Referral partner mortgage updates: set a clear sharing boundary

Give referral partners mortgage updates only through the brokerage's approved sharing process: verify the recipient, purpose, permitted information and review point before sending. Use a checked factual milestone and a next contact where appropriate. A referral relationship alone should not be treated as permission to send a borrower file or detailed financial information.

This guide helps an assistant coordinate updates to accountants, agents or other referral partners. It does not determine the legal basis for a particular disclosure. Have the brokerage's responsible privacy or compliance owner approve the sharing process and any uncertain request.

Define the audience separately from the borrower

A customer update and a referral-partner update have different recipients and purposes. Do not copy a message intended for the borrower into a partner email without checking its scope. A partner may need an acknowledgement or an agreed milestone, while the borrower needs a more detailed explanation from the broker.

Record the partner's verified contact route and the relationship relevant to this file. Check whether they are the referrer, the customer's appointed professional or another party. Those roles should not be treated as interchangeable simply because the people know each other.

The OAIC's APP 6 guidance explains that an APP entity may generally use or disclose personal information for its collection purpose, with secondary purposes requiring an applicable exception. Consent is one exception; its application depends on the circumstances. Use the guidance to inform the approved process, rather than inventing a blanket rule for every referral.

Create a sharing record before drafting the message

Referral update send gate

Question	Record to check
Who is receiving this?	Verified partner and contact route
Why are we sending it?	Approved purpose for the update
What may be shared?	Scope recorded under the brokerage process
What is the current fact?	Source and checked time for the milestone
Who reviews exceptions?	Named broker or responsible owner
What happens next?	Next contact or check, where appropriate

If a required answer is missing, route a question internally before sending. Keep the uncertainty explicit. Do not infer the permitted scope from an earlier email that happened to include more information.

Keep the sharing record in the approved file context. It should be findable by a covering colleague without requiring a broad team spreadsheet of borrower details. Record changes when the approved recipient or purpose changes.

Use a restrained milestone template

Hi [partner], following the agreed update arrangement for [approved reference], the checked milestone is [approved factual wording] as at [time and date]. The next agreed contact is [owner or action]. Please direct questions outside this update to [broker/contact].

The template is illustrative and must be adapted to the approved sharing scope. Where no file-level detail is permitted, use the appropriate general acknowledgement instead. Do not insert loan amounts, documents, income details or reasons for a decision merely to make the message feel complete.

Use the factual status-update method to check the milestone source. Do not turn “documents received” into “approved”, or a planned step into a completed event. A short message should still be accurate about what has happened.

Stop when a partner asks for more than the approved scope

Illustrative example: an agent who introduced a customer asks the assistant for the full approval letter and an explanation of the customer's borrowing limit. The assistant checks the sharing record and finds that it only covers an agreed general progress update. The request goes to the broker for a decision rather than being fulfilled by attaching the letter.

The assistant can acknowledge that the question has been referred to the broker without confirming private file details. Keep the request open with a decision owner and next check. The example is fictional and does not establish the answer to a real disclosure question.

If the responsible owner approves a different scope through the organisation's process, update the sharing record before sending. If they decline, record the authorised response. Do not let a deadline or an important commercial relationship bypass the review point.

Keep messages and follow-ups owned

Record the final message, recipient, time, preparer and required reviewer. Link it to the relevant task. If a partner reply creates a new question, assign that question rather than assuming the original sender will resolve everything.

The inbox triage workflow helps separate acknowledgements, factual requests and broker decisions. Define how replies arriving during leave or outside normal overlap reach the current owner. Partner updates should follow the same ownership discipline as customer messages.

Avoid duplicating updates from both the broker and assistant. Check the latest sent message and agreed next contact before drafting. If the milestone has not changed, decide whether another update has a useful purpose under the agreed arrangement.

Review the process using real message samples

• Does the recipient match the approved arrangement?
• Does the information fit the recorded purpose and scope?
• Is the milestone supported by current evidence?
• Were exceptions routed to the responsible owner?
• Can a covering colleague find the message and next action?

Use authorised internal samples to identify unclear instructions, without moving borrower information into public training examples. Improve the sharing record or template where the same question recurs. A ticked checklist does not certify the legal basis of a disclosure.

If coordination with referral partners is a recurring task you want owned, review mortgage assistant responsibilities and share a communication support brief. Include the audiences, approved scope and broker review arrangement so the role can be trained around your actual process.