Bank poised to break into third party distribution

Speaking to The Adviser yesterday, ME Bank Group executive manager, brand, product and distribution Ian Hendey said that the growing influence of the broker channel was the driving force in the decision to evolve distribution strategy.

“We’ve taken a good look at the broking channel and we believe that we’re missing a large part of the market based on research that we’ve conducted with our customers. After considerable research across our client base the feedback is that our customers want to access our products via brokers,” Mr Hendey said.

“We’ve made the decision to enter the broker market.”

ME Bank was created in 1999, though its origins date back to September 1994 when, as an initiative of the Australian Council of Trade Unions (ACTU), National Mutual launched Super Member Home Loans.

The bank still has a strong focus on the super funds and trade unions sectors – a demographic it plans to increase its share of via brokers.

According to Mr Hendey, the bank boasts a sharp rate as a compelling proposition for brokers to offer their clients, with the bank consistently offering the lowest bank SVR in the market for the last decade.

In addition to product pricing, the bank also considers its low fees and strong offset facility as point of difference in the market place.

But according to Mr Hendey, ME Bank is not relying on product alone as its value proposition.

“We see the broker as our client and we’ll be looking to provide strong support to our partners. One of the areas that we’ll be looking at is how brokers interact with credit and we’ll be having a two way conversation about this as we move forward.”