St George, Bank of Melbourne, BankSA & FMS Feedback Session - Today, 11:30am-12:30pm AEST

[TJ]

Following this week's feedback session with Westpac, the St George, Bank of Melbourne, BankSA & FMS teams are hosting a session Today between 11:30am-12:30pm AEST.

This is another great opportunity for industry participants to share their tips on what these Financial Institutions can work on and let them know the things you'd like to see more of.  St George, Bank of Melbourne, BankSA & FMS will be online responding to your feedback and answering your questions during this hour.

Comment below to participate.

[sonia-collins]

Hi PEXA Community

We are all looking forward to bringing 3 different areas of our 3 brands together and to be on-line on Wed 15/5 11.30am  - 12.30pm 

Hope to see you there

regards

Sonia (SGB/BOM/BSA)

[TJ]

@TraceyK , @LizC , @Tanya219 , @CDGLaw , @DZTS , @AandTLegal , @Nicholsons1 , @Susandunn , @Claudia11 , @pallathr , @Michelle_Lobb , @HelenBurns , @Ebony , @PeninsulaConveyancingandLegal , @LauraTurner1 , @Karla , @Enbomb , @sjdlaw , @Paulapexa , @HFL , @catemccubbincomau , @mmcquillen , @kpridham , @SCTHornsby , @KarenE , @jacque  you've all posted feedback for Financial Institutions on Community before, this is a perfect opportunity to reach out directly and get a response from the St George, Bank of Melbourne, BankSA & FMS teams 😊

[sonia-collins]

Hi Community,

we have on line representing St George, Bank of Melbourne, Bank of SA, :

FMS: Teresa & Sean @Teresabourke 

Business Bank : @AmandaMichael @Dwi_Murdock  @Karen_Skinner  @Caterina_Patane @Hiwad_J 

Home Ownership Services : @Maggie_Tang @CoreyD  @JoshuaWebb @Sarah_P  @sonia-collins 

we have a range of leaders, key stoke conversation operators and PEXperts in our business....

we would love feed back on some changes we have made recently regarding timing of proactive conversations and some changes we are supporting to toggle off the ability to change the date in Transfer workspaces

thank you 

Sonia (SGB/BOM/BANKSA)

[GraceChallengeSettlements]

Hi St George, there is some frustration in the market around proceeds being confirmed same day as settlement and other times even later in the piece. What is being done to ensure day of settlement runs smoothly?

[CoreyD]

Thanks @GraceChallengeSettlements , good question.

We have reviewed our resourcing and recently changed our staff shift times to earlier in the morning to enable us to proactively work on these types of issues. Additionally we are running more reports, 5 days out from settlement, to track documents not yet returned and initiate outgoing calls to lenders and brokers  for follow up of items outstanding as well as sending conversations to practitioners to provide an update on settlement tracking.

 It is certainly something we are continuing to work with our partners FMS to explore more opportunities for us to improve to better support yourselves and our mutual customers

Thanks

CoreyD - SGB/BOM/BSA

[Becky]

It's getting better but dealing with banks still makes my job harder, missed conversations, long wait times to get through to talk to someone when conversations have been ignored and last (literally last sometimes) minute payout figures being entered.

What are your teams doing to make sure things run smoothly and there is certainty of settlement date (ie. no roll overs).

[sonia-collins]

Hi Community ,

one of the initiatives we have been working on with PEXA is to TURN OFF the ability for us to change the date in a Transfer settlement .

We understand this is a frustration for Practitioners. 

We support all the states locations having this turned off, with QLD being the first location being the first in May.

Does this give you greater sense of security for having control over the settlement and removing any human error in moving dates ?

thanks

Sonia (SGB/BOM/BankSA)

[Hiwad_J]

Hi @Becky ,

Thanks for your feedback.

To have an improved visibility of pipeline and on the day settlements we have been piloting with PEXA a new tool called PEXA Planner. This tool enables us to see all settlements over 4 weeks for each time slot. It also enables us to see which files we need to commence follow ups in the pipeline.

In addition, we have also utilised the PEXA notification function, which automatically issues a notification to the settlement officer to ensure conversations are being responded to in a timely manner.

