers of the event today revealed.
Now in its second year, the Australian Lending Awards recognise market leaders across a variety of lender product categories
A joint initiative of The Adviser and specialist research firm RFi, the Australian Lending Awards takes the findings of over 6,000 consumers and 500 brokers to establish the leading lender across retail, wholesale and third party segments.
Following the Australian Mortgage Conference – which will be held during the day of 23rd February – the Australian Lending Awards are the benchmark for success, leadership, innovation and product development across the competitive mortgage lending sector.
In addition to the 12 awards categories from last year, three new awards have been added to the 2012 agenda, reflecting the evolving lending landscape and enhanced product distribution. This year’s categories include:
• Best First Home Buyer Lender
• Best Investor Lender
• Best Self-Employed Lender
• Best Customer Experience
• Best Customer Marketing – new category
• Best Online Operator
• Best Wholesale Funder
• Best Third Party Lender
• Best White Label Program – new category
• Best Broker Cross-Sell Offering – new category
• Best Non-Bank
• Best Innovator
• Best Mutual
• Best Thought Leader
• Mortgage Lender of the Year
According to The Adviser’s group publisher Alex Whitlock, consumers, potential borrowers and the broker distribution channel use a range of gauges to assess each lender and their product offering.
“An Australian Lending Award has quickly become an indicator for success in lending and a tool for lenders to elevate their customer proposition.
“A number of large banks now position an Australian Lending Award front and centre of their marketing as it highlights both third party and consumer recognition of their products, service and offering,” he said.
Mr Whitlock believes that the robust assessment process undertaken to determine category winners gives weight to the awards and offers both winners and finalists confidence in the research findings.
In partnering with RFi, The Adviser can tap into the opinions of thousands of consumers while leveraging its own broker distribution to take a holistic view of lender performance.
RFi director Alan Shields says the partnership between The Adviser and RFi brings together two robust organisations that are able to successfully monitor both broker and consumer perceptions of Australia’s lenders.
“Bringing those elements together and combining each of the organisations’ respective resources makes for a strong partnership,” Mr Shields said.