Aussie launches new Adelaide Bank-funded home loan

The new home loan was piloted in South Australia, Northern Territory and Western Australia and will now be rolled out to Aussie brokers across the country within the next two weeks.

Key features of the new white label product include:

• A 100 per cent offset account with variable and fixed rate loan options
• Bridging finance
• Construction and land-only loans
• An Aussie Elevate Visa credit card

The offering also enables customers to transact via a 24/7 online platform and track and report on their expenses with automatic spend categorisation.

Variable rates on the Aussie Elevate product will start from 3.32 per cent, with fixed rates starting from 3.39 per cent.  

Aussie’s chief customer officer, David Smith, told The Adviser that the product would appeal to borrowers across a broad range of segments in the market.   

“The Aussie brand speaks well to first home buyers, to upgraders and to refinancers,” he said.

“The brand appeal is now being matched by a broad spectrum of features that we haven’t had under the Aussie brand before – a 100 per cent offset on both variable and fixed, bridging finance, construction and an Aussie-branded credit card.

“We’re now able to offer that fully fledged set of features with a very smart credit policy behind it under the Aussie brand for the first time, which we’re really excited about.”

According to Mr Smith, Aussie partnership with Adelaide Bank was part of a strategy to expand the brokerage’s white label offering.

“From Aussie’s perspective, we wanted to strengthen and broaden our offering under the Aussie brand, so we went to market, and the team at Adelaide Bank responded very strongly and brought not just a strong capability but also strong passion and energy for the broking channel and a strong drive to serve the customer, which aligns with our brand,” he said .

“Our range of features were narrower previously, and the offering that Adelaide Bank brought to the table enabled us to broaden our feature range and our policy much wider than we’ve had before.”

Also speaking to The Adviser, Bendigo and Adelaide Bank’s head of third party banking, Darren Kasehagen, said that the partnership builds on a longstanding relationship with Aussie.

“From our side, we’ve been partnering with Aussie for more than two decades and successfully as well,” he said.

“We found them to be a really good group to deal with, and so for us, it was a natural extension of that partnership, and we were keen to take it to the next level. 

“We were absolutely thrilled when we were invited to tender for this new offering and even more pleased when we found out we were selected.”

When asked if Adelaide Bank has plans to further expand its presence in the white label space, Mr Kasehagen said: “We see the white label channel as a growth opportunity for us, so we would expect to add further partners throughout the journey whether it’s in this financial year or next. 

“We’re in no rush. We would only add another white label partner if we thought that they were going to be a good partner to deal with and compliment the suite that we have already.”

Mr Smith also noted that Aussie would consider partnering with other lenders to expand its white label suite but noted that the brokerage would monitor market trends before pursuing further relationships.  

“We’re always open minded, so if there’s one thing that’s constant, it’s change,” he said.

“Changing consumer expectations, demand, and expectations of the market means we should always be having a watching brief, and that’s what led to us going to market and starting this partnership [with Adelaide Bank].

“[But] we don’t want to rush and cause further proliferation and confusion to consumers. We just want the offering as wide or as narrow as it needs to be.”

The launch of the Aussie Elevate product expands the brokerage’s white label suite, which also contains the Aussie Select product funded by the Commonwealth Bank, and the recently launched Aussie Activate product funded by non-bank lender Pepper Money.   

[Related: Aussie, Pepper team-up to launch new home loan range]