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Over 90 per cent of Bankwest’s mortgages come via the broker channel. This reliance on third-party partners has become heavily ingrained in the decision-making process to keep these partnerships thriving.
Many of the solutions on offer have been co-designed with brokers. Listening is not just a strategy – it’s a business imperative.
“I’m a big believer in the person who’s got the answer is the person close to the customer. And at Bankwest, that is the broker. So, we very much engage with brokers in order to get their feedback on what solutions we should build,” said Bankwest general manager, home buying distribution, Ian Rakhit.
Ian Rakhit, general manager, home buying distribution at Bankwest.
This feedback-driven approach is formalised through the ‘Built by Brokers’ program, which directly influences tech developments like valuations, identification processes, and credit policy tools.
This listening ear also led to a major strategic shift. After identifying it was “very underweight” in self-employed borrowers three years ago, Bankwest consulted brokers to build a new proposition. The result? Flows from self-employed clients jumped from 20 per cent to over 40 per cent of its loans.
When asked what makes brokers choose Bankwest, Rakhit pointed to three core pillars: people, technology, and a genuine partnership philosophy.
He highlighted the long tenure of his leadership team and BDMs, which builds deep relationships and trust. This foundation of trust extends to controversial industry issues like clawbacks, where Bankwest prides itself on having what it believes is one of the fairest models in the market.
“How can we stand up and say we are truly trying to partner without having some real fundamentals? And so those are the sorts of fundamentals, I think, why brokers deal with us,” he said.
“Of course, it’s about how good is your price, how good is your policy, how good is your service? But fundamentally, if I’ve got good people, good technology and I’m invested in a partnership, that gets us through the door.”
“How can we stand up and say we are truly trying to partner without having some real fundamentals?”
— Ian Rakhit
Despite heavy investment in automation, Bankwest hasn’t forgotten the value of human connection.
Rakhit is a firm believer that “every broker deserves a BDM.” Each of their 18,500 accredited brokers has a named business development manager (BDM), ensuring support is always available, especially for those new to the industry.
This is complemented by a powerful self-serve broker portal that allows brokers to manage everything from valuations to repricing existing loans in seconds.
Rakhit said that a broker can reprice a loan in 12 seconds: “We time these things because it’s quite a nice proof point to be able to say we will reprice your customer in order to try and save that customer if that customer’s shopping around for a better rate.”
Bankwest has been at the forefront of digital transformation that has completely reshaped the industry.
Rakhit recalls a time where fax machines were used to deliver applications to lenders and every broker was familiar with every credit manager. “Deals were done on a Friday afternoon over a long lunch. Now we’ve moved towards automation of everything,” he said.
But according to Rakhit, the biggest change is yet to come: “The AI revolution, if we want to call it that, is going to be faster than anything we’ve seen before. If you think of internet and how internet changed our lives, all the commentary is that AI is going to have a bigger impact on our lives, but in a much quicker and shorter space of time.”
“So we at Bankwest are looking to be engaged in that and making sure that what we build is helping our efficiency, therefore helping brokers and their customers.”
“The AI revolution, if we want to call it that, is going to be faster than anything we’ve seen before.”
— Ian Rakhit
The lender is tackling this goal head-on with several key innovations:
Automated valuations: By providing brokers with free access to its valuation systems, Bankwest has turned a process that once took days into one that takes minutes, a significant service differentiator.
AI-powered income validation: A new tool in development can analyse a payslip – a task that takes a human up to 10 minutes – and return usable income validation in just 18 seconds. This dramatically improves scalability and consistency.
AI policy search: Perhaps one of the most practical tools for brokers, is an AI interface on the Bankwest broker portal. It allows users to ask questions about the lender’s credit policies and get immediate answers, helping brokers quickly identify if a deal is right for Bankwest.
For brokers who may not have considered Bankwest recently, Bankwest’s message is clear: take another look.
Surveys often rank the bank as one of the fastest lenders to approval, alongside strong policy niches for self-employed customers, investors, and expats. The combination of speed, in-life customer management tools, and unwavering channel support makes a compelling case.
“We’re a very solid long-standing supporter of the broker channel… deal with us, see how good we are,” concluded Rakhit.
Ian Rakhit, general manager, home buying distribution at Bankwest.
Bankwest Australia positions itself as a digital-first bank, offering intuitive online and app-based banking with features like 24/7 in-app support and virtual cards to simplify everyday banking.
