Credit Union Australia (CUA) has issued $1.06bn in mortgage lending for owner occupiers and investors in the six months prior to 31 December 2016.
Talking about the firm’s half yearly financial results released yesterday (8 March), Natasha Kelso, CUA national manager for broker, said that 32% of all mortgage lending during this period – around $339m – was via the broker channel.
This was down slightly from the share of broker-originated lending in the previous half yearly period which equated to around 40%, she said.
“It’s important to CUA that we provide new and existing members with a choice of channels in which to obtain a home loan. Brokers are an important part of that mix and CUA is exploring opportunities to increase our third-party relationships in 2017.”
The credit union’s focus on improving relationships with brokers throughout the latter half of 2016 included a national roadshow to educate brokers about CUA and its recent lending policy changes, she told Australian Broker.
“Following this roadshow, we’ve seen an increase in applications through the broker channel since November. This is now flowing through to higher volumes of new loans being settled in the first few months of 2017.”
CUA has also trialled a program to speed up the ‘time to yes’ for applications submitted through the broker channel, she said.
Furthermore, the credit union has also been progressively rolling out its new home loan origination platform to all CUE lenders and branches nationally since July.
“[This platform] is yet to be made available to the broker channel – this phase of the rollout is scheduled for early 2018, which will deliver a more streamlined, digital process for borrowers.”
