Bluestone and NZFSG cut down turnaround times

That’s great for Bluestone and their application process is not overly complicated as they have one of the simplest mortgage applications in the industry , I think what Bluestone and NZFSG need to be weary of with the modern digital age is the fact that the data they are collecting especially banking and income information is very personal in nature and customers / nz consumers need to understand where their personal banking information is going and what third parties are in receipt of this data.
Under the Privacy act in New Zealand consumers have a basic right to know where their data is going, NZFSG advisers have a minimum requirement to declare this in their personal disclosure statements before sending or loading clients information offshore, if they don’t the customer has no idea their personal information is being loaded into a cloud based CRM system in Australia that’s own by a real estate company and then forwarded on to a lenders platform .
I would say 90% of G advisers are not providing this information in detail to the consumer and I wonder if this creates privacy issues for the lender associated as they are party to and accepting of the customers information with out the customer knowing what parties are involved in receiving personal banking info.
Maybe the new regulation requirements will tidy this up
We are in a digital age so let’s get it right from the beginning.

It’s all well and good for a dealer group to talk about the improvement of turnaround times for applications sent via their CRM, however the reality is unless the mortgage adviser is actually disclosing to their customers which third parties are in receipt of their personal and financial they are going to come unstuck very quickly under a licensed regime.

Under the new code of professional conduct for financial services part 1 ethical behaviour, conduct and client care all advisers must protect their client’s information. Failure to let a customer know about any and all third parties who are in receipt of their personal and financial is going to be an instant own goal for an adviser and his or her business.

As valkyrie6 points out correctly advisers who are currently failing to disclose to their customers the above are already in breach of their obligations under the Privacy Act. I would be extremely nervous if I was an adviser currently using a group owned CRM to send loan applications to the lenders and I was not already disclosing to my customers which third parties were in receipt of their personal and financial information. Especially if my group happened to be owned by real estate agents in Australia.

When it comes to this subject ignorance or naivety on the part of the adviser isn’t likely to count for much with either the FMA or the Privacy Commissioner and last time I checked customers ranked the security of their personal and financial information before that of any loan approval they are given.

The future when it comes to mortgage advisers sending loan applications to lenders is clearly for the banks etc. to build their own portals which will see an adviser logging in and sending an application directly to a bank without any involvement of a group owned CRM. One only has to look at the Partners Life launch this week of their new online application system i.e. MUM which is completely independent of any group owned CRM and has massive benefits to both the adviser and their client in terms of improved underwriting times.

BNZ make it compulsory for all NZFSG advisers to submit all applications via there web based CRM, if customers are unaware of this transaction does any liability fall on the BNZ regarding a breech of the privacy act, can anyone tell me ?