Lenders sit tight on commissions

Last week, Suncorp became the second lender in as many weeks to tweak its broker remuneration structure, with the lender introducing first year trail as well as bonus commission payments.

Suncorp's bank general manager intermediaries Steven Heavey said the changes would help the lender simplify its existing structure and enhance its broker proposition.

But while two lenders have now tweaked commissions, with NAB Broker returning its commission payments back to pre-GFC levels less than two weeks ago, it seems Australia's other lenders are quite content with their respective remuneration structures.

Speaking to The Adviser, CBA's general manager mortgage wealth James Sheffield said the bank had no plans to change its commissions and instead would spend 2012 focussing on its service proposition.

"Everyone has to look at the value of their proposition. Proposition can't just be about price, it has to be about service as well and obviously if you play on price, it means you haven't got great service levels," Mr Sheffield said.

"We will continue to watch that space, but we will be investing in our service proposition moving forward."

ANZ's head of broker distribution Meg Bonighton echoed Mr Sheffield's comments, hosing down suggestions that the bank would look to act on commissions in the near future.

"We tweaked commissions in February and we have no plans to make further changes any time soon. We are happy with the economics of the channel at the moment," she told The Adviser.