Mortgage Professional Australia magazine Issue 9.11 by Key Media

www.brokernews.com.au issue 9.11

success celebrating

2009 Australian Mortgage Awards

INVESTORS RETURN Target market to watch

RECRUITMENT HIRING IN A DOWNTURN

UP TO THE CHALLENGE DREW HALL PROFILED

Editor’s letter

Celebrate!

issue

9. 11

Each year the AMAs recognise the industry’s top talent, and 2009 was no disappointment. After months of research, nominations and judging, the best brokers, BDMs, banks and businesses took their turn on the stage for some well deserved recognition. The industry has undergone some massive changes over the years, but the last 12 months were particularly difficult. To shine in 2009 was a real challenge, so we’d like to offer special congratulations to this year’s winners. Speaking of change, at the time of putting this issue together NAB had just announced its bid to take over Challenger’s third party distribution platforms. MPA interviewed Challenger’s chief executive mortgage management Drew Hall to get his take on changeover. We also spoke to FirstMac’s Kim Cannon to find out what he thinks this announcement means for the non-bank sector. For readers who double as Elvis fans, make sure you read our profile on Adelaide Bank’s Damian Percy, whose talent for comedy inspires both love and hate from fans of the King. Happy reading,

Andrea Lavigne Editor

MPA 2.0 Our multimedia edition features on-camera interviews with the industry’s biggest players. Visit Brokernews. com.au/MPA to hear their thoughts on the hottest issues facing mortgage brokers.

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contents

cover story

32 May I have the envelope please... All the 2009 Australian Mortgage Awards. The drama, the winners and the wisdom.

Look for extras in MPA's 2.0 eMag edition. On-camera interviews with:

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2009 amas GOLDEN MORGIE 48

2009 amas broker of the year awards 42

2009 amas YOUNG GUN 41

LOANWORKS ANDREW DUERDEN 61

28 education Preventing foreclosure: Laurence Huge provides advice for brokers to help clients who fall into arrears

9. 11 issue

contents

Recruitment 30 Hiring thaw: expert advice on how best to take advantage of the current job-seekers market

PUBLISHER Justin Kennedy

SALES MANAGER Rajan Khatak

DIRECTOR Claire Preen

Account MANAGER Simon Kerslake

REGIONAL MANAGING EDITOR George Walmsley

HR MANAGER Julia Bookallil

53 Web tips: the latest online marketing advice from web guru Sam Benjamin

MPA LENDER 30

50 Legal: recent changes to property law

EDITOR Andrea Lavigne

54 News: a review of news in the world of non-bank lending and mortgage management.

JOURNALIST Tim Neary

58 Industry profile: Resimac

PRODUCTION EDITOR Tim Stewart

62 Opinion: Kim Cannon calls for more government intervention

PROFILES 12 Brokers: Mandy Kilgore

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16 Leaders: Damian Percy 22 Leaders: Drew Hall

LIFESTYLE 64 My favourite things: Paul Eldridge, Intellitrain

DESIGN MANAGER Jacqui Alexander

MARKETING COORDINATOR Jessica Lee TRAFFIC MANAGER Stacey Rudd

DESIGNER Ben Ng Copyright is reserved throughout. No part of this publication can be reproduced in whole or part without the express permission of the editor. Contributions are invited, but copies of work should be kept, as MPA magazine can accept no responsibility for loss

REGULARS 6 News 20 Book excerpt: Inhuman resources by Michael Stanford

MARKETING MANAGER Danielle Tan

This magazine is printed on paper produced from 100% sustainable forestry, grown and managed specifically for the paper pulp industry

Subscriptions tel (02) 8437 4731 fax (02) 8437 4753 subscriptions@keymedia.com.au Advertising enquiries tel (02) 8437 4772 rajan.khatak@keymedia.com.au tel (02) 8437 4786 simon.kerslake@keymedia.com.au Editorial enquiries tel (02) 8437 4790 fax (02) 9439 4599 larry.schlesinger@keymedia.com.au Key Media Pty Ltd Level 10, 1 Chandos Street St Leonards, NSW 2065 www.brokernews.com.au

