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Clients can estimate what they spend each month, but few can accurately piece together every recurring payment, debt, subscription and irregular expense across multiple accounts.
The challenge for brokers is turning fragmented information into a clear view of a client’s position early enough to shape the right strategy.
Open banking changes that starting point. With a client’s consent, bank-sourced account and transaction data can provide brokers with a more complete view of income, spending, balances and recurring commitments earlier in the process.
It reduces guesswork for clients and back and forth for brokers. Across Connective’s network, brokers using open banking have reduced this process from around two hours to 10 to 15 minutes.
But the real value is not just about making the process faster. It is in helping brokers move beyond collecting information to interpreting it, testing assumptions and choosing the right path sooner.
Turning information into better decisions
Open banking gives brokers a more precise basis for the customer conversation. A large transfer might be rent, a reimbursement, an internal transfer or temporary family support, while higher spending, irregular income or unexpected commitments can influence serviceability, lender options, documentation and client expectations.
With a more complete view of the customer’s financial position, the broker can test the context earlier and shape a strategy that fits the client’s circumstances.
The value is not simply finding a mismatch earlier. It is giving the broker time to address it before effort, expectations and client confidence are tied to an approach that may need to change.
In some cases, the context confirms the original approach. In others, it changes the amount being sought, the product being considered or the timing of the application.
Reducing friction throughout the client journey
Better data can only improve the conversation when clients have confidence in how their information is being used.
Through Connective’s Mercury Nexus platform, brokers can send customers a secure open banking request to share banking information without asking them to enter or disclose their banking password. Data is shared through the regulated Consumer Data Right system, reducing the risk and inconvenience of password sharing.
Customers remain in control. They must give explicit consent before their data can be accessed, and they decide what information is shared, who receives it, how it can be used and how long access continues. They can also withdraw consent at any time.
This balance between access and control is central to building confidence in open banking and ensuring better data can support better advice conversations.
The practical value is also reflected in broker adoption. In the six months after open banking launched in Mercury Nexus, adoption increased by 620 per cent, with more than 70,000 client requests submitted. This reflects the value brokers see in a more efficient and transparent way to gather the information needed for better client conversations.
Supporting the relationship beyond the transaction
The value of better information does not stop once finance is secured. It gives brokers a clearer view of how a client’s circumstances may change, helping them stay connected beyond the transaction.
That visibility can help brokers identify when a client may need a review, when a new opportunity is emerging, or when a timely conversation could prevent a client from drifting away.
Since brokers across the Connective network gained the ability to capture and track review opportunities more systematically, review activity has increased by 60 per cent. Over the same period, brokers have retained 20 per cent more clients and re-engaged a further 8 per cent, showing how better visibility can translate into stronger, more proactive relationships.
Technology that supports the evolving broker role
The next phase of broking will not be defined by technology alone. It will be defined by how effectively brokers use technology to create room for better judgement, stronger advice and more timely client conversations.
Connective is focused on giving brokers technology that works in the background to simplify complexity, surface the right insights sooner and create more time for the advice-led conversations that lead to better customer outcomes.
Chin Hui Yeo is chief technology officer at aggregator, Connective.
[Related: ATO data sharing in CDR is key to fighting fraud, majors say]
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