As @CoreyD  has mentioned earlier, we are also ensuring that we have staff on earlier in the day to process payout figures and load them into the workspace on time. We have also looked at moving certain functions to the right team to ensure workspace activity is attended to earlier in the piece.

Thanks,

Hiwad_J - SGB/BOM/BSA

[TJ]

@Bre, @Nigel_Sellens, @CourtneyFitzgerald do you have any feedback to share?

[tonyjayne]

Hi St George, what are the restrictions that you have to provide us with a payout figure the day before settlement.  Having this figure as soon as possible would allow us to get the workspace to ready quicker.

[Sarah_P]

Hi Community,

To expand on @Hiwad_J  mention of the PEXA Planner the tool that we are piloting for PEXA.

This tool allows a greater visibility of our pipeline and on the day settlements. Allowing us to view each time slot on the day and out to 4 weeks from the settlement date for the financial settlements. This enables us to see what files are outstanding and initiate a follow up action. PEXA Planner has colour coding to easily identify rollovers, not signed (FSS/Docs), DA not received, Settlement date not Accepted etc.

We have found that the 12pm and 2pm time slots are the most popular and have ensured our staffing levels around these times are fulfilled. PEXA Planner is also provides us with the details we require for on the day settlement when re-signing is required or a settlement has rolled over and we need to keep an eye on it.

We’ve found it great to use so far, and look forward to the Pilot ending and further roll out to our teams so each team member can use it and be even more proactive to be ready for settlement.

Regards

Sarah (SGB/BOM/BankSA)

[Alex]

Hi,

We often hear the line from banks (not just St George) that payout figures can't be added in until morning of settlement. The reasons given are that bank systems aren't able to generate these any earlier (was this the case with paper transactions?) and that customers want access to the funds right up until settlement time.

My questions to you is, haven't you thought of doing this differently, is it really that hard to change or is this just a mentality of we've always done it this way so we have to do it this way?

Entering payout figures 24 hours before settlement would make a world of difference; settlement delays would be almost unheard of if we were all able to work towards Ready Ready the day before. I can assure you, the customers I've spoken to would prefer the certainty of their settlements going through over any access to their funds the night before.

[Tanya_Shanahan]

Thankyou @tonyjayne,

Our system only allows the payout figure to the cent on the day of settlement. Unfortunately can not provide our final payout figure until the morning of settlement. To assist we have made some changes:

* An increase in indicative payout figure frequency
*Team members starting earlier so that final payouts are in PEXA between 5am & 8am

* And an increase in outbound conversations to advise you once these are done

* We are also exploring system enhancements where possible

Thanks

Tanya-SGB/BOM/BSA

[JoshuaWebb]

Hi Community, 

We have provided a handy Bank Transfer Checklist that details how and when the PEXA Settlement are actioned, as well as contact numbers for urgent or time critical escalations, timings of end-to-end workflow, and where to obtain Discharge Authorities if you would like to pass that on.

We invite you to visit the Checklist page and we would like to advocate for you in the monthly banking industry forum for other banks to do the same, is this something that you would like us to do?

https://community.pexa.com.au/t5/Help-Centre/Bank-Transfer-Checklists-tips/ba-p/6974

Thank You,

JoshuaWebb - SGB/BOM/BSA

[Alex]

Also, I would love to know what is being done with the feedback provided, I saw in last week's session that issues with Payout Figures and DAs were raised by @LawyersConveyancing. Are there changes going to be made, will we hear back?

[AmandaMichael]

Hi @Alex, 

Thank you for your feedback. 

Our standard process has always been to generate payout figures the morning of settlement. We regularly monitor our business customers activity and majority of them still require access to their funds and transact up until the morning of settlement, which influences the final payout figure. 

As @Tanya_Shanahan  previously mentioned below are some of the changes we are making to be able to manage this more efficiently which include: 

* An increase in indicative payout figure frequency
*Team members starting earlier so that final payouts are in PEXA between 5am & 8am

We frequently receive feedback from practitioners around payout figures not being available prior to day of settlement  and our key take away from today's session is to continue the focus on improving this process.