News BROKERS

Female brokers punished by re-accreditation fees: Damian Percy Adelaide Bank’s head of third party, Damian Percy, says the consequences of re-accreditation fees unfairly hurt female brokers. “I have real problems with some of the implications of requiring a broker to supply X number of deals to a bank,” he said. “I don’t think there’s been a sufficient case made that it’s the same thing as professionalism or knowledge.” “I worry about the issues for brokers taking time out – particularly maternity leave. I find it ironic that some of the banks that are more supportive of women in the industry aren’t recognising that.” In late July, Bankwest announced it would require brokers to lodge six applications with

them per year (three every six months) in order to keep their accreditation. The move followed similar actions by CBA and Westpac. Complaints that CBA’s policy was an abuse of market power under the Trade Practices legislation were rejected by the ACCC. Other banks such as Citi and ANZ have publicly stated they have no plans to implement volume requirements.

LJ Hooker’s volumes up 26% LJ Hooker Financial Services recorded a 26% increase in August loan settlement figures compared to last year. The impressive figure comes on the back of steady gains. According to the group, loan volumes for the three months to August increased by 8% compared to 2008. General manager for LJ Hooker Financial Services Peter Bromley, says high activity on the real estate side of the business has boosted its loan settlement figures.

“Rising house prices, faster selling times and excellent auction clearance rates are driving the real estate market. This activity is translating into business for LJ Hooker Financial Services as we continue to service our network of offices.” In an effort to maintain buyer momentum, the real estate group launched an October auction campaign. LJ Hooker Financial Hooker teamed up with Suncorp to support the campaign by providing homebuyers with no upfront establishment fees.

1, 500 brokers cut from MFAA

Cathy Anderson takes Smartline’s top honour It appears Cathy Anderson is unbeatable. For the second year in a row, she was awarded Smartline’s Franchise Owner of the Year. The South Australian broker beat 140 franchisees for the group’s highest honour.

Aussie brokers use Facebook to generate leads Two Aussie brokers are demonstrating how to use social networking for business purposes. Serge Scekic and Jim Sharif used their Aussie Dee Why Facebook page to attract new customers and sign loans.

MFAA cuts 1,500 brokers The MFAA took a tough love approach and cut 1,500 brokers who failed to complete the Cert IV in Financial Services by the July 1 deadline. The minimum education requirement was set in 2007.

Macquarie Bank to create superbroker Macquarie Bank is on the verge of announcing the industry’s next superbroker. Industry sources have reported that the lender is setting up a new national broking company that will comprise of National Brokers Group, The Mortgage Professionals, The Brokerage and Specialist Mortgages. The newly formed aggregator would rival the largest players in the sector, and is expected to originate $1bn of home loans through 1,000 brokers. According to sources, South African born Jeffrey Zulman has been appointed as chief executive to oversee the merger. The new business would also serve as an outlet for a suite of Macquarie financial products, such as life insurance and cash management accounts. Brokernews was tipped off about a potential co-operative supported by Macquarie in March, however industry sources have kept quiet since. Macquarie was one of the first to exit the mortgage origination space at the beginning of the GFC, sparking criticism from the broker community. Given the recent NAB proposal to purchase Challenger’s mortgage business, the news of the creation of another big player in the space is particularly interesting.

LJ Hooker Financial Services’ loan volumes for the three months to August increased by 8% compared to 2008

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News banks

NAB/Challenger deal under microscope The ACCC is examining the NAB/Challenger deal closely, according to chairman Graeme Samuel. The regulator is examining the deal on the basis of whether the acquisition will restrict other lenders from dealing with Choice, PLAN and FAST and substantially increase its market share as a result.

