ANZ appears to be making progress on cutting assessment times for home loan applications but only because frustrated brokers are referring borrowers to other lenders.
The bank’s home loan book contracted in March and April when the waiting time for loan assessments for some types of borrowers blew out to 30 business days.
The situation worsened in the last week of May when ANZ notified brokers it was taking up to 32 business days (more than six weeks) to complete assessments for owner builders and borrowers requiring guarantors.
ANZ has also been testing the patience of self-employed borrowers and loan applicants requiring mortgage insurance who last month were waiting more than five weeks on assessments.
According to the latest notification given to brokers this week, ANZ appears to have cleared its clogged mortgage pipeline, with self-employed and high LVR applicants now expected to wait two weeks.
Applications received from owner builders are taking four weeks to complete.
Banking Day yesterday surveyed brokers in Melbourne and Sydney to gauge whether the reduction in ANZ’s backlog was due to efficiency improvements in its mortgage back-office or tied to the broking industry’s hesitancy about referring clients to the bank.
Most said the improvement in waiting times was due to a combination of the factors, although ANZ’s persistent backlog had been an important factor in clients flocking to other lenders this year.
Home loan data published by APRA appears to support this observation.
In March and April, the size of ANZ’s mortgage book contracted by A$95 million when the rest of the banking sector expanded home lending by $17 billion.
The market share losses for the bank were heavy in the six months to the end of April.
ANZ grew its home loan book by $2.9 billion or 1.1 per cent in that period, while the broader market expanded by 2.7 per cent.
The bank could be facing a market share collapse akin to the 2019 home loan fiasco, which was also caused by delays in assessing and approving applicants.
ANZ’s performance in the home loan market this year has been eclipsed by a swathe of smaller lenders led by Macquarie (up $9.6 billion or 18 per cent) and Bendigo (up $3.1 billion or 7 per cent).
To be fair to ANZ, two other major banks - Westpac and NAB – are also bleeding market share.
The APRA dataset shows that Westpac increased mortgage lending by only 1.7 per cent in the six months to the end of April, while NAB eked growth of 1.4 per cent.
CBA was the only major bank to beat the system growth rate after expanding its mortgage book 3.3 per cent.