Home loan lender turns 5

Key to success is forming a partnership with mortgage brokers

Home loan lender turns 5
RESIMAC Home Loans general manager Adrienne Church looks back on the growth of the non-bank and talks about what’s next.

Tell us about RESIMAC’s approach to working with brokers.
“The word ‘partnership’ is bandied about a lot these days – it’s a bit of a buzzword. But buzzword or not, ‘partnership’ is how I’d describe the way we work with advisers.

“We don’t get in the way of the adviser-client relationship; we support that relationship with our commission structure; and the fact that we help borrowers where most other lenders won’t, creates ‘clients for life’ for the adviser.”

What would be your one piece of advice for brokers?
“It’s a cliché, but ‘think outside the square’. If a deal doesn’t fit the norm, don’t put it in the too hard basket. Get in touch with RESIMAC and we’ll be happy to take a look. Chances are we will be able to help, and we’ll work with you through the process.”

How would you describe RESIMAC to a broker who hasn’t worked with you before?
“We offer home lending solutions from Prime to Specialist. Our key strength is in helping good borrowers overcome a difficult financial past and get back on track. We often start with a Specialist product, but overtime will help the borrower transition to Prime lending. The goal is to give Kiwis who fall outside traditional criteria the starting point to move forward.”

How would you sum up the past five years for RESIMAC?
“Constant change to meet the needs of borrowers. We’ve continually evolved our products: the pricing; the postcodes; our lending amounts – for example, we started with a limit of $1 million, now we do up to $2.5 million per borrower. At least twice a year, if not quarterly, we’ve come out with something new.”

What’s the plan for the next five years?
“We’ve learnt a lot about the market and have created strong products for key niches; now we’re heading for double-digit growth. We’ll continue to grow our existing business organically as well as looking for acquisitions that make sense – in home lending as well as in other product categories. And we’ll be doing a lot to showcase what the non-bank sector offers advisers and New Zealand borrowers.”

Has much changed in the non-bank space for advisers in the past five years?
“Yes, and definitely for RESIMAC. When we started, advisers were unsure about non-banks – whether they’d stay and the value they offered. Now we have longevity; we have a good brand; we have good products; and we have a lot of loans. The advisers we work with know that we are not only here to stay, we are here to grow.”

What’s one of the most satisfying things about the RESIMAC offering?
“There are plenty of valid reasons why someone can fall outside of the traditional lending criteria. RESIMAC helps those borrowers get back on track. For example, we had a client who due to divorce went through a tough patch financially which impacted his credit record. But it was a blip, not a behaviour. By taking the time to look closer, it was clear he was a good borrower and that we had the tools to help – so we did.”


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