The Digital Operational Resilience Act (DORA) is a European regulation that aims to enable financial organizations to better manage IT risks and thus become more resilient to cyber threats. DORA will be effective from January 2025 and sets requirements with regard to, among other things, IT risk management, IT incidenthandling, periodic testing of digital resilience and the management of risks when outsourcing to (critical) third parties. With a market share of almost seventy percent, Stater – like HDN – is such a critical third party. That brings great responsibilities, because a hitch in the system can bring the mortgage market to a standstill.
However, that chance is extremely small, Dreuning reassures. "For many years, we have been operating at the level of a critical market party, even though we were not yet a critical market party. Now that we have reached that critical size, we benefit from that foresight. Our standards and security are of such a high level that we can handle that critical position and act quickly in the event of a possible issue. If you look at DORA, resilience and stability become prerequisites. And in our view, this is related to standardization, which should not be confused with uniformity of services. Based on our market share, you can conclude that in recent years, Stater has transformed from market leader to the desired market standard, whereby customers can still be distinctive due to the focus on differentiation." With foresight, Stater is staying on course towards that ultimate goal.
Dreuning has previously said that Stater wants to facilitate the success of its customers. Responding to changing consumer behaviour, changes in legislation and regulations and far-reaching digitisation plays an important role in this. This also applies to the degree of satisfaction of the mortgage advisor with the mortgage process of the lender with whom he does business. Making the advisor’s job easier is therefore one of the spearheads of the Stater philosophy.
In the Netherlands, Stater enables advisors to quickly and efficiently help consumers using Staters E-advisor tooling. All necessary files can be uploaded in this portal, the advisor can view the status of files and see what actions still need to be taken. Moreover, the consumer can give the advisor remote access to personal mortgage information. The advisor portal was created in co-creation with advisors and Stater's customers (lenders). E-advisor enables the advisor to manage both new and current mortgages. In addition, E-advisor has a digital mailbox that enables lenders to share important news with the collaborating advisors. Stater's ambition is to gradually introduce E-advisor capabilities or comparable digital tools in the other focus countries, taking into account country specific mortgage distribution models.
Stater has the top 3 most successful mortgage lenders in the Netherlands as customers, as well as the specialized mortgage lender. The size of the mortgage portfolio does not determine the hierarchy, Dreuning emphasizes. "At Stater, we don't talk about big and small. Every customer is important and we want to facilitate them successfully. We make clear agreements to achieve that success. I can reassure customers and potential new customers who may have the fear of being displaced by the largest market players, there is no question of displacement at Stater."
If we do look at the portfolio ratio, Dreuning sees the recent movement in which large market players opt for outsourcing as a positive development for parties with a smaller portfolio. "Laws and regulations are becoming increasingly important and therefore more costly for organizations. Due to the scale, Stater is able to think more in terms of generic solutions, which benefits all our customers. Thanks to the recently welcomed customers, we are also increasing our investment power. This year we are investing more than forty million euros in improving our systems and optimising the customer and user experience, and next year that will certainly not decrease. With the arrival of major players such as Aegon and ING, the position of all our customers is strengthening. They are already winning the most awards and that number will only increase in the future," Dreuning concludes amusedly.
In its home market of the Netherlands, Stater has achieved one success after another this year. At the beginning of this year, it became clear that the combination of a.s.r. and Aegon had chosen Stater. In the coming year, both mortgage portfolios will be merged into Stater's mortgage platform. As a result, the market share in the Netherlands grows to almost 50 percent. In the spring, ING also expressed its intention to use Stater's mortgage platform. At the moment, all applications go through ING's own mortgage systems. The transition to Stater's mortgage platform is a multi-year process that is divided into several phases. The processing of mortgage applications and mortgage servicing will continue to be carried out by ING employees in the new situation. With ING on board, Stater's market share will once again receive a significant growth boost.
Ten years ago, Erwin Dreuning and Managing Director New Business & Innovation Arjan Hessels came up with the 'roof tile method', which allows the implementation of several new lenders to take place simultaneously, without affecting the ongoing business. Dreuning: "The first roof tile represents the first phase of the implementation process. If one party moves to the second phase, we start the implementation process for the next party in the first phase. In this way, we can successfully run the implementation of three new parties side by side, separately from the existing organization. That does not alter the fact that migrations of this magnitude are very complex."
