What does a great broker journey look like for financial institutions? Automated solutions, greater efficiency
On average, brokers account for 70% of home loan applications according to recent data reported by the Mortgage & Finance Association of Australia. Like Financial Institutions (FIs), brokers have to contend with numerous obstacles in the application process. Adopting a solution that automates crucial parts of the process can be an efficiency win not just for the FI and its staff, but for brokers too.
Rising interest rates and cost-of-living increases, combined with fixed interest periods coming to a close, are putting many customers under mortgage stress. In this environment, it’s no wonder property owners are looking to switch, chasing a better rate with their lenders and brokers.
Many customers also view the mortgage process as a complex one, and the broker is perceived to be the route to securing them the best deal with the least stress. Brokers have connections with multiple lenders, they can assist borrowers with documents, information gathering and advice: they become the go-to source.
Brokers under the pump
The pressure is on brokers to obtain better deals for an increasing volume of customers. But they have a competing priority: their need to retain their customer base. Every time one of their existing customers switches to another broker and/or FI, the broker potentially loses a trailing commission.
There’s also the burden of maintaining the quality of data they supply to FIs as part of the application process. FIs expect good quality documents and proposals, and brokers must submit deals in line with the FI’s known requirements, so the FI can turn them around faster.
It can be complicated and there’s a lot of data entry involved as brokers deal with multiple financial institutions, each with different policies and checklists to satisfy. Brokers must work with a variety of systems, from their own in-house spreadsheets and back-ends which are often pulling in data from their aggregator, to the portal they use to interact with the FI.
Bearing in mind that broker businesses are dealing with talent shortfalls, like most organisations, there can be gaps in the streamlining of that process. What brokers need are ways to make their work more efficient, and a better experience overall.
Read the full article here.
About Sandstone Technology
For more than 25 years Sandstone Technology has been innovating and evolving financial solutions for some of Australia and the world’s largest banks and financial institutions. From digital banking and digital onboarding to loan origination and AI-based data analysis, our scalable, robust, end-to-end solutions using a multi-channel approach helps our customers get to market faster.
