PLAN Australia strengthens lending panel

25 Nov 2011

PLAN Australia has ramped up its broker proposition with the appointment of building society Wide Bay Australia to its lending panel.

The appointment of the building society – Australia’s fifth and Queensland’s second largest – reflects the aggregator’s ongoing commitment to providing its members with a full and diverse lender offering.

In an increasingly competitive mortgage market, PLAN Australia CEO Trevor Scott said it was fundamental for aggregators to deliver members access to lenders and products that cater to all segments of the market.

The addition of Wide Bay to PLAN Australia’s lending panel will further enhance its members’ customer proposition, he said.

“We have long been focused on ensuring our members have access to a range of products that suit every borrower’s needs. The wider our panel offering, the greater the capabilities of our members to enhance their client proposition and write more business,” he said.

“Wide Bay provides a range of competitive and flexible products backed by an experienced and responsive BDM team that we are excited to offer to our members.

“In addition, it gives depth to our lender panel by way of an established credit union. Credit unions have long been favoured by Australian borrowers; through adding Wide Bay to our panel our members can now meet the needs of clients that seek credit union products. ”

National Operations Manager for PLAN Australia Brett Mansfield said the addition of Wide Bay to its lending panel was a direct result of the aggregator’s member engagement.

“Where we see a gap, or where we receive feedback from members regarding a certain lender’s products, we look to move on that,” he said.

Mr Mansfield said PLAN Australia had received a number of member enquiries regarding Wide Bay, particularly their impressive product offering for first home buyers.

“Their ability to cater for first home buyers with high LVR products, the option for capitalised LMI, and consideration of non-genuine savings, are all very compelling,” he said.

Commenting on the announcement, Wide Bay Manager of Structured Finance and Interstate Operations, Dale Hancock, said the new alliance with PLAN Australia would enable the building society to further grow its national footprint.

In particular, Mr Hancock highlighted the third party distribution channel as a pivotal avenue for increasing Wide Bay’s presence throughout the country.

“We are looking at growing our geographic spread across Australia and strategic relationships such as ours with PLAN Australia are key to achieving our growth plans and goals,” he said.

As well as the Wide Bay panel addition, Mr Mansfield said PLAN Australia expected to announce a new lender relationship before the new year.

“We regularly examine and review our lender panel to determine where there are gaps in the market that we could be better covering,” he said.

“We’re actually looking at another lender right now and hope to have some news on that before Christmas.”