Bank of Queensland will today unveil a key plank of its strategy to regain momentum in home lending with the rollout of a new online portal to service its accredited mortgage brokers.

The bank’s head of broker distribution Kathy Cummings yesterday revealed details of the revamped servicing platform in a notification issued to mortgage aggregators.

Brokers will invited to log in to the new portal from this morning.

BOQ is trying to reverse a 24 month decline in mortgage volumes partly caused by slow turnaround times on loan approvals and complex lending policies.

These problems resulted in loss of support from mortgage brokers, who account for most home loan originations in the Australian market.

APRA data indicates that BOQ’s mortgage book has tapered by more than A$1.6 billion or 5.6 per cent since June 2018.

Total home lending by other banks and credit unions expanded by 5 per cent during the same period.

The new online portal is configured to reflect BOQ’s simplified lending policies, which have been re-drafted in plain English to help brokers grasp loan requirements more easily.

The new system will include an improved online pricing request process, including mobile access via phone and tablet.

Cummings said the portal was part of a wider effort to deliver a market leading service proposition that made it easier for brokers to partner with the bank.

“This is just the beginning and over time we will be enhancing the functionality, including the addition of a new web-based serviceability calculator,” Cummings told brokers in the notification.

BOQ has been expanding the number of staff employed in mortgage servicing this year to help improve turnaround times on loan applications.

The bank told brokers last month that it was taking around four business days to complete income assessments for refinancings and pre-approvals.

The turnaround time for issuing loan documents was three days for straightforward applications and five days for complex cases.