Unfair contracts deadline impossible: Banks Implementing the changes required under the unfair contracts law by 1 January is not achievable, argues the Australian Bankers’ Association. “The cost to IT systems will be millions of dollars,” argued chief executive David Bell. “This can’t be rushed.” The ABA is pushing the government to reconsider the deadline and align it with other changes to be adopted under the National Consumer Credit Protection bill, which will come into effect 1 January 2011. Earlier this year, the ABA warned the government that the proposed regime would result in contractual uncertainty for lenders, which in turn could lead to additional costs through the re-pricing of risk. The end result would be higher borrowing costs for consumers, he said. “If this draft legislation is intended to indirectly regulate prices of banks’ products and services, then there is a risk to bank revenue streams. If this were to unfold, there could be impacts on profitability and shareholder returns, as well as possible capital management issues.” Under the proposed regime, customers could agree to terms and conditions for a banking service, and later try to avoid their obligations by claiming a particular term is unfair, the ABA said. “This regulatory approach is completely at odds with the government’s and the financial services industry’s efforts to raise the financial literacy of Australian consumers. This is because there is little or no incentive for consumers to familiarise themselves with their contractual responsibilities,” Bell said.

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Govt pressured to drop guarantee

Treasurer Wayne Swan confirmed the government would leave its bank deposit guarantee in place for three years

US plans to either remove or taper its bank support scheme have renewed pressure on the Australian government to change its guarantee program. Before the G20 Summit in early September, Treasurer Wayne Swan defended the existence of the wholesale funding guarantee, calling it one of the most important measures taken by the government. He also maintained that Australia could not unilaterally drop the guarantee while other countries did not. At the time, he confirmed Australia would leave its bank deposit guarantee in place for three years, and look at the term funding guarantee when conditions normalised.

CBA boss receives 6% pay rise CBA chief executive Ralph Norris received a $9.2m salary package – up 6% on previous earnings. Norris’ package includes $3.3m cash, $2.6m in short-term incentives, $100,000 in superannuation, $1.2m in long-term incentive reward shares, performance rights of $1.9m and $82,020 in benefits.

News property

Home ownership dream on rise More Australians are chasing the Aussie dream, according to a national survey conducted by Homeloans Ltd. The non-bank lender found one in six Australians, or 17%, will consider buying a house in the next 12 months. It’s a significant jump from the 7% who responded positively to the same question in the previous year. Homeloans national marketing manager, Will Keall, described the results as “very encouraging signs for the mortgage and property markets”. “Many have anticipated a decline in the property market following the reduction of the government’s First Home Owner Grant, which takes effect on 1 October,” Keall said. “However, the first homebuyer market represents 52% of those looking to buy in the next 12 months, many of whom have been consciously saving for a deposit over recent months,” he added. A further sign of growing confidence, he said, was the fact that one in five of those in the market are seeking to acquire an investment property. “It appears that low interest rates are encouraging people to consider entering or increasing their stake in the property market, despite widespread predictions that rates are on the way back up,” Keall said. “The survey sends a very strong signal about the sentiment of the market.”

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Borrowers exude optimism

52%

The first homebuyer market represents 52% of those looking to purchase property in the next 12 months, according to Homeloans Ltd’s Will Keall

A new survey by the Westpac-Melbourne Institute found that a record 49% of Australians felt positive about the country’s economic outlook. Only 18% of respondents expressed a negative outlook, which makes the gap between them and those who felt positive about the market the widest on record.

Property sales up 32% in 2008/09 RP Data revealed house sales volumes jumped 32% across Australia in the last 12 months to June, largely thanks to the First Home Owner Grant. The greatest improvement was in Perth, which experienced an increase of almost 60% in home sales. But it should be noted that the market in WA was coming off a very low base – last year’s sales volumes were almost 70% lower than the five-year average.

Bankwest makes waves with new product

Home building shows signs of recovery

Bankwest’s Capped Rate Home Loan has caught the industry’s attention. The discounted standard variable interest rate product is capped at 7.5% until 10 November 2012. It’s being marketed as the only one of its kind in the market, and offers customers the benefits of a variable rate that is comparable to the current market average. The discounted variable rate will be priced at 5.4%, 30 basis points below Bankwest’s current rate of 5.7%.

The Housing Industry Association is predicting a recovery in the sector in the medium term. The HIA’s National Outlook indicated that the number of new home starts in Australia would increase by more than 20% in the next two years.

