Competition for BDMs heats up

Homeloans general manager Ray Hair said that with broker market share growing at the rate it is in the current environment, everybody is focused on the third-party market.

“Most players have a relationship with the broker market to improve their accessibility,” Mr Hair told Mortgage Business.

“It’s about fostering that relationship with the broker, having BDMs that understand the process, having the credit and sales relationship that is seamless,” he said, adding that while competition for good BDMs is on the rise, there are key differences between the skills required of a major lender BDM and a second-tier BDM.

“The bigger banks have a generally more centralised and process driven approach to it, so their BDMs are a lot more relationship driven and the broker knows what they are going to get, good and bad,” Mr Hair said. “Whereas a non-major BDM needs to be more multi-skilled.”

“On the one hand you have competition for BDMs but you’ve also got two segments of that competition for a type of BDM.

“Some BDMs are much more suited to one of the other style of lender arrangements.

“I think that is where it is very important that the fit is right,” he said.