"Mortgage brokers can’t get loans from Bank Direct – unless, of course, it’s for their own homes," says the ASB Bank subsidiary’s current television advertisement.
Jim Anderson at Bank Direct insists that his bank’s isn’t an anti-broker strategy.
"We wanted to establish where we were in the market. We’ve been no brokers, no branches since our inception in 1997," Anderson says.
"Now is an opportune time to reinforce to the market where we’re coming from. There does seem to be a bit of confusion in the market as to who’s offering what."
Bank Direct is currently offering a two-year fixed rate of 7.2% compared with BNZ’s 7.15%, although the latter’s promise to beat any two-year fixed rate offered by the other major banks specifically excludes Bank Direct.
Meanwhile, the Commerce Commission has declined to pursue the New Zealand Mortgage Brokers Association’s complaint about BNZ’s advertising.
NZMBA chairman Geoff Bawden says the association will continue to monitor BNZ’s advertising. "The reality is, they’re having a go at us."
He finds the timing of the Bank Direct advertisement "quite frustrating. I don’t think there’s a broker out there that likes a bank to come out and say, we don’t deal with brokers."
However, ASB itself and its other subsidiary, Sovereign, which only deals with brokers, are very supportive of what brokers do, Bawden says.
And Bank Direct is only stating what has always been the case, he says.