Profile broker

evolving broker

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Profile broker

As more brokers look to diversify their businesses, Mandy Kilgore talks about the challenges and benefits of moving from broking to financial planning

andy Kilgore is at the forefront of change. The Scottish-born broker turned financial planner has long been recognised as a trend setter in the industry. When Mandy moved to Australia 10 years ago with her husband David, the industrious pair decided to take their banking experience and apply it to the fledgling mortgage broking industry. To meet residency requirements, they set up an aggregation company well-known to many readers – National Brokers Group. At the time most aggregation companies were paying 70–80% of the commission, but Mandy says they never would have been able to survive on that model. So they became the first group to launch a 100% commission model with a very small fee structure. Shortly after, the couple started their own broking business: National Mortgages. “We were looking after the aggregation side during the day, and in the evenings we were both out writing home loans,” she says. They kept up that pace until 2005, but they sensed a change was coming in the aggregation sector. “[We saw that] the whole compliance and regulation regime was going to change and there was not going to be the margins in our structure to meet this cost as we were then offering a 100/100 commission payment to our brokers. We were going to have to put a lot of new infrastructures into place regarding commission, compliance, infrastructure, sources and systems, et cetera which would take a lot of work and our mortgage company, National Mortgages, would suffer because of this.” So Mandy and David decided to sell National Brokers Group and focus on their own brokerage (which still aggregates under NBG).

Forging ahead Another big decision in scaling down their operation was the birth of their son. While Mandy took some time off, her daughter Claire was already well on her way to taking over the reins. Although still in her teens, Claire shadowed David on home visits for four years before they let her handle clients on her own. Since joining the family business Claire, now 22, has completed her Cert IV and Diploma in Financial Services. Confident in Claire’s ability to run the mortgage side of the business, Mandy decided to rejoin National Mortgages in another capacity. “I wanted more of a challenge. And we saw that we all have a duty of care to pass along referrals for life insurance and income protection.” So she started studying for her Financial Planning Diploma and Advanced Diploma in Financial Planning (which she took concurrently) in June 2008. After six months of intensive study with Kaplan, Mandy was qualified to offer insurance. By November 2008, she had opened up Lomond Financial Services in the same office as National Mortgages. Despite giving the course a resounding endorsement for being thorough and intensive but easy to follow, Mandy says she was still nervous for that first appointment. “My biggest fear when starting the planning would have been that first appointment – would I get it right, would I know what I should? Even after all the study the nerves were awful. But when I was in front of the client it was no different than doing a mortgage interview, and my comfort zone was back – I could do it after all.”

Fast file Mandy Kilgore + Business: Lomond Financial Services + Licensed under: Financial Wisdom + Staff: two (financial planning side), four (mortgage broking side) + Location: Belrose, NSW + Years in business: one year + Former experience: Founder of National Brokers Group and director of National Mortgages + Where’s that accent from?: Aberdeen, Scotland

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Kilgore has been cutting a mean pace ever since. Her typical workday starts at 9am and doesn’t wrap up until midnight many nights. She tries to take a Friday night off though. “My biggest challenge is probably the fact that once again I am out four nights a week and until I recently employed someone to help me with the administration, I was spending weekends doing paperwork. Given that I have a four-year-old son, juggling these hours is not always easy. But it does get me out of the cooking at night – that’s over to David now!” Despite the long hours and the learning curve that accompanies any new venture, Mandy hasn’t looked back at her decision to move away from broking with regret. “I thoroughly enjoy it and am very enthusiastic about my new financial planning venture. I enjoyed the challenge of the study – which is something I never dreamt I would enjoy but really did – and the challenge of it all has given me a new drive and ‘will to succeed.’ At the beginning of National Mortgages we had that same drive, and we now have a very successful business. My goal is for Lomond Financial Services to generate more income that National Mortgages. National Mortgages was a company that both David and I built together from the outset. Lomond FS is my own venture, which makes me extremely determined to make it work.” A number of Mandy’s clients filter through from the mortgage side of the business – some are even clients she did home loans for years ago. After each mortgage consultation, borrowers are asked whether they’d like to take out income insurance and sign a disclaimer acknowledging that they’ve been given the option. The majority decide to see Mandy, though. “The two businesses go hand in hand,” she says. “Every single person with a mortgage should have income protection and life insurance and that’s a reality. About 95% sign up for it. These clients already trust us on the mortgage side, so they are happy to do financial planning with us.” Mandy offers clients a complete financial review and plan which includes a review of clients’ current super funds as well as their insurances. “As our database is debt-based, investments are not usually an option. My focus is providing

