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BNZ reveals how much broker business it has banked

BNZ chief executive Anthony Healy says the bank's re-entry to the broker market has gone well and it should have gone in earlier.

The bank said in its results yesterday that 40% of its home loan flows were coming from mortgage advisers. For the first time ever it has officially revealed the numbers saying $650 million worth of home loans has been written by brokers in the six months to March 31.

These flows have given BNZ "real momentum" in the Auckland market where it had traditionally been under-weight, chief financial officer Adrienne Durante said.

"The big driver is the re-entry of broker".

She said the bank's growth in Auckland was up 12.9% in the six month period and that had contributed to a six basis point increase in home loan lending overall.

While it was a modest gain in market share it is " the beginning of our momentum where we have arrested the market share loss and it has started to convert to growth."

She said the pick up in broker-originated business had also been escalated by the LVR restriction imposed by the Reserve Bank.

BNZ pulled out of the broker market 12 years ago and only re-entered it in the past year with a partnership with NZ Financial Services. Healy said BNZ should have entered this market earlier: "Yes we probably should have done it earlier."

He says the bank is getting its share of business and that would continue to grow as it brought on more advisers.

BNZ won’t deal with all the market, he said.

"We're just going to focus on the best aggregators and the best brokers," Healy said. "We are not going to have 100% coverage."

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