A non-major bank is putting its money where its mouth is by promising brokers a 48-hour turnaround time for loan applications or $500 cash for their client.
General manager at Suncorp Bank, Steven Heavey, told The Adviser that in an attempt to reignite the lender's broker channel, it had to become a viable alternative.
“We have to be different, and we have to be better as a second-tier lender – and that’s why we had to make changes,” he said.
“A lot of brokers complained to me that they spend hours on the phone waiting for status updates, so we’ve developed an online tracking tool which we feel is nearing the best in the market.”
The bank also introduced a workflow tool which allowed the back-end to become totally paperless.
“Two and a half years ago we were carrying manual files around from floor to floor,” Mr Heavey admits, claiming that the IT improvement was one of the biggest changes the lender had developed.
“We’ve reached a stage where our broker support area is able to get onto the broker in less than two minutes,” Mr Heavey said.
“After all that, we’ve been able to consistently deliver fast, 48-hour turnaround times, so much so that we’re willing to put our money where our mouth is and say that if we don’t deliver service within 48 hours, we’ll pay your customer $500. So we’re backing ourselves on that promise.”
Mr Heavey said it was just one of the changes in the pipeline for the ‘new’ Suncorp Bank, with brokers at the top of their list of priorities.
“If the broker is spending all their time on the phone waiting to get an answer, they’re not out there writing new loans and growing their business… hopefully this will entice brokers who usually rely on the majors to give us a go, so we can show not only our great processing time, but also our amazing service.”
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