BNK Bank forms alliance with Goldman Sachs

BNK Bank has announced that it has reached a non-binding agreement in principle with Goldman Sachs on the key commercial terms for an initial term of five years.

According to BNK Bank, under the alliance with the financial institution, it aims to originate, fund and securitise residential mortgages in Australia.

As part of this alliance, Goldman Sachs will provide funding and act as arranger, structuring agent and distributor, while BNK Bank will act as originator, service and trust manager for a securitisation program with an uncommitted facility limit of $500 million, BNK Bank said in an announcement to the ASX.

It added that the alliance is subject to the agreement and execution of formal transaction documents, which it said are currently being finalised. It said that it would make a further announcement in due course.

Commenting on the alliance with Goldman Sachs, BNK Bank CEO Brett Morgan said: “This alliance is a strong endorsement of the scale, uniqueness and value of BNK’s residential mortgage lending capabilities.”

BNK Bank recently partnered with Bendigo and Adelaide Bank and Blackstone for a $250-million prime residential mortgage warehouse program, marking its first warehouse and securitisation program.

The program has a three-year availability period (subject to annual reviews), the bank said.

In its trading update for the third quarter of the 2021 financial year (3QFY21), BNK Group reported that its total loan book was at $54.6 billion, up 19.1 per cent year-on-year, and 4.0 per cent quarter-on-quarter.

[Related: BNK’s loan book hits $50bn]

Malavika Santhebennur is the features editor on the mortgages titles at Momentum Media.

Before joining the team in 2019, Malavika held roles with Money Management and Benchmark Media. She has been writing about financial services for the past six years.