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ISSUE 6.23 December 2009
A mortgage manager boost?
The jury is out on
the ‘advantages’ of Advantedge’s products Advantedge’s recent product enhancements should deliver a much-needed boost to the troubled mortgage manager sector, according to key participants – though not everyone is convinced. This mixed assessment follows Advantedge introducing a raft of product enhancements into the market at the end of November – including the availability of
80% (full) and 60% (low-doc) LVRs without LMI, competitive construction and vacant land loans and a range of new fixedrate terms. Managing director at Club Financial Services Andrew Clouston described the move as being “very significant” and that it meant mortgage managers could now “get out there again, put a face in the market and attract more customers”. “For many mortgage managers out there who have been doing it tough over the past year…this is a shot in the arm,” he told AB.
“Other wholesale funders, other than Advantedge, still exist on mortgage managers’ panels, so the pie is now bigger.” Clouston said that having 85% to 90% of the market was “just too much” for the majors, and customers needed an alternative. “And this is what NAB offers to Advantedge and in turn to brokers and customers,” he said. Iain Forbes, director at AFM, said the move was both “significant and comforting” in that it restored a level of competition against the banks. “In recent times there were some concerns with the nonbanks. However, the fact that Advantedge is now supporting the non-banks restores the confidence the marketplace has been looking for from them,” he said. Business volumes at AFM are already up, and so confident is Forbes that this trend will continue, that he has begun recruiting credit staff. However, Gerald Foley managing director at National Mortgage Brokers, called the move “still just major bank dominance disguised as some form of false consumer competition”. True competition would only be back when lenders, who were non-aligned with the majors, could sit in the market with competitive products, he said. Page 28 cont.
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