Increasingly, brokers are using digital platforms to speed up the loans they secure for their clients. With even more game-changing enhancements expected, here’s what to look out for and how brokers can take advantage
In a competitive world, almost every business has customers expecting more – with speed, simplicity and flexibility often at the top of the list. Broking is no exception.
Seizing the opportunity for faster, simpler and more flexible business operations, broker Chris Fuentes (pictured, above) of Sentient Finance is an avid user of technology and automation in his own business. Yet, he sees the need for lenders to do more to save brokers time and effort by digitising their processes.
“I really would love to see more technology-driven simplicity in business banking. Lending needs more automation, faster decisions, and fewer people involved,” Fuentes says.
Fuentes’s insight is consistent with what Ivan Mioc, Managing Director, Commercial Broker & Origination, ANZ hears from other brokers.
“Brokers want more than just digital tools. They’re looking for frictionless end-to-end digital application processes and workflow management,” Mioc says.
Rapid borrowing certainty
Being able to deliver a lending decision to a business client quickly is critical for Fuentes, “because business owners don't always forecast. They don’t know what their problems are going to be next week or the week after that. It's a very agile space.”
Mioc (pictured, below) agrees that lenders must accelerate their lending decisions and “give brokers and their clients the rapid borrowing certainty they’re looking for. A fast ‘yes’ or, in some cases, a fast ‘no’.”
Achieving this decision speed requires lenders to do much more than transition older legacy processes to a new system.
“Instead, application processes have to be reengineered from the ground up, data must be intelligently analysed and external data and other services fed in,” Mioc explains.
The last few years have seen digital capabilities streamline how brokers do business. Fuentes points to a technology platform that he advises his clients use three to four times a month to get fast, unsecured finance up to $500,000 with a tier 1 lender.
“A client will say, ‘I've just got this contract, it commences in a week. I need funding to buy the stock for it.’ I advise they use ANZ GoBiz to turn these applications around in 15 to 30 mins. They're the quickest loans that I recommend,” Fuentes says.
It’s this real time decisioning that’s central to ANZ GoBiz’s appeal. “Generally, it's a conditionally approved ‘congratulations’ from ANZ GoBiz. And then usually within a day or two it's approved, with contracts out that afternoon,” Fuentes says.
Fuentes isn’t alone. The uptake of ANZ’s GoBiz digital lending platform since it launched has been steadily growing. Designed initially for a small subset of unsecured lending scenarios, today ANZ GoBiz supports a broad range of commercial loans, overdrafts, credit cards and asset finance facilities up to $500,000.
“With GoBiz, you get the same flexible options as you would with any other channel. Loans come with terms up to seven years with a choice of fixed, variable and interest-only options,” explains Jeremy Wolfe (pictured, below), Digital Platforms Lead, ANZ.
Brokers are also using ANZ GoBiz to increase the likelihood of a loan getting approved. When a customer connects their accounting software data to GoBiz, ANZ performs a real time serviceability assessment and informs the customer exactly what their borrowing power is. This is before they've submitted an application, before ANZ has checked their credit file or it's cost the customer any money.
"That means that if a broker referred a customer who wanted $500,000, but ANZ thought that the most they could afford was, say, $420,000, ANZ would limit the application to that amount, maximising the customer’s prospects of getting approved,” Wolfe explains.
Digital innovations to look out for
The end-to-end broker value chain is being radically transformed, with a raft of enhancements planned for release. “We plan to expand ANZ GoBiz’s underpinning technology and capability to more customers and loan types, in addition to other enhancements,” Wolfe says. Brokers should look out for:
- Faster lending for existing customers: “We’re working to give existing ANZ customers a faster path to lending, as we’ll analyse the transaction data that we already have for them. This means they won't need to share any external financial data,” Wolfe explains.
- Direct application lodgement: Brokers will be able to submit applications in a frictionless, fast, streamlined way. “ANZ is designing a specific broker experience with an intuitive workflow, where brokers will be able to apply on behalf of their clients – directly lodging applications – starting with asset finance,” Wolfe says.
- Portfolio-wide expanded broker portal capabilities: In future, brokers will be able to see and manage their ANZ pipeline and the total portfolio they've introduced to ANZ. This is because brokers often support their clients across all their needs – commercial and retail, as Wolfe explains. “We plan to expand our broker portal from its initial capability of providing policy and process information to enable brokers to see in-flight applications, understand their status, manage fulfilment and take other actions conveniently and swiftly.”
- Applications via CITOPlus: Brokers will also be able to apply for ANZ loans via the CITOPlus industry platform. “Working across the industry, ANZ has partnered with CITOPlus to make applications easier, quicker, more transparent for aggregator groups and brokers,” Wolfe says. This means brokers will have a choice between an industry platform or an ANZ application platform – where they benefit from ANZ’s data capabilities and other differentiators.
Experience the digital revolution
Learn more about the digital improvements ANZ is making for you and your clients. Speak to your Broker Account Manager today about GoBiz and ANZ’s other innovations or read more here.
Disclaimer
This is general information. ANZ is not giving advice or recommendations, and we haven’t taken into account your customers’ clients’ needs, financial circumstances or objectives. You and your clients should carefully consider which ANZ products are appropriate for them and should seek appropriate independent advice (which may include property, legal, financial, taxation and accounting advice) before making any decisions, investing, or acting on it. Terms and conditions, fees and charges, and credit approval and eligibility criteria apply to ANZ products.
