Jessica Darnbrough
ME Bank's soft launch into the third party distribution channel is on track and the bank is now in talks with the broader market, according to the bank's national manager brokers Stewart Saunders.
Speaking to The Adviser, Mr Saunders said the response to ME Bank's decision to enter the broking space has been "overwhelming".
"All of the aggregators have been very supportive and we are currently in talks with all the big groups now to roll our products out through them. When that happens is largely dependent on how quickly we can put the technology in place to provide electronic applications."
Late last year, ME Bank signed National Mortgage Brokers as its first distribution partner.
"We started with a soft launch and will look to officially roll out our products out more widely to the third party distribution space by Q2," Mr Saunders said.
"I think there is a growing need for an alternative to the majors and we aim to be just that."
Mr Saunders said both brokers and borrowers were looking for alternative lenders to do business with, making it the perfect time to enter the market.
"We had been thinking about entering the third party distribution space for some time, and thought now was the perfect opportunity to do so," he said.