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Jessica Darnbrough
One of Australia’s banks has told The Adviser that it expects to deliver some “very good news” around commissions later this year.
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Speaking to The Adviser, Bankwest’s head of specialist banking Ian Rakhit said the lender was keen to do what it can to re-engage the broker channel after sitting on the sidelines for the last 12 months.
“Bankwest continues to listen to brokers. Brokers continue to tell me that commission is an area of opportunity for Bankwest and I expect to have some very good news on that front during 2013,” Mr Rakhit said.
While Mr Rakhit refused to divulge any details of the potential commission increase, he did say that the bank was eager to lend and show its ongoing commitment to the broker channel.
“We want to make it very clear to the broker channel that we are back,” he said.
“We have traditionally been very strong in the broker market – 71 per cent of all our balances have been originated through brokers and we are keen to re-engage this channel.”
In support of that sentiment, last week the lender launched a new basic variable product, the Regular Saver Home Loan, as well as the Double Deal Home Loan, which offers a discount of 1.01 per cent off the standard variable rate over two years.
Mr Rakhit said the products were developed in response to broker feedback and, as such, he is hopeful they will deliver a strong result for the lender.
“We want a 30 per cent uplift in sales. We are ready for a 30 per cent uplift and we are able to cope with a 30 per cent uplift,” he said.
“In 2012, Bankwest took a step back from the broker channel so that we could have a look at our back-end office processes. We wanted to make sure we could cope with higher volumes and reduce the time it takes to go unconditional.”