After completion of the planned migrations, Stater will manage almost 500 billion euros in mortgages in the Benelux and Germany. Europe beckons and thanks to major shareholder Infosys, Stater is able to act quickly. In 2021, Stater acquired the remaining shares in Stater Belgium from the Federal Holding and Investment Company (FPIM). As a result, Stater Belgium became a 100 percent subsidiary of the Netherlands-based NV. A year later, Stater took the next step in implementing its international growth strategy. A new branch in Düsseldorf strengthens the company's market position in Europe. In the German market, neobanks are rapidly gaining ground, especially among younger consumers. Traditional players are therefore challenged to make digitisation and customer focus the core of their services. The digital greenfield proposition, an advanced combined SaaS/BPO solution with which Stater serves the German market, can support both groups. Last year, Stater enabled the start of Lloyds Bank as a mortgage lender in Germany. Both parties developed a proposition in which almost every step of the mortgage process is digitized. In the Netherlands – thanks in part to a quarter of a century of Stater – this is almost a matter of course. For a traditional German market, however, this digitization is groundbreaking. What is also special is that the Dutch Stater, as the first service provider in Germany, is the gateway to the German mortgage market for foreign mortgage lenders. "In doing so, we anticipate the next step in the European Capital Market and Banking Union, which will rapidly gain ground in the long term," says Dreuning.
] Stater's mortgage services extend from facilitating the orientation phase up to and including its redemption, and everything in between. Stater does this for more than forty lenders. The mortgage services have been rated by the American credit rating agency Fitch Ratings with the highest rating for 'primary servicing' in Europe. The history of Stater goes back to January 1st1997. Founded as a subsidiary of Bouwfonds, it became an independent company within the ABN Amro Group after its privatisation in 2001. In 2005, the company merged with the ABN Amro mortgage administration. With the arrival of Erwin Dreuning, the transition that has led to the current successes was initiated. In 2019, three-quarters of the shares were sold to Infosys BPM to accelerate the strategy. A globally operating provider of IT and BPO services, active in several countries in the field of mortgage administration. Since then, ABN Amro has held a strategic stake in Stater with the remaining quarter of shares and has remained a customer even after the sale. "With Infosys and ABN Amro, we have two shareholders with a long-term vision for Stater. That brings stability and confidence. Two things that will become even more important in the future," says Dreuning.
”New legislation such as DORA requires resilience and stability and therefore leads to consolidation within the mortgage domain.”
"Every customer is important and we want to facilitate them successfully"
"Every customer is important and we want to facilitate them successfully"
Stater has been active on the Dutch market as a provider of mortgage services for more than a quarter of a century. As an outsourcing partner, the largest mortgage service provider is on its way to a market share of almost seventy percent. Under the leadership of CEO Erwin Dreuning, Stater has been achieving one success after another for more than a decade. With the ultimate goal of Stater as the market standard for a fast and reliable mortgage process.
Stater: from market leader to market standard
”New legislation such as DORA requires resilience and stability and therefore leads to consolidation within the mortgage domain.”
Stater has the top 3 most successful mortgage lenders in the Netherlands as customers, as well as the specialized mortgage lender. The size of the mortgage portfolio does not determine the hierarchy, Dreuning emphasizes. "At Stater, we don't talk about big and small. Every customer is important and we want to facilitate them successfully. We make clear agreements to achieve that success. I can reassure customers and potential new customers who may have the fear of being displaced by the largest market players, there is no question of displacement at Stater."
If we do look at the portfolio ratio, Dreuning sees the recent movement in which large market players opt for outsourcing as a positive development for parties with a smaller portfolio. "Laws and regulations are becoming increasingly important and therefore more costly for organizations. Due to the scale, Stater is able to think more in terms of generic solutions, which benefits all our customers. Thanks to the recently welcomed customers, we are also increasing our investment power. This year we are investing more than forty million euros in improving our systems and optimising the customer and user experience, and next year that will certainly not decrease. With the arrival of major players such as Aegon and ING, the position of all our customers is strengthening. They are already winning the most awards and that number will only increase in the future," Dreuning concludes amusedly.
The Digital Operational Resilience Act (DORA) is a European regulation that aims to enable financial organizations to better manage IT risks and thus become more resilient to cyber threats. DORA will be effective from January 2025 and sets requirements with regard to, among other things, IT risk management, IT incidenthandling, periodic testing of digital resilience and the management of risks when outsourcing to (critical) third parties. With a market share of almost seventy percent, Stater – like HDN – is such a critical third party. That brings great responsibilities, because a hitch in the system can bring the mortgage market to a standstill.
However, that chance is extremely small, Dreuning reassures. "For many years, we have been operating at the level of a critical market party, even though we were not yet a critical market party. Now that we have reached that critical size, we benefit from that foresight. Our standards and security are of such a high level that we can handle that critical position and act quickly in the event of a possible issue. If you look at DORA, resilience and stability become prerequisites. And in our view, this is related to standardization, which should not be confused with uniformity of services. Based on our market share, you can conclude that in recent years, Stater has transformed from market leader to the desired market standard, whereby customers can still be distinctive due to the focus on differentiation." With foresight, Stater is staying on course towards that ultimate goal.
