One of the results of the banks’s desire to cut costs involved with mortgages originated through mortgage brokers has been a drive to enable brokers to lodge applications directly online.
None of the banks here are there yet, although National Bank and ANZ Bank say they are close – they won’t say exactly when they will be ready – and ANZ and Westpac already have such systems operating in Australia.
Brian Robb, head of mortgage distribution at ANZ, says there are a number of other benefits likely to come from online applications including convenience, quicker response times and quality.
"From our point of view, we already have an online lodgement tracking system. The natural development of that is to have an online lodgement system," Robb says.
Tom Roberts, manager of mobile banking and alliances at ASB Bank, says the big problem is "your security must be of a high standard. We’ve got to stop hackers getting into it."
His bank will be launching a new computer system for its front line staff next year which he claims will put ASB "a proverbial mile ahead" of its competitors and it may then develop the ability for broker-originated online applications.
"The ultimate dream is for a third party originator to be able to key it straight into the mainframe, but that’s some time off yet," Roberts says.
Niki Hodge at Westpac says the New Zealand bank’s IT systems are different from those of its Australian parent. "We’re currently just at the review stage," she says.
