Bluestone reinforces its dedication to non-traditional borrowers

Bluestone has operated effectively servicing customers with unique financial situations—whether they have an imperfect credit history, are self-employed, have a complex income structure that doesn’t fit the rigid criteria of traditional lenders. This is the point of difference between Bluestone and traditional lenders.

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Bluestone has operated effectively servicing customers with unique financial situations—whether they have an imperfect credit history, are self-employed, have a complex income structure that doesn’t fit the rigid criteria of traditional lenders. This is the point of difference between Bluestone and traditional lenders.

Tony MacRae
Bluestone’s chief commercial officer

Bluestone’s niche caters to “ultimate low-doc style lending. So, owners of small businesses that have established within two years don’t necessarily have full accounts or audited accounts, they’re an absolutely key part for us,” said Bluestone’s chief commercial officer Tony MacRae.

“In fact, alt-doc lending accounts for about 60-odd percent. And then we’ve got customers that may have had a poor credit history, some issues that have gone wrong or they’ve got varying forms of income that’s not regular and hard to verify … Self -employed is a really big piece of our business.”

Having lenders in the industry who cater to the unique borrower is important for consumer choice and comprehensive service.

The pandemic created challenges for many borrowers financially. Many decided to follow through on business ownership dreams, prompting the need for more non-traditional types of lenders.

“If you look at particularly post-COVID, more and more people are falling into that group. People did their sea change, their tree change, decided to work in a different way. And some of those have taken what may have been an interest in the past or something part time, set up a business and made it their full -time gig,” MacRae said.

“Traditional lending will shut those guys out. They actually can service but they may not have the full documented history that demonstrates that. It’s a wonderful opportunity for us and it’s great to be part of being able to provide solutions and pathway to home ownership for customers that may not have been able to achieve that.”

At Bluestone we’re celebrating 25 years of servicing underrepresented clients. This message has been promoted through the company since our inception back in 2000.

MacRae noted that the lender had admittedly turned away from the non-traditional lending it was known for, and part of the recent ‘refresh’ is to get back to its roots.

“There was an opportunity to be able to help customers that the banks weren’t able to fulfill and that’s really been the core of our history and although we’ve moved through times, we’ve introduced different products, we’ve come in and out of parts of the market during the COVID period where cash rate was super low and money was cheap, we’ve probably moved away from what is really our core, which is non-standard lending.”

“Like a lot of our competitors we went into the prime space, but really the last 18 months, we’ve got back to what we really are and what we are is a solution -based lender. We exist to give brokers and customers solutions and choice. So, whether that be you’re a customer that has just set up a business and may not have all of the accounts and all the books that you need, whether you’ve had a finance hiccup throughout your life, or your investor that wants to invest through different vehicles like SMSF, that’s why we exist,” said MacRae.

“We've been really focused in establishing ourselves again in that space, particularly over the last 18 months, and ensuring that we are helping those and providing solutions to customers that maybe without a lender like Bluestone would be left out of the home ownership market.”

Financial inclusion has become part of Bluestone’s revamped mission: to service those who may otherwise be forgotten.

“We want to help those that have been left behind or the banks make it a little bit more complicated for them to get finance and go beyond just looking at pure scores or numbers but get the real story of the customer,” he said.

“I say to brokers all the time; ensure you give us the story. Don't tell me what's in the application because I see that. My underwriters really want to understand because we get that people have issues, we get the people are just establishing things and we want to understand that and look forward not backwards at the customers possibilities.”

A crucial component in delivering this strategy is broker relationships. As discussed in the recent Bluestone podcast, brokers are “crucial” to the last 25 years of success.

“We only distribute through brokers today. So, it’s absolutely critical for us that we ensure that we deliver the best relationships and the best service to brokers. And that’s really been our mantra for the last 18 months,” said MacRae.

“We ensured that we had the right number of BDMs on the ground. We got the right leadership in place that was closer to our key markets and grew the number of BDMs so that we were able to get that relationship. Then we went about looking at our processes, our systems, our platforms.”

Simplifying the process for brokers has been top of mind for us amid the refresh. Bluestone is placing a priority on developing stronger ties with brokers to service the niche areas of the market it thrives in.

“I’ve got to be honest with you, we were complex and we weren’t the easiest to deal with a little while ago, but we stripped a lot of that back and [we’re] really excited to say that the majority of deals that come in now we’ll get assessed within 24 hours and many, if not most, the same day,” MacRae explained.

“Ensuring that we deliver the right service for brokers, we make brokers look good in front of their customers’ eyes is absolutely critical to us. And that will be the cases we move forward into the future.”