RAMS Popular

Some light at the end of the dark and gloomy mortgage tunnel is beginning to appear, with mortgage brokers beginning to support alternate lenders to the big four banks.

A surprise finding stemming from preliminary results of the CoreData Mortgage Broker Affection study reveals that brokers have not abandoned recommending non-bank lender products altogether.

RAMS, led by the iconic sheep Raymond, had 10 per cent of brokers ranking the non-bank lender in the top five of lenders they would recommend to their clients, with 3 per cent ranking it number one.

Combined, a non-bank lender was in the top five of recommendations for half (49 per cent) of all brokers, with strong support for Homeloans Limited, Challenger and La Trobe Financial.

Brokers understandably supported the majors well, with 35 per cent ranking the Commonwealth Bank as their number one recommendation (Bankwest added 7 per cent to total), followed by Westpac with 22 per cent (St. George 9 per cent), with ANZ 11 per cent and National Australia Bank with just four per cent.

ING Direct received 10 per cent of number one recommendations, followed by AMP Bank with five per cent as the retail customer acquisition strategy continues.

The major concern is the performance of the remaining tier 2 Australian banks.

Combined, Bendigo and Adelaide Bank, Bank of Queensland and Suncorp only received a paltry two per cent of number one recommendations from brokers, although they did rank slightly higher for fourth and fifth choices.

Mutuals, combined building societies and credit unions, with three per cent of number one recommendations, received some support.