But there are several reasons to believe that advisers likely account for more than 60% of ASB's net new mortgages.
One is that ASB has relied heavily on advisers for expanding beyond its home market in Auckland and has generally been supportive of the advisory industry, especially in the regions.
Another is that ANZ reported that advisers accounted for 59% of its net new mortgages in the six months ended March 31 and Westpac NZ reported that advisers originated 64% of its net new mortgages.
In February, Kiwibank said about 70% of its mortgages by volume were coming from advisers with 47% coming from third party advisers and the rest from sister company NZ Home Loans.
Even BNZ, which has always been ambivalent about dealing with advisers and appears to be going through a decidedly cool period currently, reported that advisers accounted for 42% of its net new mortgage business.
According to the Reserve Bank's bank financial strength dashboard, ASB claimed 21.1% of the mortgage market at March 31, ANZ held 30.2%, Westpac 18.7%, BNZ 16.9% and Kiwibank 7.8%.
If my guess is correct, and ASB is relying on advisers for more than 60% of its new mortgage business, that wouldn't sit very comfortably with the aggressive anti-broker stance its parent, Commonwealth Bank of Australia (CBA) has taken (advisers are still called brokers in Australia).
While about 76% of all Australian mortgages are originated by brokers, they accounted for only 34% of CBA's home loan funding – CBA claims 52% of the “total market proprietary flow.”
CBA also repeated its assertion that broker-originated loans are less profitable than those sourced from its own branch network and other proprietary channels – it claims that broker loans are between 20% and 30% less profitable than through proprietary channels.
Given that brokers are paid only for applications that are settled, and CBA's proprietary channels deal with other sorts of business as well as mortgage origination, at least some of that not leading to profitable activity, I find its assertion about profitability to be dubious.
In February, Kiwibank chief executive Steve Jurkovich said the difference in cost between proprietary and adviser origination was “marginal.”
So, all in all, my guess is ASB's reason for not disclosing its adviser-originated business is to avoid embarrassing its parent.
But New Zealand advisers could well be envious of the service CBA is extending to Australian brokers.
CBA says it automatically approves about 70% of proprietary mortgages on the same day of application and and less than three days to deliver the first decision on all applications, both proprietary and originated by brokers.
