Licensing Information

The Lending Department Limited (FSP166964) (The Lending Department, we, us, our) holds a licence issued by the Financial Markets Authority to provide financial advice.  The Financial Markets Authority has not imposed any specific conditions on the licence issued to The Lending Department Limited.

Duties Information

The Lending Department and our advisers have duties under the Financial Markets Conduct Act 2013 relating to the way that we give advice. Specifically, we are required to do the following:

• Give priority to your interests.
• Exercise care, diligence, and skill.
• Meet standards of competence, knowledge and skill set by the Code of Professional Conduct for Financial Advice Services.
• Meet standards of ethical behaviour, conduct and client care set by the Code of Professional Conduct for Financial Advice Services.

Nature and scope of the services that we provide

We offer the following financial adviser services:

• Mortgage lending advice:  Financial advice in relation to commercial lending and lending secured against owner occupied and investment properties offered by bank and non-bank lenders.
• Asset lending advice: Financial advice in relation to lending secured against an asset other than real estate (e.g. a car, boat etc) offered by bank and non-bank lenders.
• Business/commercial lending advice: Financial advice in relation to unsecured business lending offered by bank and non-bank lenders.

We only provide financial advice in relation to products offered by bank and non-bank lenders that we have established terms of business with.  These arrangements do not give rise to any contractual requirement or obligation to place any level of business with these lenders.  Instead, they reflect a mutual understanding that we may place business with these lenders.

The bank lenders that we have established terms of business with are AIA, ANZ, ASB, BNZ, Heartland Bank, Kiwibank, SBS Bank, The Co-Operative Bank, TSB, and Westpac Bank.

We can provide details of the non-bank lenders that we have established terms of business with upon request.

How we get paid for the services that we provide

Set out below is important information on the commission and fees that we will earn in connection with providing advice to you.  We will set out in writing the specific commission and fees that we will receive prior to you agreeing to proceed with our advice.

Bank Lending

 

Mortgage Lending

We receive a commission of up to 0.85% of the loan amount from the bank for a home loan.

 

Rate Refix

We receive a fee of up to $150 from some banks when we assist you with refixing your interest rate.

 

Short Term Lending

Where your lending is intended for a short term only, we may also charge you a fee for providing advice to you. This fee will be based on the estimated number of hours to provide the advice at an hourly rate of $250 (plus GST) per hour. The reason for this fee in these circumstances is because where you repay your loan shortly after settlement, we will be required to repay some, or all, of the commission that we received from the bank. Unless otherwise agreed with you in writing in advance, we will not charge you this fee.

 

Trail

In some cases, we receive an ongoing commission of between 0.1% pa – 1% pa of the remaining loan balance from the bank for each year that your loan remains with that bank. This commission is paid to us by the bank monthly.

 

Business/Commercial Lending

We may charge a fee of up to 1.00% of the loan amount for business or commercial lending from a bank. Unless otherwise agreed with you in writing in advance, we will not charge you this fee.

 

Asset Lending

We may receive a commission of up to 3% of the loan amount for asset lending from a bank.

 

 

Non-Bank Lending

 

Mortgage Lending

We charge you a fee of up to 1.00% of the loan amount for a residential or commercial loan through a non-bank lender. This fee is usually added to your loan amount and paid to us by the non-bank lender.

 

Business/Commercial Lending

We may charge a fee of up to 1.00% of the loan amount for business or commercial lending from a bank. Unless otherwise agreed with you in writing in advance, we will not charge you this fee.

 

Asset Lending

We may receive a commission of up to 3% of the loan amount for asset lending from a bank.

Conflicts of interest, commissions and other incentives

Conflicts of Interest

• We don’t have any conflicts of interest that exist or that are likely to arise which would influence the advice that we provide to you.  If this changes, we will contact you and advise you of the nature and scope of any actual or potential conflicts of interest.

Commissions and incentives

• We receive commission and fees from the lenders that we place business with.  The commission and fees that we receive, are set out above under “How we get paid for the services that we provide”.  At the time of providing advice to you, we will also set out the specific commission and fees that we will receive in connection with our advice.

Management of conflicts of interest

We take the following steps to manage actual, potential, or perceived conflicts of interest (referred to as “conflicts of interest”):

• Advisers are not incentivised to promote one lender over another.
• We follow an advice process that ensures that our recommendations are made on the basis of each client’s circumstances, goals, and risk appetite.
• We have a Conflicts of Interest Policy which sets out how we identify conflicts of interest and how we ensure that these conflicts of interest are appropriately managed so that we prioritise our client’s interests at all times.
• We require all persons within The Lending Department, including our financial advisers, to receive training on the identification and management of conflicts of interest.

Complaints

If you are not satisfied with our services or our advice, please let us know as soon as possible by emailing us at complaints@theld.co.nz.

Within 48 hours of receiving your complaint, we will be in contact with you and will either propose a solution to your complaint or we will provide you with a summary of next steps.  If we aren’t able to resolve your complaint immediately, we will investigate and resolve your complaint in accordance with our internal complaints process. We aim to resolve complaints within 10 working days of receiving them.  If we can’t resolve a complaint within this timeframe, we will contact you and let you know that we require more time to investigate and resolve your complaint.

Following the completion of our internal complaints process, if you are not happy with our proposed resolution or our handling of your complaint, you can escalate your complaint to Financial Services Complaints Limited (FSCL).  FSCL is an independent dispute resolution scheme.  FSCL will, on receiving a complaint, investigate and resolve the complaint free of charge. More information about FSCL and their dispute resolution process can be found at http://www.fscl.org.nz/ .

You can contact FSCL by emailing complaints@fscl.org.nz, or by calling 0800 347 257 (free phone). You can also write to them at PO Box 5967, Lambton Quay, Wellington 6145.