Here's what four non-bank bosses have to say
In a challenging economic environment where borrowers find it tougher to get access to finance, non-banks play an important role in catering to those clients who don’t fit the model of a typical bank borrower.
But how should alternative lenders educate the market about non-banks? Here’s what four non-bank leaders have to say.
Ian Boyce, Avanti Finance general manager property, said non-banks must be active in the marketplace, have regular and relevant conversations with advisers, understand their requirements, and explain what non-banks do.
Read more: More borrowers make the switch to non-banks
“This includes participating in professional development days, discussing and workshopping deals, being part of their conversations – listening to what they need and gathering feedback so that we can constantly improve,” Boyce said.
Craig Rolls, Basecorp Finance head of lending, said the non-bank has steered away from complex product sets that require significant adviser education.
“Instead, our preference is to offer vanilla mortgage products that are easily understandable by advisers,” Rolls said. “This approach is in line with our focus on simplicity in everything we do. Ultimately, we think it’s about building trust and confidence in the wider non-bank sector, and we continue to aim to contribute to this through our lending interactions.”
Sam Burgess, First Mortgage Trust (FMT) head of lending, pointed to visibility and awareness as the key.
“There’s more awareness around non-bank lenders and their offering, which is fantastic for the overall industry,” Burgess said. “FMT have strong NZ-wide representation through our BDM network, and we actively participate in adviser training on a one-to-one basis through webinars and at conferences with market updates.”
FMT sees further opportunities for more advisers to include non-bank lenders to their suite of products and conversations to be able to provide their clients with a full-service proposition.
Luke Jackson, general manager of Resimac New Zealand, said Resimac and fellow non-banks offer no shortage of support for advisers.
“It’s essential that we continue to provide the adviser community with as much support, resources, and education as we can,” Jackson said.
One common challenge though, according to advisers, was that clients can sometimes be averse to going with a lender that isn’t a well-known bank.
“We invested in a big mainstream marketing push last year to build not only our brand but also awareness of non-banks in general to consumers,” Jackson said. “This included a ‘letter to the banks,’ which ran as a tongue-in-cheek print ad in the main broadsheet newspapers to pull them up on how they implemented changes to the CCCFA.”
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