Bank First lending policy starts with the application channel: a direct home-loan enquiry does not establish an entitlement to broker upfront or trail. Establish who accepts the application and who has a contractual right to payment before including commission in your forecast. Then assess the applicants’ income and residential security separately from any occupation-based offer.
Broker Origination and Payment Eligibility
Bank First’s published contact route connects home-loan applicants with its own mobile bankers. Its home-loan enquiry options include appointments at home or work, by phone or at a branch. Treat that as a direct lending route.
For a broker-assisted file, identify the legal entity receiving the application and the agreement authorising your involvement. If an intermediary accepts the file, record its name and your relationship to it. A client’s permission to speak with the bank establishes your authority to discuss their file. A separate payment agreement establishes remuneration.
Include upfront or trail only where the applicable agreement names the recipient and the calculation. Record the payment basis, settlement conditions and any intermediary deduction beside the rate. An advertised home-loan interest rate gives you none of those commission terms.
Use the Bank First access and enquiry guide for contact routes. Keep the commercial agreement with the file so another person can trace any expected payment to its source.
Clawback and Refinance Treatment
An early closure creates a broker clawback only under a payment arrangement that provides for recovery. Separate the borrower’s loan-exit costs from the recovery of commission paid to an intermediary or broker. Those charges belong to different agreements and can have different recipients.
For any paid arrangement, record the recovery trigger and the amount recoverable at each point in the agreed period. Preserve the wording governing partial repayments as well as full discharge. Do not apply another lender’s clawback tiers to a Bank First file.
An external refinance pays out the Bank First loan through another lender. An internal refinance changes the lending within Bank First. Treat each event according to the payment agreement, including whether existing trail continues or a fresh payment arises.
For example, a client switching products within Bank First has a different transaction from a client discharging to another bank. Record the actual event before estimating its effect on remuneration. A product change alone is insufficient evidence of a new upfront payment.
Additional Funds and Loan Splits
A top-up needs its own credit assessment and a separate decision about any payment entitlement. Bank First’s Credit Guide applies its suitability assessment to an increase in an existing credit limit as well as new credit.
Show the existing balance and the proposed increase separately in your submission. If the payment agreement covers additional lending, use its definition of eligible new funds. Keep any redraw of previously repaid funds distinct from an approved limit increase.
Changing one loan into fixed and variable splits changes the account structure. It does not, by itself, prove additional funds have settled. Preserve the original account references and the resulting split references so payment records can follow the same debt.
For a split change combined with a top-up, identify the increase independently of the transferred balance. This prevents an estimate from treating the entire restructured loan as new lending.
Membership and Applicant Eligibility
Assess eligibility for a Bank First occupation-based offer separately from the applicant’s ability to repay. Employment in education or healthcare can affect access to a particular concession. It does not establish a restriction applying to every Bank First home loan.
Bank First’s partner employee home-loan offer requires employment with a Bank First partner and a valid promotional code. Its terms use payslips to establish eligibility. For multiple applicants, that offer requires only one applicant to work for a partner. This offer is available through Bank First’s direct channel only, and the applicant’s salary must be credited into a Bank First transaction account.
Apply that joint-applicant rule to the named offer only. For each applicant, record their identity, employment and role in the loan. Mark which applicant supplies the partner employment evidence, then retain the offer terms and code used in the application.
Keep any membership or account-opening requirement as its own item in the file. A payslip proving eligibility for an employment concession does not establish that every other applicant or loan condition is satisfied.
Employment and Income Documents
Build the Bank First income file around earnings the applicants can demonstrate and the repayments they must meet. Bank First’s first home buyer checklist calls for identification, proof of income and details of savings, debts and expenses.
Use payslips to identify base pay separately from overtime, allowances or other variable earnings. Reconcile the income relied on with the client’s employment circumstances. Where variable earnings support the application, retain the history that explains the amount you propose to use.
For an applicant on leave, show the income available during leave and the expected return-to-work arrangements separately. An employer letter can explain the return date and hours. Supporting records must also show how repayments are met before ordinary pay resumes.
Present those documents as evidence for assessment. Do not turn an employer’s confirmation into an assumed Bank First acceptance rule for every income type. The Credit Guide says the bank’s enquiries depend on the circumstances and include steps to verify the financial situation.
Purpose and Property Acceptance
Match the Bank First product to the loan’s purpose and residential security before relying on an advertised concession. The Complete Home Loan security description specifies a first mortgage over owner-occupied or investment property and excludes commercial property.
For a purchase, identify who will own the property and who will occupy it. For an investment, identify the proposed rental use and the income evidence relied on. For a refinance, separate the existing debt being repaid from any additional borrowing.
Occupation-based concessions have their own property and purpose conditions. Bank First’s product page describes restrictions involving refinance equity release, construction and off-the-plan property for particular concessions. Applying a general residential security description to a concession can therefore produce the wrong result.
State the requested concession beside the property type and purpose. Keep any postcode or security exception explicit in the scenario rather than assuming an occupation qualification overrides it.
Questions to Resolve Before Submission
Prepare a Bank First scenario summary that lets the recipient decide the exact channel or credit question. Include the applicants’ occupations and income relied on. Describe the property, loan purpose and requested loan structure. Name the person or entity receiving the file.
Keep the questions separate so a credit answer cannot be mistaken for a payment agreement.
- Identify whether the file proceeds directly with Bank First or through a named authorised intermediary, and who receives any agreed remuneration.
- Set out the requested offer and the applicant evidence supporting it, including the qualifying joint applicant where relevant.
- Describe the precise credit exception, such as reliance on leave-period income or a property outside the concession’s security conditions.
- Show the proposed payment treatment for new funds or an existing loan change, with the contractual clause supporting it.
Retain the completed fact-find, identity and income documents, property evidence and product terms. Keep the channel confirmation and any remuneration agreement alongside the bank’s written decision and your recommendation reasons.
Use the lender policy directory when comparing another lender’s conditions. Proceed with a Bank First recommendation when the file shows how the client qualifies and how the proposed structure meets their needs.
