Economic volatility has delayed CUA's re-entry to the broker market, the mutual has indicated.

In December, CUA general manager of strategy and marketing Andrew Hadley told Australian BrokerNews the credit union was eyeing a return to the third-party channel, given the right market conditions. Hadley has now said recent economic instability has proven a setback in the company's plans.

"If you had asked me a month ago, I would have said we were absolutely making progress, but we really do need this period of volatility to settle itself out and see where the dust settles," Hadley said.

CUA had set about strategising its return to the broker channel, Hadley said, but difficult conditions mean such strategies will have to be re-evaluated. Hadley stated, however, that the mutual remains committed to seeing third-party origination become a reality.

"Conditions had improved and we were doing some fairly advanced modelling. The market volatility doesn't help, but we're still absolutely committed when we know we can make the model work to return to the broker channel," he remarked.

Hadley conceded that CUA has lost out by not being open to brokers, and indicated that mortgage growth was more challenging without utilising the channel.

"With 40% of the market dominated by brokers, the fact that we're not in it means we're playing in a much smaller pond. We're pleased that we've been able to grow 50% above the market, but it's been a fairly significant challenge," he said.

While market conditions have remained volatile, Hadley said, this volatility has led to a better funding position. In light of this, CUA has joined the rush of lenders making cuts to fixed rate products. The lender recently lowered its three-year fixed rate to 6.39%.

"There's absolutely been some significant changes in wholesale prices as a result of the market volatility. The market is not pricing in a number of rate decreases, and it provides us the opportunity to secure funds at a relatively cheap rate," Hadley said.