Bendigo Bank's Transformation Journey with the Bendigo Lending Platform

Bendigo Bank, a leading financial institution in Australia, embarked on a significant transformation journey to enhance its competitive position and leverage its trusted brand reputation by expanding its presence in the mortgage broker market.

Bendigo Bank launched the Bendigo Lending Platform through Bendigo Bank Broker last November (2023). The rolling onboarding program of aggregators has now come to a conclusion, with thousands of brokers on the Lending Platform and recommending Bendigo Bank branded home loans to their customers.

With the retirement of the Adelaide Bank brand, Bendigo Bank Broker is now the Bank’s flagship offering for mortgage brokers across the country, offering a seamless digital experience for brokers with an approval speed amongst the fastest in the industry.  

The primary objective for Bendigo Bank's transformation journey is to simplify its business models, reduce complexity and risk, modernise technology and accelerate digital capability to enable more investment in great customer and partner experiences.

With approximately 70% of Australian borrowers opting for broker-assisted home loans, Bendigo Bank wanted to leverage the success of the broker distribution channel to attract new customers, foster growth, and reinforce its position as Australia's most trusted bank.

The strategic initiative emphasised the importance of consolidating systems and enhancing customer lending experience, focusing on adopting a 'digital by design, human when it matters' approach, emphasising automation, and streamlining processes while attracting and deepening relationships with customers.

Introducing the Bendigo Lending Platform

Bendigo Bank built a scalable Lending Platform to introduce to the broker channel. The Bendigo Lending Platform provides reusable foundational capabilities across multiple engagement channels, that supports a one-way same-way approach for residential lending, enabling Bendigo Bank to retire legacy lending systems and reduce costs associated with maintenance and security.

“Automation played a crucial role in enhancing efficiency, integrating system-driven processes to obtain valuations, title searches, lenders mortgage insurance, credit decisioning, document generation and account creation. Thus, freeing up the Bank’s front-line staff to focus on customer-centric tasks rather than non-value human contact intervention” said Janelle Wehsack, Program Director, Consumer Lending Transformation at Bendigo Adelaide Bank.

Nathalie Moss, Chief Information Officer (Acting) at Bendigo Adelaide Bank said “The move to a consolidated Lending Platform underpinned by enterprise core systems enables us to decommission more than 25 legacy applications in lending alone while reducing costs and risk associated with maintenance, currency and security efforts across the Bank. Automation increases efficiency and enables our people to move from manual processes to assessing and validating by exception, using expertise and experience when it matters. This goes to the core of our digital by design, human where it matters motto at Bendigo Bank.”

Partnerships and Collaboration

To facilitate the development and implementation of the Bendigo Lending Platform, the Bank collaborated with several strategic partners to leverage external expertise and augment its internal capabilities, ensuring the successful execution of the project.  

Mark Kouyias, Director Transformation Delivery at Bendigo Adelaide Bank said “In establishing our Lending Program, we were intentional in the way we selected and brought together key delivery partners and internal capability to build a collaborative team. Striking the right balance and building a ‘one team’ culture helped set us up for success.”  

Among these strategic partners, Seisma Group acted as Bendigo Bank’s strategic technology partner Consumer Lending throughout the lending transformation journey, offering expertise and guidance to align technology initiatives with the bank's business goals.

“Ultimately, Seisma's involvement has supported the success of the transformation, enabling the bank to enhance capabilities, embrace innovation, and position for future growth,” said Amol Bhale, Director of Engineering, Seisma Group

Automation and Innovation

Seisma Group were engaged to provide their Lending Domain & Technology Solution Expertise across the transformation program, leading technology delivery of greenfield enterprise capability for end-to-end lending automation.

• End-to-End Solution Delivery: Seisma worked closely with the broader Bendigo Bank teams, focusing on uplifting the Broker origination process. Their approach ensured that all functionalities were seamlessly integrated into the existing ecosystem, facilitating a smooth transition.

• Scalable and Flexible Architecture: Leveraging their capability in cutting-edge cloud technologies, Seisma worked with the Bendigo Banks architecture team to  design a scalable and flexible build architecture that will accommodate future releases. This enabled the bank to adapt to evolving business needs and market dynamics swiftly.

• Streamlined Business Processes: Seisma played an important role in orchestrating lending business processes and leveraged existing Bendigo banks support tools & processes to help streamline operations and enhance overall efficiency.   The solution paved the way for one-way same-way lending processes, laying a solid foundation for future consumer lending initiatives.

• Security and Data Integrity: Seisma ensured the security and integrity of systems and data by implementing robust authentication and authorisation mechanisms. Their expertise in data management and security protocols safeguarded sensitive information, instilling trust and confidence among stakeholders.

• Continuous Support and Collaboration: Beyond solution delivery, Seisma remains committed to providing ongoing support and collaboration to Bendigo Bank. Their proactive approach and dedication to customer satisfaction ensured that the implemented solution operated smoothly, delivering tangible results and value to the bank.

“Seisma's implementation of scalable architecture, standardised lending processes, and operational efficiencies will pave the way for future growth and innovation. These advancements not only ensured scalability and flexibility to adapt to evolving market demands but also mitigated risks, ensured compliance, and positioned the bank as a strategic leader in innovation within the lending industry,” said Mr Bhale

Enhancing User and Customer Experience

Seisma's partnership with Bendigo Bank resulted in enhanced business potential within the third-party Banking sector and a significant improvement in process, particularly within the Broker channel. This included streamlining processes, standardising lending procedures, and adopting a customer-centric approach, leading to revenue growth, with faster time to decision and improving the customer experience.

“The launch of Bendigo Bank Broker to the broker market has marked a significant milestone in Bendigo Bank's transformation journey, empowering brokers to recommend Bendigo Bank branded home loans and access a range of value-adding products and services. The Bendigo Lending Platform, supported by automation and digital capabilities, enhanced the broker and customer experience, driving growth and reinforcing Bendigo Bank's position as Australia’s most trusted bank” said Ms Wehsack

Ms Moss said, “With the introduction and enhancement of interfaces to both new and existing core systems, many current and complex manual processes have been automated throughout the end-to-end origination journey. Some examples of system-driven processes where automation is used to obtain valuations, title searches, lenders mortgage insurance, credit decisioning, document generation and account creation. Automating these processes frees up the Bank’s front-line staff to focus on customers rather than manual administration tasks.”

By leveraging technology, streamlining processes, and enhancing collaboration, Bendigo Bank has positioned itself for continued success by driving growth and delivering value to customers and stakeholders alike.