Thanks, 

AmandaMichael - SGB/BOM/BSA

[sonia-collins]

Hi Community,

thank you for those posting feedback today, and to those that were reading the discussion. 

We certainly take on board that we need to keep our focus on being Settlement Ready, in particular prior to the day of settlement. 

We will continue to engage our Systems and Process teams that this is important for you and our customers. 

I will come back to the discussion to provide updates on feedback or enhancements we have in the pipeline. 

And although we are wrapping up this feedback session, we are always in the Community and are ready to listen, to not only improve ourselves, but to also influence and support our banking peers, for our mutual customer settlements.

thanks again

Sonia (SGB/BOM/BankSA)

[MattKerr1]

well done to everyone that contributed their question and feedback and also to the team responding it was a great discussion.

[MattKerr1]

well done to everyone that contributed their questions and feedback and also to the team responding it was a great discussion.

[LawyersConveyancing]

Hi @AmandaMichael,

With respect, your bank's standard process stinks! Generating a payout figure on the morning of settlement also generates stress, and plenty of it, for practitioners.

I would suggest that, at the very least, banks should close the loan account a couple of days before settlement, so that the payout figure can be generated at least 24 hours beforehand.

In all cases, the bank should position itself so as to be able to provide all funds at settlement and to receive full surplus at settlement.

Maybe it will get to the point where practitioners nominate settlement for the day before the actual settlement day, so that everything is in place, and then let it roll over to the next day, just to have some breathing space and a chance to eat lunch on a settlement day!

Peter Mericka

Lawyers Conveyancing

[SF]

As an old Bank employee, I am aware that an indicator post nothing was able to be loaded onto the client's account. This had the affect that if anything was received into or funds or debited from the account  it would be rejected. Is there a reason why the same type of indicator cannot be loaded onto the clients account 24 hours prior to settlement, therefore allowing for a final PO to be issued? Some other FI do actually do this and forward a conversation to advise the client the account will be frozen.

[DZTS]

Hi All, and thanks for taking the time and effort to do this.

If we had our own "systems" set up in a way that caused inconvenience and delays for clients, that would still be our problem. So my question, to all the banks, is this: 

Why is it a valid reason that Banks' systems are set up in a way which does so, and why can these systems not be changed? 

[sonia-collins]

Hi 

@DZTS thank you for yours and others comments on this topic. 

Whilst we can't answer for all the banks, we can certainly collectively understand the challenge and frustration. 

We are not only limited from a systems perspective (small changes do take some time to implement) , we are also required to ensure that be are fulfilling the T&C for the various loans and accounts that the customers have. with us 

The removal of redraw access, line of credit limits, business overdrafts limits, and blocking deposits to loans is not something that we can do in day/s prior to settlement  - customers expect us to be able to provide full access to their accounts all the time, on how they use them for day to day living, and sometimes right up until the minute of settlement. 

So whilst we can't provide an answer or a solution today, our Group Strategy of Digital Transformation is to continue to look at the changes around us and improve for not only our customers to do banking with us, but we do good business too - and Digital Settlements is part of this longer term plan. 

In the mean time, we will continue to seek ways that we make other changes to try to reduce the impact and frustrations. 

Sonia (SGB/BOM/BankSA)

[CourtneyFitzgerald]

Hi Team,

To be honest, i have had really positive experiences with the WPC & STG bank group recently with speeding and helpful replies. I agree it would be useful to receive a payout figure before settlement date however understand that this may not be possible as banks need to calculate payout figures on the day of settlement. To work with this, we advise clients of the approximate sale proceeds and advise that their loan payout (once advised) will be taken out of this amount. We also ask them to confirm the amount they expect their loan payout to be, to ensure we do not need to tap into deposit funds etc to settle. Once the payout has been uploaded on the morning of settlement, we email the vendor to confirm the payout amount and proceeds (if any) they will be receiving. It obviously involves extra steps, but sometimes you just have to work with the bank and their processes. 

What is handy, is receiving at least an indicative payout figure so we can ensure that sale proceeds available on completion are sufficient to payout the mortgage.