Great Southern Bank together with Sandstone Technology navigates competition and simplifies processes through innovative loan origination solutions.

The Challenge

Navigating the highly competitive and rapidly evolving home loan market is a constant for financial institutions. Customer-owned bank Great Southern Bank’s purpose is to help all Australians own their own home. However, they face several challenges.

Intense competition in the broker space

The financial services industry, especially the mortgage sector, is highly competitive. The broker channel in Australia accounts for more than 74% of home loans processed,  creating the need for Great Southern Bank to differentiate itself through superior service, innovative products, and competitive rates to attract and retain customers, particularly via the broker channel.

Supporting first-time home buyers

The bank wanted to help simplify the home buying process and provide tailored financial solutions to support its purpose and enable more Australians to realise their dream of home ownership. The home buying and home loan process can be complex and challenging, particularly for first-time buyers. Customers often need assistance to understand government schemes and the overall mortgage process. To help solve for this, the bank saw an opportunity to enhance its systems to offer a seamless, supportive experience for customers.

Enhancing investment loans to expand market share

In addition to supporting first-time home buyers in a highly competitive environment, the bank also recognised investment loans as a strategic opportunity to diversify its portfolio and reach more customers. This insight led the bank to delve deeper into the needs and expectations of investment loan customers. In response, the bank implemented enhanced configurations and tailored solutions designed to provide a seamless and frictionless experience for this segment. Through these efforts, the bank aimed to increase its lending, enhance customer relationships and strengthen its position in the market.

Addressing the challenges

With a lending transformation program already in flight, the bank and Sandstone Technology worked together to focus on how an already established, robust loan origination solution could further enhance operational efficiency, improve customer experiences and support the bank’s delivery of its purpose.

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The solution

Automated loan origination with LendFast: Sandstone’s loan origination platform, LendFast, streamlined the loan process, making it digital, easy, and customer-focused. It enabled Great Southern Bank to automate key processes, reducing manual tasks and enhancing the overall home loan journey for customers and team members.

First-time home buyer support:  With a flexible and highly configurable system, alongside dedicated support, the bank simplified the process for first-time buyers. Participation in the Federal Government’s Home Guarantee Scheme and collaboration with broker networks further enhanced the bank’s support for this segment.

Through close collaboration between Sandstone Technology and Great Southern Bank the process involved;  

• Needs assessment: Understanding the specific challenges and goals of Great Southern Bank to identify the pain points and align Sandstone’s solution with the bank’s overarching purpose of helping all Australians to own their own home.
• Configuration capability: Tailoring Sandstone’s Loan Origination platform to meet the bank's unique needs, removing friction from processes by utilising configurable management capabilities to provide a competitive advantage in the market.
• Deployment: Mapping out a deployment phase focused on ensuring a seamless integration to achieve smooth enhancements whilst maintaining operational continuity, with minimal disruption.
• Training: Providing comprehensive training within the bank to ensure smooth adoption of new features and empowered teams, able to utilise the system to its full potential, enhancing productivity and customer service.

Sandstone’s loan origination platform enabled Great Southern Bank to replace manual processes and legacy systems to a highly efficient, automated loan origination process, with key enhancements to achieve improved operations.

The results

• Streamlined workflows: Establishing efficient workflows for different loan types which adhere to regulatory and compliance frameworks around responsible lending.
• Seamless integrations: Creating an end-to-end ecosystem, reducing manual tasks to focus on customer experience to cater for customers and brokers.
• Faster decisioning: Time to approval reduced to less than two days for 40-50% of applications, with productivity tripled in certain areas.
• Operational efficiency: The bank gained greater control over its lending ecosystem, reducing complexity and increasing productivity.
• Customer experience and satisfaction: Enhanced user interfaces and streamlined processes resulted in positive outcomes for the bank in its Net Promoter Scores (NPS)(increase of 23 points for Home Loan Settlements in the 12 month period June 2023-June 2024) and broker experience ranking (from ninth to third in the same period).
• Recognition and awards: Great Southern Bank was awarded Mutual Bank of the Year 2023 by the Resimac Mortgage Business Awards and Most Recommended First Home Buyers Loan 2023 by the DBM Australia Financial Awards, validating their efforts and purpose led strategy. 

"Partnering with Sandstone Technology has been transformative for Great Southern Bank. Their loan origination platform LendFast has exceeded our expectations, providing us with the tools needed to enhance our customer experience and streamline our operations. We look forward to continued collaboration as we innovate and grow."

— Travis Allan, Head of Credit and Lending, Great Southern Bank

Conclusion

Evolution of a strategic partnership
Great Southern Bank’s partnership with Sandstone Technology is one that has seen both organisations working in harmony to achieve success. The collaboration has evolved through a deep understanding of achieving shared strategic purposes, and continuous improvement.

Future goals and strategic vision
The partnership between Sandstone Technology and Great Southern Bank highlights the strength of innovative digital solutions, coupled with deep domain experience to achieve enhanced customer experiences and operational efficiency. Through a collaborative approach and a shared vision, both organisations have achieved significant success, setting the stage for future growth.