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the necessary cover to protect clients given they now have a new debt. This is combined with the ongoing service of a ‘financial adviser’ towards retirement – which is something the debt-based ‘middle income younger person/family’ would not normally have. We have had an extremely positive response from this. It’s about making our clients feel they are important enough to be able to get the advice they deserve no matter what age they are and how much they earn.” By providing both home loans and insurance, National Mortgages gives customers one more reason to stick with you. “That’s the theory behind it,” Mandy says. “With planning you’re obligated to contact them and see them on an annual basis, so if we’ve got everything with them, they’ve got one point of contact. So chances are they’re not going to be so quick to refinance a mortgage when we’ve been helping them with the planning as well.” And more brokers will be moving in this direction, she adds. But to divide time between broking and selling home loans would be difficult, according to Mandy. Financial planning usually involves six hours of face-to-face contact with clients; to add another three hours to discuss the mortgage could be difficult for the client, as it’s a lot to take in from one person. The other complication is keeping up with the knowledge required for both planning and broking. “If you’re doing a bit on each you’re not going to be as efficient in either of them, especially as compliance becomes more important,” she says. Both sides of the business are happy to focus on the new venture, but Mandy says the long-term plan is to get into equipment finance and leasing.

Kaplan’s diplomas Kaplan’s Diploma of Financial Services gives students an understanding of financial planning fundamentals and offers RG146 compliance. This program is nationally-recognised and meets the requirements of ASIC. The course covers: the foundations of financial planning, investment planning, risk management and superannuation and retirement planning. Students learn about the financial planning process, the operation of financial markets, the basics of investment, shares and the stock market, derivatives, life insurance and risk management and strategic retirement planning. The Advanced Diploma of Financial Services is a more indepth course that gives students an understanding of Australian tax laws, financial planning relating to estate planning issues, exposure to investment concepts, statements of advice for clients and eligibility toward entering the CFP program with the FPA.

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Profile leaders

the King Damian Percy assures brokers Adelaide Bank ‘has not left the building’. The former Elvis impersonator talks to MPA about Bendigo and Adelaide Bank’s renewed focus on the broker channel

obody makes a comeback like the King. And who better to steer Bendigo and Adelaide Bank’s return to the third-party channel than former Elvis impersonator Damian Percy? Adelaide Bank’s general manager of third party mortgages was appointed to the leadership role late last year, and is currently responsible for the broker business, the white label wholesale business and the National Mortgage Market Corporation (a legacy Bendigo enterprise). It’s been a challenging period in Percy’s professional career – although the difficulties he’s faced in his present role are not unique. The GFC and subsequent funding freeze have badly injured the legacy Adelaide bank business which was reliant on the global capital market and securitisation. Percy says the bank was faced with two options: walk away, or batten down the hatches and retain its partners, reputation and key staff. “So we chose the second path,” he says. Unfortunately, that required the bank to significantly restrain its volumes, which meant

“there were a lot of difficult conversations, particularly with white label partners.” Adelaide Bank was forced to structure its pricing differently, but Percy says the bank was not comfortable with “picking businesses to die”. “So we provided limited support to everybody because we were very keen to see the partners who had viable businesses get through. And I think it’s difficult and sometimes even arrogant of an institution to pick the partners who are going to survive. The market will decide.” As a result of their decision, Percy says its partner relationships are very strong. Adelaide bank was outspoken at the outset of the credit crunch that the crisis would have long lasting effects on Australia, a position that was borne out over the following months. “From the outset, we decided that we would call it as we saw it – not as we’d like it to be. And I think today that holds us in good stead – we don’t ‘gild the lily’.” Bendigo announced the merger with Adelaide Bank in early August 2007, which presented a

rise through the ranks Damian Percy was born in Darwin but raised in Adelaide. He finished high school and worked at the State Government Insurance Commission as an underwriting clerk for 14 years. “I did commercial accounts and saw a number of takeovers and mergers. I was getting a bit bored and a friend of mine mentioned an ad in the paper to run a bank’s insurance business.” So he joined Adelaide Bank as the insurance manager. After two years he was approached by CEO Jamie McPhee in 2001 to run the white label mortgage business. Percy says he resisted at first “because I didn’t know anything about mortgages”, but

