Non-major bank hits ‘record month’ for digital home loans

Bendigo and Adelaide Bank’s BEN Express product delivered a record $60.7 million in digital home loans and received over 500 home loan applications in March.

BEN Express is a fully digital loan offering, which provides quick online approvals powered by the Tic:Toc platform.

BEN Express is available to customers looking to buy or refinance an established property with an LVR of 90 per cent or below with a maximum lending facility of $3 million.

Bendigo Bank chief customer officer consumer banking Richard Fennell said the non-major understood how important a timely “decision to yes” is for customers during a time when property market activity is picking up.

“We see digital home loans as a key component of the lending products we offer at Bendigo and Adelaide Bank and are pleased to see customers embracing BEN Express in this way,” Mr Fennell said.

“We acknowledge that for many of our customers, digital is never going to replace face-to-face banking, an area Bendigo and Adelaide Bank excels in, however BEN Express has enabled us to respond to changing customer preferences by offering services which are digital by design and human when it matters.”

Former Brighten head of distribution appointed

Bendigo and Adelaide Bank recently appointed former Brighten Home Loans head of distribution Natalie Sheehan as its new national manager of broker distribution.

Ms Sheehan, who was most recently the head of distribution at non-bank lender Brighten Home Loans, began her new role in the third-party banking division (led by general manager Darren Kasehagen) on Monday (20 March).

She took over the position from Raj Kapoor, who left the banking group in January to become the head of broker distribution at Athena Home Loans.

However, as national manager of broker distribution, Ms Sheehan is also responsible for the management of the strategic partnerships team and relationships with the major aggregator partners that utilise Adelaide Bank for their white label offering (such as Connective Home Loans Select, AFG Home Loans Alpha, Aussie Elevate, etc).

Confirming the new appointment, Mr Kasehagen flagged Ms Sheehan’s extensive experience in leading high-performing national sales teams within the third-party industry.

He commented: “Natalie is a well-regarded and experienced finance professional who showed a great passion to join our team and broader organisation.”

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