Broker channel working for BNZ

While the bank has not disclosed how much business it has written in the first four months of using brokers it is around the $180 million and $200 million mark.

The bank has disclosed about 0.4% of its home loans has come through third party distribution.

BNZ chief executive Anthony Healy confirmed TMM Online’s figures were about right.

The bank has an exclusive agreement with the NZ Financial Services Group, which includes Loan Market. Eighty of the original 107 advisers who were accredited in the first intake have been writing business for BNZ.

In the past couple of weeks a further 90 advisers have been accredited and the roll out plan is to have 350 by February next year.

All the accredited advisers are in either Auckland or Wellington.

BNZ chief financial officer Adrienne Duarte said applications were running at five times what was expected and 70% of the customers are new to bank.

In addition to embracing third party distribution BNZ has put on 30 new mobile mortgage managers, mainly in Auckland where the bank has the smallest physical network of all the big banks.

First billion dollar profit
BNZ has, for the first time ever, reported an annual profit of more than $1 billion. It says statutory net profit was $1.04 billion for the 12 months to September 30.

Healy said this was made in a “testing and competitive environment” and was underpinned by strong performances in its three core businesses; SME, housing and markets.

He says the year has been one of “building foundations – we’ve made bold strategic decisions and investments which will set us up for success in future years. Returning to the broker market was one of these decisions. Others were the launch of the BNZ Advantage card and rewards programme, investments in core technology and digital.

He says BNZ has the biggest digital team of all the banks and one of the biggest in New Zealand.

Healy says it is “inevitable” that banking will face digital disruption challenges to their businesses and he wanted BNZ to be capable of dealing with the changes.

During the year net interest income increased 7.5%, driven by growth in business and housing volumes, and an increase in net interest margin (NIM). NIM increased five basis points to 2.39% for the year, driven by lower funding costs.

Healy said that was partially offset by shifts in the bank’s portfolio mix from floating to fixed rate loans.

The proportion of variable rate loans has fallen from 25.5% in the March quarter to 23.1% in September, while fixed rate lending has risen 2.7% to account for 73.5% of loans at September 30.

BNZ has pledged $1 billion of lending to support housing growth in Auckland, including a range of initiatives targeted at the delivery of affordable housing solutions.