BNK reports multichannel settlement growth

BNK Banking Corp Ltd has released its full-year results for the 2019 financial year (FY19), posting a net profit after tax of $3.6 million, up from a loss of $410,000 in the previous corresponding period.

The improvement in the group’s underlying performance was driven by positive settlement and loan portfolio growth via its direct and third-party mortgage businesses.

The group’s direct business, BNK Bank, reported settlement growth of 61.2 per cent to $74.5 million, taking its loan book to $214.3 million.

BNK Ltd’s wholesale business, Better Choice Home Loans, recorded settlement growth of 49.9 per cent to $578.4 million, which helped lift Better Choice’s portfolio to $2.3 billion.

Further, the group’s aggregation business, Finsure, reported settlement growth of 5 per cent to $12.6 billion, bolstering its loan book by $6.3 billion to $38 billion.

As a result, the group posted combined settlement growth of 6.6 per cent to $13.2 billion, which helped lift its combined loan book by 18.9 per cent to $40.6 billion.

Reflecting on the underlying result, BNK managing director Simon Lyons said: “This result has been nearly four years in the making, which has seen us invest in technology and smart people to improve processes and create efficiency.

“We have become an agile banking group that can react at speed to the changing needs and circumstances of our customers, and we have distribution at scale.

“The business also invested significantly in people, systems and platforms, with operating expenditure growth expected to slow – contributing to future operating leverage.”

Mr Lyons said the group is eyeing further growth by focusing on its target market.

“Our target market is not defined by age demographics but rather is a mix of people who, as a combined group, we call ‘enterprising Australians’,” he said.

“These are customers who have unique needs and, often by nature of their employment or business arrangements, have complex or unusual financial affairs.

“These are high-value customers, but, often, bigger banks have little capability to properly assess and understand the customers’ position.”

Mr Lyons also noted BNK’s plans to further enhance its systems capabilities to improve processing efficiencies.  

“We aim to keep building our systems and processes and employ good people who can properly assess these customers and assist them with faster turnaround times than other banks and in a more personal way,” he said.

“This is an underserviced market, which is a bonus for us; customers are value-focused rather than priced-focused – of course they want value for money, but turnaround times, service and post settlement customer care are also important to them, as are the right products that address their unique needs.”

[Related: BNK appoints new board director]