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says it was partner-based, which was very similar to his background working with insurance brokers and agents. He also says he enjoys the B2B relationships. “I enjoy the people element of it, and in a strange and nerdy way I enjoy the legislative and risk part of it.” He’s been working on the third-party channel in various forms ever since. Percy took two years out of the business to look at a mortgage strategy for the bank in 2007. He spent five months producing a very lengthy document, went overseas for four weeks and came back to the GFC. “So very little of that lateral thinking was possible.”

Next he took up a strategy and products role in the mortgage business for about 18 months, and then late last year he was reappointed to a leadership role in the third party business as general manager. In addition to his professional career, Percy studied 12 years part-time to earn both a psychology degree and a law degree. “I did the psych degree because I was interested in bringing behavioural psychology into the work. As for the law degree, it’s a great degree to teach you to think, but by the end of it I realised I knew no happy lawyers. They don’t pay you well for the stuff that’s fun and the stuff that pays well is boring.”

Profile leaders

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Profile leaders

Personal and professional Damian Percy + Position: General manager third party mortgages, Adelaide Bank + Key responsibilities: Broker business, white label wholesale business, and the national mortgage market corporation + Age: 42 + Family: Married with two kids (ages five, three) + Hobbies: Golf, red wine, popular science + Next holiday: Hoping to get back to the US or Italy next year + Elvis connection?: Between 1992 and 2004 Percy wrote and performed in a musical comedy act called the Enormous Las Vegas Impersonators Society (AKA The Fat Elvises). “Our vision was always to find the border between good taste and gross offensiveness and then, en masse, to stumble over it,” he told Australian Broker.

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challenge. But the lasting result is that Adelaide bank is now 90% retail deposit funded and is “as good as any bank in Australia,” Percy says. The bank now has the opportunity to grow the business again, which is exactly what it’s doing. “I’m talking to brokers and there’s a real need for a competitive and committed player in the space, and we’ll be providing that,” he says. Before the GFC and merger with Bendigo Bank, Adelaide Bank’s percentage of home loan business coming through the third party channel was “well north of 80%”. It dropped over the last 12 months, but Percy expects the split between third party and direct to mirror the market. “We don’t think the dominance of a relatively small group of funders is a good thing. With a strong retail deposit base, 400 odd branches through our partner retail businesses, a long history under the Adelaide bank brand, a third party mortgage business and broker centric processes and thinking, we think we can provide a serious alternative to the majors.” Percy insists the bank will not sacrifice sustainability for pricing. Instead, it plans to focus on reliability. “We recognise that if a broker makes a promise to a customer and deadlines are missed then it reflects poorly on the broker. Their reputation is ultimately all they’re going to be able to trade on over time. So if we say we’re going to turn a deal around in three or four days we’ll do that like a metronome.” Another point of difference the lender can to trade on is its stance on re-accreditation fees. Bendigo and Adelaide Bank have chosen not to institute a re-accreditation policy, and according to Percy, the bank has some deep philosophical issues with the practice. “I have real problems with some of the implications of requiring a broker to supply X number of deals to a bank,” he says. “I don’t think there’s been a sufficient case made that it’s the same thing as professionalism or knowledge. I worry about the issues for brokers taking time out – particularly maternity leave. I find it ironic that some of the banks that are more supportive of women in the industry aren’t recognising that.” “A mortgage transaction is a fairly simple one. If a bank’s processes, products and the data it supplies to introducers have to be used constantly

