I am always open to opportunities with new lenders for my new to bank clients.
Under BID (Best Interest Duty) my obligations are clear – and they are obligations on me personally.
Banks have absolutely no obligations under BID.
This means that in the main – our interests do not align.
There is one place they do – new business.
- Your bank wants new business.
- I want to place new clients somewhere they will be looked after – but that has to align with my BID obligations.
The place I seek compromise on your bank’s part, in order for your bank to gain what it wants, is around repricing policy.
The Royal Commission highlighted the cancer that “differential pricing of the back book” brings to the lending landscape.
The Govt sent the report to the Senate who commissioned ASIC to report back.
ASIC found that:
- The practice is legal.
- Consumers are foolish if they do not shop.
The ONLY time that a consumer has real leverage is at point of entry.
It is perfectly reasonable, and in fact sensible, for a consumer to ask the price of the “gift that keeps on giving” to a bank – their loan.
The price at point of entry is the minor aspect.
The pricing policy ongoing is my very reasonable question – because that is where the main game is.
Industry practice is:
- 12 monthly reviews.
- With a bank deciding what it is prepared to give away to retain the business.
That is not my way:
- I review 6 monthly.
- With a bank who at point of entry agrees.
- To accept 6 monthly reviews.
- And to reprice that client back to current new to bank pricing (or very close to it).
- The principle can have some flexibility at the margins – but for me to offer new business to your bank – there must be an understanding that this is why we are engaging with each other.
I am writing to see if you would like to explore this further with a view to doing more business together.
Kind Regards,
Alan Heath
Ask Alan Mortgage Brokers Australia