BDM support at record high, brokers say

Satisfaction with business development managers at the lenders reached record high levels in March, new data reveals.

The latest Broker Pulse survey, conducted by Momentum Media’s research department, Momentum Intelligence, revealed that business development managers (BDMs) are increasingly delighting brokers.

The 245 residential brokers surveyed between 1 April and 14 April were asked to rate their experiences with lender BDMs, considering their BDMs level of expertise, responsiveness and communication.

Overall, BDMs were rated a score of 56, equalling a record high first set in October 2021.

Brokers indicated that Bankwest continues to set the standard amongst the most commonly used banks (defined as “large banks” in the survey) when it comes to BDM support, with 95 percent of respondents reporting a positive experience.

This was closely followed by Macquarie Bank, whose BDMs received a 92 per cent positive experiences with their brokers.

According to the data, less commonly used authorised deposit-taking institutions (ADIs)

continued to perform strongly too. BDMs at non-major lender Newcastle Permanent achieved the best result, receiving a 100 per cent broker approval rating in March.

BDM support at four of the banks in this lender segment improved on previous months, while five of the less commonly used ADIs recorded a decrease in the number of negative broker experiences reported by respondents.

The segment as a whole has seen six lenders with no negative broker experiences recorded against them, an improvement of the five from February. 

Credit assessors also fared well over March, achieving their second-highest broker rating, 47.

While this was down on the record level set in February (when the rating for credit assessors was a record high of 48), this equates to a 17 point jump from the rating received in March 2021.

The scores further highlight the continuation of the improvement the segment has seen since the start the year, when ratings were around 32.

Macquarie Bank recorded the highest percentage of positive broker experience when it came to credit assessors among the large ADIs with 98 per cent of respondents reporting a positive experience. The Commonwealth Bank of Australia (CBA) followed in second place, with its credit assessors receiving an 89 per cent positive broker experience. 

Overall, seven of the most commonly used ADIs reported an increase in positive experience responses for their credit assessors, with only one bank, Suncorp, holding the same positive experience rating as they had in February. 

ME Bank was one of the big improvers among the more commonly used ADIs when it came to broker experience rating, with the positive experience with credit assessors jumping to 79 per cent and its negative experience decreasing to four per cent throughout March. 

Of the less commonly used banks, Auswide Bank was on top, with 100 per cent broker experience rating. 

This increase in positive experience ranking correlates to a decrease in negative experience ratings recorded by five of the less commonly used ADIs, with Auswide Bank correspondingly experiencing the largest decrease in negative broker experiences, followed by MyState.

Nine lenders in this segment saw an increase in positive broker experiences for March.

Among the non-ADIs, credit assessors at Connective Home Loans maintained their 100 per cent positive broker experience rating for the second consecutive month, while two other lenders also improving their positive broker rating in March. 

Moreover, four non-ADIs received a decrease in their negative broker experience ratings for credit assessment throughout March, taking the total number of non-ADIs with no negative broker experience to five. 

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Original on The Adviser.