Bendigo and Adelaide confirms partnership with Sandstone

According to Bendigo and Adelaide Bank, the decision to align with Sandstone Technology (Sandstone) came after its third-party banking division recognised a need to “transform and remediate” its loan processing systems. 

“The bank needed to find a solution which would support the growth of its lending business, better serve its mortgage origination partners, and improve the customer experience,” the lender said in a statement.

Bendigo and Adelaide Bank added that the decision to improve loan processing was built around automation and simplification, with the bank deciding to introduce the eligibility rules and lending criteria filters with Sandstone’s LendFast platform.

Bendigo and Adelaide Bank has said the benefits of this are fewer touchpoints, a significant reduction in rework, and an improved experience for brokers. 

Under these changes, the non-major bank has said it can allow brokers a “more automated capability to submit loan increases and product conversions” alongside “value-adding information” from real-time back-channel messages. 

According to supplied internal data, from the start of January to the end of May, Bendigo and Adelaide Bank’s manual review of auto-declined applications dropped from 100 per cent to 10 per cent. 

Variation applications were also reportedly up 27 per cent year-on-year over this period.  

As confirmed to Mortgage Business, the initial phase of this integration came during the second half of 2020, and went into full production during November 2021.  

Speaking of the partnership, Bendigo and Adelaide Bank general manager of third-party banking Darren Kasehagen commented that the decision was hitched on supporting the growth of the bank’s lending business, better serving its broker channel and improving the customer experience.

“It’s simple for us – we are trying to make it as easy as possible for our customers and our brokers to work with us, and this digital transformation is making that job a lot easier,” Mr Kasehagen said. 

Mr Kasehagen added that the collaboration has helped increase approvals, improve the partner experience and reduce operational cost and risks.

Sandstone executive general manager, origination AI & ML Poli Konstantinidis said: “Lending today is not just the end-to-end journey from origination to settlement. It now requires the appropriate balance of an engaging user experience across all channels, with speed to value and responsible lending for the bank.

“This subsequently enables the bank to differentiate itself from its competitors.”

[Related: ‘Fierce competition’: Bendigo and Adelaide Bank manages mortgage growth]