Continuing to challenge the majors with service and top BDMs, Macquarie's Doug Lee reveals further improvements in the pipeline.
Banks on Brokers is all about finding out what the banks are going to do with your feedback from MPA's Brokers on Banks survey.
We’ve talked to this year’s top five banks, based on overall score: Westpac, CBA, ANZ, Suncorp and Macquarie.
Macquarie continues to challenge the major banks through excellent service and responsive BDMs. Head of mortgage sales Doug Lee tells MPA about the further improvements in the pipeline.
MPA: Macquarie continues to compete with the majors in almost all areas. To what extent does this reflect investment on your part, or has Macquarie simply taken a different approach to dealing with brokers?
DOUG LEE: Intermediaries are cornerstone to Macquarie’s retail strategy which we recognise through strategic distribution partnerships with recognised, trusted and well established national retail brands and intermediaries.
Our ongoing success stems from our continued focus on looking at our offering, listening to what our brokers
and their clients need and putting this at the centre of everything we do.
Our engagement with the leadership teams of our key groups, as well as the daily conversations between our BDMs and brokers, provides us with feedback on where we can enhance our offering. Our established national broker advisory board also allows us to see what we’re doing well for our brokers and where we can refine and reposition our offering to stay relevant in the marketplace.
MPA: Your BDMs continue to impress brokers. What makes a Macquarie BDM easier to deal with than those of your competitors?
DL: The focus of our industry-leading business development managers has always been their commitment and availability to their broker relationships. Our BDMs take ownership and accountability to facilitate solutions for their brokers and understand the needs of brokers and their clients. Our BDMs are passionate about their businesses and look for ways to truly add value to their broker relationships by sharing ideas on business growth initiatives, efficiency enhancement and improvements, looking beyond the day to day components of the relationship.
MPA: Many brokers in this survey were members of banks’ elite streams; what does Macquarie’s elite stream offer to brokers?
DL: Macquarie has a program that recognises its key supporting brokers with a specific service, relationship and value proposition, which has been well received in the market. We will continue to refine and enhance the program based on feedback from our brokers to ensure it continues to deliver to the expectations of our brokers, is valuable and recognises the support these brokers provide us.
MPA: Macquarie’s investor lending continues to grow strongly despite APRA’s limit. Are you looking to encourage growth in your lending to owner-occupiers – and why should brokers consider you for their owner-occupier clients?
DL: Macquarie is committed to working with regulators and its distribution partners to help ensure the residential home lending market continues to operate in a responsible and sustainable way. Our growth in owner-occupied lending has been strong and we will continue to encourage further growth by specific offers targeting this segment of lending. We believe we have a competitive offering in the owner-occupied space.
MPA: Two-thirds of brokers didn’t believe the banks dealt with APRA’s changes in a fair way for new and existing customers. Are there any lessons to be learnt in how you communicate interest and policy changes in the future?
DL: We support APRA’s approach to ensuring there is sustainable and prudent lending. We adopted a proactive approach to assist our partners with a better understanding of the potential changes through initial meetings with the heads of our strategic partners to provide a regulatory background update and took them through the changes and what the potential impact of those changes may be. These key meetings were then importantly followed up with a national road show dedicated to explain and educate brokers on the regulatory landscape and the changes and potential impacts, including policy and pricing. We believe that we were on the front foot in advising our brokers of the changes to assist them to incorporate into their future growth plans and strategies.
MPA: Will we be seeing any major improvements or investment in Macquarie’s third party channel in the year ahead?
DL: For the year ahead our continued focus is on investing to support our growth, digital capabilities and modernising our technology platform to drive efficiencies and enhance the overall end to end experience. We’re in the process of implementing a Core Banking platform that will help us to broaden our product offering, as well as enhance the overall broker and customer experience through a range of initiatives that will be launched throughout the year.
Customers are increasingly looking to their broker for additional products and services. We’re a strong believer in product diversification and allowing our brokers to provide products and services beyond just home loans so our brokers can expect a far broader range of products from us. In addition, we continue to work closely with our business banking and leasing teams to collaborate and broaden our commercial loans and leasing finance offering.
