Streamlined data sharing speeds up mortgages: Bankwest

In a recent episode of the Mortgage and Finance Leader podcast, Ian Rakhit, the general manager of third-party banking at Bankwest, emphasised the importance of leveraging data and real-time collaboration with mortgage brokers to reduce duplication and speed up the assessment process.

“One of the ways forward that I think will benefit everybody is our ability to see what brokers see in terms of document collection,” Mr Rakhit said.

“Especially as we start to use data more than physical documents and then actually just verify that on the spot with the broker.”

By sharing and cross-referencing information with brokers, banks would then be able to streamline the assessment of mortgage applications, eliminating the need for redundant data validation.

“We’re putting a lot of our investment into how we really speed up and avoid that duplication,” Mr Rakhit pointed out.

He said this approach would enable the bank to establish common standards for credit reporting, valuations, and identification procedures, making the collaboration between the bank and brokers more efficient.

“You then get to a stage where you can approve things immediately because you’re not having to revalidate what the broker’s done,” Mr Rakhit said.

“I hope I will see some of the decrease in work for brokers because of the way that data is starting to permeate.”

Mr Rakhit, who has over 30 years of experience in the mortgage industry both in the UK with Halifax and Australia at Bankwest also highlighted the efficiency in lodgements has speed up, partly due to bank’s ‘upping their game’.

“I think we put far more time into training people before we let them loose on broker applications than I think obviously we’ve done,” Mr Rakhit said.

“I never hear of silly things that our validators are asking for. If they want something, the broker can understand why they want it.”

However, he noted that wasn’t necessarily the case five years ago.

“That’s our problem as leaders of the business … [But] I think we’ve got a lot better,” Mr Rakhit said.

“I think we’ve made it clearer what we require from a broker in terms of collection of documents, which I don’t think we necessarily did.

“Lenders are really stepping up in terms of making it simple for brokers to lodge, get it right and then get an outcome really quickly.”

Brokers diversifying

While brokers write more than 70 per cent in residential loans, Mr Rakhit noted many were also diversifying to strengthen their offering.

“Brokers are embracing diversification … these may still be smaller shares than the 70 per cent in residential home loans but they are growing and they’re growing at a real pace,” Mr Rakhit said.

“I think diversification in general is becoming a bigger topic.

“I see a lot of brokers diversifying income into things like asset finance, commercial lending, and a number have stepped into wealth space.

“There are definitely a lot of brokers doing some really good roles protecting, but I think it’s probably in its infancy in Australia, where it’s far more established, part of the UK brokers.”

In addition, he commended brokers’ success to their “entrepreneurship” and being “incredibly hard workers” allowing them to get repeat business because of that.

“It’s building that brand and that proposition that says we can do all of these things for you and we can give you choice,” Mr Rakhit said

You can hear more at MORTGAGE AND FINANCE LEADER: The lessons Ian Rakhit has learned from the UK and Australian mortgage markets or listen below.