A senior executive at one of the big banks has challenged industry orthodoxy that shortening loan approval times is the key to winning business, saying that does not hold in the current environment. NAB chief financial officer Gary Lennon said “time to yes” is less of an issue now that growth in new mortgage lending has slowed and a significant amount of lending is refinancing. Speaking at NAB’s financial year results briefing earlier this month, Lennon said: “Right now it is about price. The premium for fast and efficient service has reduced. “A big focus now is on customer retention. We have A$85 billion of fixed rate loans rolling over in the next two years.” Another factor is that many lenders are hoping to take advantage of the rising rate environment to improve margins and are less eager to do cheap and speedy loan deals to hold share. According to the most recent Australian Bureau of Statistics lending data, the value of new housing loan commitments fell 8.2 per cent in September, compared with the previous month. The fall in September followed falls in the previous three months. The $25.1 billion of new lending in September was down 18.5 per cent on the same time last year. While new lending is down, external refinancing has been rising sharply, with $12.8 billion of refinancing for owner occupiers in August a record. In recent years, when banks have lost share, especially in the broker distribution channel, attention to mortgage processing and reducing approval times have been a big part of the fix. Some would argue it still is. Suncorp Bank chief executive Clive van Horen, said the bank’s home lending picked up in the September quarter, growing at 3.1 times system over the quarter. van Horen said one of the key drivers of the bank’s improved home lending performance was more efficient and faster processing.