to be used well, then that is probably more of a reflection on the clarity of the bank’s processes than it is on the efforts of the broker. And we’ve seen many examples of brokers who submit very regularly who have poor paperwork. But there are examples of brokers who submit irregularly who have great paperwork.” But he adds he doesn’t see the re-accreditation policies as being a bully tactic of the banks. “When you get that much influence, whether you intend to bully or not, you might be less inclined to consider the impact on others.” Future of broking The mortgage industry is undergoing vast change at the moment and Percy, who’s been involved with the third-party channel since 2001, has a good idea of where it’s going. He predicts that regulation will result in a reduction of the number of brokers, while an attempt to find economies of scale, driven by aggregators’ need for efficiency, will fuel further consolidation in that space. With regard to the prospect of a ‘fee for service’ model ever taking root in Australia, Percy is quite convinced it’s an appropriate direction for brokers to move in. “I’m very open to the notion of fee for service, to the point where the leader of the odd broker group has given me a clip across the back of the head for raising it too often. Even before the commission adjustments last year, I was saying that if brokers rely exclusively on payments from banks then ultimately the economics of the bank will determine the value of the work they do.” “You can’t get a plumber to come to your house for free, and financial planners charge fees. As long as the fees are appropriate and transparent, borrowers who receive good service will pay them.” On the issue of competition in home lending, Percy would like to see a restoration of balance, but doesn’t believe further investment by the AOFM into RMBS will be the ticket. “To be honest the scale of the contributions that you get out of the AOFM is not enough to run a business. It was useful from a balance sheet management point of view. But it’s certainly not a solution. Our view is that it isn’t sufficient to drive the business forward.” Adelaide Bank’s future vision is to build its brand and volumes over the next three years. MPA

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book excerpt inhuman resources

Inhuman resources Michael Stanford’s Inhuman Resources is a hilarious collection of personality profiles on the misfits that make up every office. The following are two excerpts from his book

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The ‘I saw the GFC coming’ person Who needs retrospection and hindsight? ‘The writing was on the wall’ according to these market mavericks. No one is safe from their enthusing, not even a group of bicycle couriers in Dispatch or the Accounts Payable team enjoying group Pilates. ‘That’s why I got out at the tippy top’ they add, with a smile that could start a riot. What they do with their huge reserves of cash is up for debate. But you can be sure some of their money was invested in books about the GFC, so they can proffer the expert’s post analysis as their own ‘pre-warnings’. They love the sound-bite language of the crisis. It begins with ‘credit crunch’, ‘subprime disaster’ and ‘collateralised debt’ and soon moves on to ‘market meltdown’ and ‘the collapse of capitalism’. Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae – names they never knew – now sound like close relatives, and most can recite the Dow’s numbers with more accuracy than their own child’s birthday. The worse things get, the more smug they become, often introducing themselves to strangers as ‘Hi, I’m Jim, I sold out before the GFC’. When around those who have suffered from the crisis, they will struggle to contain their glee. Some will offer a sanctimonious chortle and a dismissive ‘You’d have to be crazy not to be cashed up right now’. Not actually bankers, brokers or financial journalists, these people are nevertheless dominant in areas such as real estate, advertising, music promotion, motivational speaking and plastic surgery. The truth is, none of them knew, but the truth is hardly important. What matters is more people are worse off, and this fills them with a sense of righteous pleasure. In childhood, comparing possessions was important: ‘I can’t believe you don’t have an Atari’. So too trading: ‘You only got three footy cards for that trade? You got ripped off’. Loitering around posted exam results they would approach the crestfallen with ‘You failed’. At birthday parties, they were often the one running around popping balloons and bubbles. Later in life, they talk of the credit and property bubbles as though they themselves were holding the pin.

