National Bank launching Mastercard referrals for brokers
By
Vernon Clement Jones
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29/05/2011 10:00:00 PM
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National Bank is moving to expand its use of the broker channel with a Mastercard offered through mortgage professionals.
“As we continue to look at supporting the brokerage community by offering new products and services, we are pleased to announce that in the coming week, National Bank Broker Services will be launching the ability for brokers to offer our Mastercard products to their client base and brokers will be compensated for this,” Mark Squire, director of broker service, told MortgageBrokerNews.ca.
The details of the offering haven’t yet been released, said Sebastien Kuperhause, the bank’s national sales manager for broker services, but compensation will be “based on the card being approved and then must be activated.” Release of remuneration and other program terms are expected later this week.
“We are very excited to be launching our Mastercard in the broker market place,” Kuperhause told MortgageBrokerNews.ca. “This launch will help brokers add to their arsenal when convincing clients that dealing with a broker can be more than a mortgage transaction, which some non-broker lenders tend to attack.”
The Mastercard offering is only being made available to brokers outside National’s key Quebec market.
Home Trust already extends brokers a referral fee for every approved Visa card a broker helps arrange. Those cards are secured by a minimum deposit of $500, equal to or greater than the credit limit. Home Trust also offers a home-equity-supported product to borrowers. It’s unclear whether National Bank’s offering will follow that secured-debt model.
This week’s launch comes on the heels of the bank’s release of quarterly financials pointing to continuing growth in the number of its broker-originated mortgages.
The country’s sixth largest bank reported a Q2 profit of $295 million, compared with the $261 million of a year ago.
“National Bank Broker Services has been growing exponentially over the past four years” said Squire. “Our business has grown six-fold and 2011 will be another growth year for the broker channel. We are one of a few lenders who have continued to grow this year with a 30.65 per cent increase in funded volumes when comparing our mid-fiscal year performance, year over year. This growth has come from brokers seeing the value that we can bring them in offering a vast suite of products and services.”
The bank is chalking up some of that success to its status program for brokers, redesigned in 2008 and presenting brokers three different compensation options to choose from on every deal.
“Brokers were telling us that they liked our original program, but what they really wanted was choice, and by choice they meant giving them the opportunity to select a different offering for each individual deal,” Kuperhause told MortgageBrokerNews.ca. “This is how we designed our program offering.”