Dreuning has previously said that Stater wants to facilitate the success of its customers. Responding to changing consumer behaviour, changes in legislation and regulations and far-reaching digitisation plays an important role in this. This also applies to the degree of satisfaction of the mortgage advisor with the mortgage process of the lender with whom he does business. Making the advisor’s job easier is therefore one of the spearheads of the Stater philosophy.
In the Netherlands, Stater enables advisors to quickly and efficiently help consumers using Staters E-advisor tooling. All necessary files can be uploaded in this portal, the advisor can view the status of files and see what actions still need to be taken. Moreover, the consumer can give the advisor remote access to personal mortgage information. The advisor portal was created in co-creation with advisors and Stater's customers (lenders). E-advisor enables the advisor to manage both new and current mortgages. In addition, E-advisor has a digital mailbox that enables lenders to share important news with the collaborating advisors. Stater's ambition is to gradually introduce E-advisor capabilities or comparable digital tools in the other focus countries, taking into account country specific mortgage distribution models.
In its home market of the Netherlands, Stater has achieved one success after another this year. At the beginning of this year, it became clear that the combination of a.s.r. and Aegon had chosen Stater. In the coming year, both mortgage portfolios will be merged into Stater's mortgage platform. As a result, the market share in the Netherlands grows to almost 50 percent. In the spring, ING also expressed its intention to use Stater's mortgage platform. At the moment, all applications go through ING's own mortgage systems. The transition to Stater's mortgage platform is a multi-year process that is divided into several phases. The processing of mortgage applications and mortgage servicing will continue to be carried out by ING employees in the new situation. With ING on board, Stater's market share will once again receive a significant growth boost.
Ten years ago, Erwin Dreuning and Managing Director New Business & Innovation Arjan Hessels came up with the 'roof tile method', which allows the implementation of several new lenders to take place simultaneously, without affecting the ongoing business. Dreuning: "The first roof tile represents the first phase of the implementation process. If one party moves to the second phase, we start the implementation process for the next party in the first phase. In this way, we can successfully run the implementation of three new parties side by side, separately from the existing organization. That does not alter the fact that migrations of this magnitude are very complex."
"Every customer is important and we want to facilitate them successfully"
After completion of the planned migrations, Stater will manage almost 500 billion euros in mortgages in the Benelux and Germany. Europe beckons and thanks to major shareholder Infosys, Stater is able to act quickly. In 2021, Stater acquired the remaining shares in Stater Belgium from the Federal Holding and Investment Company (FPIM). As a result, Stater Belgium became a 100 percent subsidiary of the Netherlands-based NV. A year later, Stater took the next step in implementing its international growth strategy. A new branch in Düsseldorf strengthens the company's market position in Europe. In the German market, neobanks are rapidly gaining ground, especially among younger consumers. Traditional players are therefore challenged to make digitisation and customer focus the core of their services. The digital greenfield proposition, an advanced combined SaaS/BPO solution with which Stater serves the German market, can support both groups. Last year, Stater enabled the start of Lloyds Bank as a mortgage lender in Germany. Both parties developed a proposition in which almost every step of the mortgage process is digitized. In the Netherlands – thanks in part to a quarter of a century of Stater – this is almost a matter of course. For a traditional German market, however, this digitization is groundbreaking. What is also special is that the Dutch Stater, as the first service provider in Germany, is the gateway to the German mortgage market for foreign mortgage lenders. "In doing so, we anticipate the next step in the European Capital Market and Banking Union, which will rapidly gain ground in the long term," says Dreuning.
] Stater's mortgage services extend from facilitating the orientation phase up to and including its redemption, and everything in between. Stater does this for more than forty lenders. The mortgage services have been rated by the American credit rating agency Fitch Ratings with the highest rating for 'primary servicing' in Europe. The history of Stater goes back to January 1st1997. Founded as a subsidiary of Bouwfonds, it became an independent company within the ABN Amro Group after its privatisation in 2001. In 2005, the company merged with the ABN Amro mortgage administration. With the arrival of Erwin Dreuning, the transition that has led to the current successes was initiated. In 2019, three-quarters of the shares were sold to Infosys BPM to accelerate the strategy. A globally operating provider of IT and BPO services, active in several countries in the field of mortgage administration. Since then, ABN Amro has held a strategic stake in Stater with the remaining quarter of shares and has remained a customer even after the sale. "With Infosys and ABN Amro, we have two shareholders with a long-term vision for Stater. That brings stability and confidence. Two things that will become even more important in the future," says Dreuning.
Stater: from market leader to market standard
Stater has been active on the Dutch market as a provider of mortgage services for more than a quarter of a century. As an outsourcing partner, the largest mortgage service provider is on its way to a market share of almost seventy percent. Under the leadership of CEO Erwin Dreuning, Stater has been achieving one success after another for more than a decade. With the ultimate goal of Stater as the market standard for a fast and reliable mortgage process.