CONTACTING BANKS

[CourtneyFitzgerald]

Hi PEXA,

We have been advised by PEXA that if banks within a workspace are not replying or making the workspace ready for settlement that we have to call the booking line to chase them up.

We have been doing so for the last week and not a single person on the booking line for NAB, WPC and many other banks know anything about PEXA support or how to liaise with their PEXA team.

Surely there is a PEXA specific support line for banks we can contact. The emails available in the subscriber contact card for the banks are not helpful as the automatic response provides for a reply from anywhere between 24hrs to 7 days. 

If we are unable to contact PEXA or the banks to sort out urgent settlement issues and the banks do not respond within the workspace what do we do?

We are having more and more settlements fall over and are wasting more and more time walking the bank through their job to the point where a PAPER settlement is now more time efficient and easier to arrange.

I cannot rely on PEXA settlements occurring on time due the lack of communication with banks, even if all parties have accepted the time/date in the workspace and therefore have disappointed purchasers and vendors waiting at agents offices or with removalists out the front of properties. We will therefore be completing all matters via PAPER until this is resolved. There needs to be a more direct line of contact between conveyancers/solicitors and the banks PEXA specific help line.

At least when I book in a paper settlement with the bank, I know it is ready to occur at that time. 

- Courtney @ Edmonds

[Clara]

I totally agree with you Courtney.

After my unpleasant experience with these banks, I am having second thoughts of settling thru PEXA unless it becomes unavoidable.

[HeatherC]

Hi @CourtneyFitzgerald, 

Thanks for your comments  - I will contact you by private message to gather some more information. 

Heather

[HelenBurns]

Hi Courtney,

Totally agree. I will be considering withdrawing all work spaces with incoming or outgoing lenders because of a certain lenders actions today.

I can't risk the settlement falling over - banks seem to have no idea/care of the urgency.

They really need to have the work space signed and ready to go 1 business day prior.

[CourtneyFitzgerald]

Absolutely! I cannot believe the time I have wasted this morning on one matter due to a certain bank not being contactable and PEXA not being able to assist. And we still haven't settled!!!

If PEXA are no longer contacting the banks to chase them up, we should be given the same contact numbers PEXA had so we can contact the banks direct.

- Courtney @ Edmonds

[Sarah_Jewell]

Hi Courtney,

I'm so sorry to hear you've had this experience, particularly with our phone lines within Westpac. Since late January this year we've added a dedicated option to our Settlement Booking Hotline which is directly answered by our operational team here in Adelaide, with people skilled in using PEXA answering the calls. The phone line has been very popular,  we've received several thousand calls since implementation, and as such we will absolutely keep this going and continue to invest as the demand for this phone line grows. If you have any more feedback you'd like to share with me please don't hesitate to send me a direct message -  with feedback we can make improvements and ensure this service is meeting the requirements of everyone involved.

Sarah

[Karolidis_and_Co]

Completely agree with the above, the process is much worse than paper IF the incoming/outgoing mortgagees leave routine matters to last minute, do not answer conversation messages for days or require 2/3 follow ups.  I am concerned that the ability to settle at the last minute is building more "fat" into the transaction and some bank team members pushing things to the last minute compared to the prior process of at least being ready for payout figures/available funds a day before settlement...

For a transaction today we were notified by a major bank that there was no linked account for shortfall 3 hours prior to settlement and the client had to run around to transfer funds into our trust account.  Not sure what would have occurred for those practitioners without a trust account however this was very frustrating for the client as you can appreciate.

[Clara]

That is what I am worried about, we do not operate a trust account and if banks do not tell us early that they do not hold authority, we will not have enough time to request for clients to create and deposit to the PEXA source funds.

[jgusew]

Westpac recently introducted a way to directly contact their PEXA team. I cant say we have had any trouble yet. We have lots of GUI issues though with PEXA's side of things - such as click here to make that work, sign that first otherwise that gets unsigned, statement of adjustments showing double, lodgement fees adding money after trust sign off has already occurred...

@TheDoctor @nicolalambrakis may be able to explain some of the things that Westpac are doing to assist from within the FI space. 

[MattKerr]

Hi Courtney,

thanks for the chat this morning about your experience on our phone line.

As we spoke about NAB have recently up skilled more staff to have a stronger knowledge of PEXA matters to deal with urgent day of settlement escalations, This will help us to resolve more PEXA related questions at first point of contact. 

Whilst this matter could not be solved by the team member on the phone as a Banker needed to provide the information, I am confident you will see an improved level of knowledge on the line over the coming weeks. 

We are also being more proactive with our transfer settlements completing funds available and payout figures earlier in the process to reduce conversations and the need to call closer to settlement.