We’ve talked to this year’s top five banks, based on overall score: Westpac, CBA, ANZ, Suncorp and Macquarie.
Macquarie continues to challenge the major banks through excellent service and responsive BDMs. Head of mortgage sales Doug Lee tells MPA about the further improvements in the pipeline.
MPA: Macquarie continues to compete with the majors in almost all areas. To what extent does this reflect investment on your part, or has Macquarie simply taken a different approach to dealing with brokers?
DOUG LEE: Intermediaries are cornerstone to Macquarie’s retail strategy which we recognise through strategic distribution partnerships with recognised, trusted and well established national retail brands and intermediaries.
Our ongoing success stems from our continued focus on looking at our offering, listening to what our brokers
and their clients need and putting this at the centre of everything we do. Our engagement with the leadership teams of our key groups, as well as the daily conversations between our BDMs and brokers, provides us with feedback on where we can enhance our offering. Our established national broker advisory board also allows us to see what we’re doing well for our brokers and where we can refine and reposition our offering to stay relevant in the marketplace.
MPA: Your BDMs continue to impress brokers. What makes a Macquarie BDM easier to deal with than those of your competitors?
DL: The focus of our industry-leading business development managers has always been their commitment and availability to their broker relationships. Our BDMs take ownership and accountability to facilitate solutions for their brokers and understand the needs of brokers and their clients. Our BDMs are passionate about their businesses and look for ways to truly add value to their broker relationships by sharing ideas on business growth initiatives, efficiency enhancement and improvements, looking beyond the day to day components of the relationship.
MPA: Many brokers in this survey were members of banks’ elite streams; what does Macquarie’s elite stream offer to brokers?
DL: Macquarie has a program that recognises its key supporting brokers with a specific service, relationship and value proposition, which has been well received in the market. We will continue to refine and enhance the program based on feedback from our brokers to ensure it continues to deliver to the expectations of our brokers, is valuable and recognises the support these brokers provide us.
MPA: Macquarie’s investor lending continues to grow strongly despite APRA’s limit. Are you looking to encourage growth in your lending to owner-occupiers – and why should brokers consider you for their owner-occupier clients?
DL: Macquarie is committed to working with regulators and its distribution partners to help ensure the residential home lending market continues to operate in a responsible and sustainable way. Our growth in owner-occupied lending has been strong and we will continue to encourage further growth by specific offers targeting this segment of lending. We believe we have a competitive offering in the owner-occupied space.
MPA: Two-thirds of brokers didn’t believe the banks dealt with APRA’s changes in a fair way for new and existing customers. Are there any lessons to be learnt in how you communicate interest and policy changes in the future?
DL: We support APRA’s approach to ensuring there is sustainable and prudent lending. We adopted a proactive approach to assist our partners with a better understanding of the potential changes through initial meetings with the heads of our strategic partners to provide a regulatory background update and took them through the changes and what the potential impact of those changes may be. These key meetings were then importantly followed up with a national road show dedicated to explain and educate brokers on the regulatory landscape and the changes and potential impacts, including policy and pricing. We believe that we were on the front foot in advising our brokers of the changes to assist them to incorporate into their future growth plans and strategies.
MPA: Will we be seeing any major improvements or investment in Macquarie’s third party channel in the year ahead? DL: For the year ahead our continued focus is on investing to support our growth, digital capabilities and modernising our technology platform to drive efficiencies and enhance the overall end to end experience. We’re in the process of implementing a Core Banking platform that will help us to broaden our product offering, as well as enhance the overall broker and customer experience through a range of initiatives that will be launched throughout the year.
Customers are increasingly looking to their broker for additional products and services. We’re a strong believer in product diversification and allowing our brokers to provide products and services beyond just home loans so our brokers can expect a far broader range of products from us. In addition, we continue to work closely with our business banking and leasing teams to collaborate and broaden our commercial loans and leasing finance offering.
