As bank branches close, brokers have become the practical point of access to credit for many regional and outer-suburban borrowers — and the distribution channel that smaller lenders depend on.
Bank branch numbers have fallen sharply over the past decade, with regional communities absorbing much of the decline. Deloitte's Value of Mortgage and Finance Broking 2025 describes the consequence plainly: for a growing number of borrowers, a broker is the only face-to-face credit professional within reach.
Choice, not just access
Access matters less if it comes with one product. The value of the third-party channel is that a single conversation opens a panel of lenders — including non-majors, mutuals and specialist lenders that have no physical presence outside capital cities.
- Smaller and non-bank lenders rely on brokers as their primary distribution channel
- Panel access gives regional borrowers the same lender choice as metropolitan applicants
- Self-employed, seasonal and non-standard income borrowers benefit most from breadth of panel
- Brokers absorb the assessment and documentation work that branch staff previously handled
"For lenders without a branch network, the broker channel is not a supplementary route to market. It is the market."
The service obligation that follows
Being the default access point creates an ongoing duty. Regional clients are less likely to be re-targeted by comparison sites and less likely to walk into a branch to ask about their rate. If their broker does not review the loan, in practice nobody does — and a competitive rate written in 2022 quietly becomes an uncompetitive one.
Practical implication
Books with a heavy regional weighting should run on a scheduled review cycle rather than reactive contact. The clients least likely to call you are usually the ones with the most to gain from a review.
Source: Deloitte Access Economics, The Value of Mortgage and Finance Broking 2025, prepared for the MFAA (February 2025).