ANZ shifts credit assessment jobs to NZ

Following close on the heels of the outsourcing of mortgage settlement functions to Perpetual, ANZ has outsourced some of its credit assessment tasks, but this time it has sent them offshore to ANZ National in New Zealand.

The bank is planning to hire 15 mortgage credit assessors in Auckland, taking the total such positions to 30. The bank said this was a 15 per cent increase in home loan credit assessment positions over the last six to nine months. Rising demand for new loans led ANZ to hire 200 additional credit staff.

ANZ piloted the use of credit assessors based outside Australia, to process loan applications in Australia, in September 2009. The bank recruited the first batch of 15 officers in February 2010.

The bank says having some additional capacity in New Zealand helps them access more suitably qualified staff and grow credit assessment capability more quickly.

There is no compromise on quality, ANZ spokesman Paul Edwards wrote in an email.

"The New Zealand market has many similarities to Australia and the training we invest in for each new staff member - both in Australia and New Zealand - ensures there is no compromise in quality."

Outsourcing can introduce additional challenges to controlling quality and timeliness. After outsourcing mortgage settlement tasks to Perpetual last year ANZ customers experienced some delays.

Apart from mortgage assessors, ANZ currently has around 100 seats in a Wellington contact centre that supports the Australian call centres.