NextGen, Australia's leading technology provider to the lending industry, and Bendigo Bank have reported  significant achievements from their strategic partnership, leveraging NextGen's ApplyOnline® platform to bring Bendigo Bank branded home loans to mortgage brokers nationwide.

The collaboration has yielded impressive results in loan processing efficiency and broker experience and is a significant  contribution to Bendigo Bank's ongoing transformation plan aimed at enhancing broker and customer experiences across all  channels.

Mike Ponsonby, Head of Lender Partnerships at NextGen, commented, "We're thrilled to expand our long-standing  partnership with Bendigo Bank through our ApplyOnline platform. This collaboration allows us to build on the successful  foundation we established with Adelaide Bank, taking it several steps further to deliver innovative solutions for brokers under  the Bendigo Bank brand."

The partnership focuses on process optimisation, enhanced automation and digital capabilities to accelerate credit  decisioning and provide a richer broker experience. Key improvements include modernised data capture, seamless data  transfer, and investments in digital verification of identity with NextGenID®, online document management and pre submission credit checks with the Access Seeker credit report, all facilitated through the ApplyOnline platform.

Darren Kasehagen, General Manager - Third Party Banking at Bendigo Bank, stated, "Working with NextGen and their  ApplyOnline platform as our go-to-market partner has been instrumental in successfully launching our consolidated Bendigo  Bank brand to the broker market. Their expertise has helped us design better processes around digital technology, significantly improving our service quality and operational efficiency."

Early results of the partnership are promising:

1. Bendigo Bank’s home loan approval speed now places it in the top tier of lenders, ranking among the three fastest  in the industry.

2. A 40-50% reduction in time to unconditional approval compared to the previous Adelaide Bank experience.

3. Sharp increase in application volumes submitted through the ApplyOnline platform over the past six months, with  consistently high service quality.

Bendigo Bank Broker is now available in ApplyOnline, accessible to thousands of brokers across eight aggregator partners, including Yellow Brick Road Aggregation, National Mortgage Brokers (nMB), Astute Financial Management (Astute), Custom  Equity Group, Mortgage Choice, Specialist Finance Group, outsource Financial, and Finsure.

As Bendigo Bank continues to expand its branded loan offerings to more broker groups, this partnership with NextGen is expected to further strengthen its  position in the broker market and enhance its service to Australian borrowers.