Australia's sixth-largest lender overhauls offering in bid to win over self-employed homebuyers
ING has capped off one of its busiest years in recent memory with an overhaul of its self-employed lending strategy.
While Australia’s sixth-largest mortgage lender is not typically associated with the self-employed lending segment, the Dutch multinational has shown a keen appetite for diversification in 2025.
Under the leadership of head of business banking Hein Wegdam, it has gone full hog on commercial lending, while recently appointed head of SME Amanda Tay was brought on to expand the bank’s presence in that space.
It was only natural to start targeting the self-employed segment, since, as ING’s national sales manager – broker Sergio Delvescovo noted, “62.5% of Australians are currently operating in that self‑employed sector”.
Delvescovo admitted that there’s been a “limited” number of brokers who have considered ING for self-employed lending in the past. But through discussions with the broking community, he has sought to reduce the barriers that have been in place.
Policy overhaul
Simplifying the application process has been paramount, while one-year income verification has been implemented, and company and trust earnings can now be included in serviceability calculations.
Under new company-ownership policies, customers who own 50% or more of a company can use that percentage of that income for serviceability.
ING worked with brokers to help design these policy updates. “We got a group of brokers together to discuss opportunities on how we can help them do more business, become more efficient in their business, and how ING can really support the industry with that,” explained Delvescovo.
He continued: “We want brokers to feel confident recommending ING as a genuine alternative and we want them to see that this new policy reflects the feedback that they have given us over the past few years.
“Although this is a segment we haven’t actively played in for 7–8 years, we’ve taken the time to understand what’s needed, and the result is a policy that positions ING as a genuine alternative for self-employed Australians.
“This is the beginning of a journey for us in residential lending for the SME segment. Having seen how important this market is through our commercial and business banking arm, we’re now bringing that focus into our home loan offering. Over the past 12–18 months, only a small percentage of brokers have submitted self-employed applications with ING, and we’re looking forward to changing that.”
ING will be competing with an extensive cohort of alternative lenders – including the likes of RedZed and Pepper Money – that have made substantial headway into the self-employed lending space.
For Delvescovo, ING’s reputation as a broker-first bank (95% of home lending volume originates via the broker channel) puts it in a good position to face up to the competition.
“For us, it’s about growing the awareness of ING as a true alternative in this segment… We're a broker bank. We have strong broker NPS, we have strong customer satisfaction. We're a highly recommended bank for brokers.
“Providing (brokers) with a reason and becoming a true alternative in this segment will enable us to be recommended to more self‑employed clients.”
Part of ING’s broader expansion strategy has included changes to its investment credit policy.
“We made some tweaks that supported improving the borrowing capacity for investors and, as a result, our investment segment has grown about 38%,” said Delvescovo.
ING also surpassed Bendigo and Adelaide Bank to become Australia’s sixth-largest mortgage lender this August, which head of mortgages George Thompson called a “testament to the commitment that we've shown to the broker channel, the unwavering support that we have to brokers and customers alike”.