The ‘I don’t shower after a lunchtime jog’ person A sense of hygiene and communal responsibility is lost on these individuals. Around them, a work environment normally redolent of magic markers, overheated computer hardware and takeaway coffee can achieve the funk of a gaol weights room. The female often makes an attempt, feeble as it might be, to mask her odour with perfume. The male prefers to sit back, arms behind his head, proud of his eau de jog. Afternoons can be insufferable, as these individuals flail away at whiteboards or PowerPoint screens, breaking every half hour for a stretch, leg up in the boardroom table or someone else’s workstation desk. Hints, such as deodorant left on the desk, or notes left on a chair saying ‘You Stink’, are pointless. Like their smell, their skin is thick. The male is guilty of spreading his scent through the building, a vapour trail left in corridors, meeting rooms, and particularly heady in stairwells. Lift rides, car-pooling and sharing a cab to a meeting are to be avoided at all costs. Fellow workers are often heard yelling: ‘Meet you there’. The food they eat at their workstation can be just as offensive. Vindaloo, laksas, Singapore noodles and curried egg sandwiches are popular. Their keyboard is an occupational health and safety hazard. If they do, on the rare occasion, use the office shower, they leave it in Petri dish condition. A damp towel will remain under their desk for months, just next to a salt-encrusted Pilates mat. Found in telemarketing, geology, panel beating, retail banking, IT, and secondary school teaching, they prefer large office environments. Since childhood those closest to them have done their best not to be.

Michael Stanford’s Inhuman Resources is published by Allen&Unwin (www.allenandunwin.com)

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Profile leaders

The

re-inventor Challenger’s Drew Hall has played a hand in Challenger’s fate for a number of years. MPA asks the chief executive of mortgage management what NAB’s acquisition of the entity means for the third party channel

hallenger’s Drew Hall is experiencing déjà vu. In 2003, the chief executive of mortgage management played a key role in helping Challenger take over what was then called Interstar. Now, just six years on, he’s at the centre of another acquisition: NAB’s proposal to purchase Challenger’s aggregation and mortgage management platform for $385m. It seems it is Hall’s fate to be forever linked with Challenger.

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Back in the 1990s, he moved from PricewaterhouseCoopers to a company called Bankers Trust, which was where he had his first interactions with Interstar, the former Challenger Mortgage Management entity. When Bankers Trust was sold to Macquarie Bank, Hall worked as a division director at the new organisation, until a small group of former Bankers Trust employees started their own business called Zurich Capital Markets. That company was eventually wound up, but Hall, who was helping their client Interstar find a new

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owner, joined the company in 2003 when it became part of Challenger. “No, 15 years ago I would have never thought that I’d still have these associations with Interstar. I was only very loosely associated with it back in the ‘90s, but things have a way of working their way around.” Hall’s main responsibility as chief executive is setting strategy. He has nearly 400 staff and some 6,000 customers in mortgage managers and brokers. “So my role is to make sure the business is functioning, that we’re coordinated and that we’re getting good outcomes for our customers, our people and our shareholders.” Under the NAB acquisition, Hall says it will be business as usual. “So the way I would describe the NAB acquisition is that it’s a bolt on, where we’re running the business as is and we’ve got the same management structure and infrastructure in place

– right down to the finance, IT and premises. NAB’s got a very strong view, which we share, that to make the business a success what it really needed was the funding or the ‘oxygen’ to get the lending side going again.” Hall says the realisation that Challenger needed oxygen really came on the back of an overseas trip he did in February 2009. Hall travelled to the US, UK, Europe and Asia to meet with the 140 investors Challenger had in its RMBS program. He wanted to see which ones were still in business and which ones were still interested in backing business. “And it was after that that I was really able to get a good sense of where this market was going and how long it was going to take to come back,” he says. “It was very confronting. I lost a bit of sleep actually. We did about 10 cities in 10 days and a lot of overnight flights to the next round of

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Personal profile Drew Hall + Position: Chief executive mortgage management + Born: Sydney + Age: 40 + Education: Finance and accounting major at Sydney’s University of Technology + First job: Pricewaterhouse Coopers + Family: Married with four kids + Hobbies: Swimming and cars

investors. But the outcome was that things were as serious – if not more serious – than we thought. We needed to take action for everybody’s sake. And you can wait for so long, but you can’t wait forever.” As a result, Challenger decided that the best thing to do was look for a different source of funding. The entity spent a lot of time with different players looking for the right fit, but in the end Hall says NAB came out on top. The entire proposal was about six months in the making before the announcement. Despite making the decision to align with NAB, Hall says he does foresee securitisation coming back – just not at the same level or anytime soon. “So my view is that the RMBS market will come back and the pricing will come back over time, but it won’t come back in at the levels or the time frame to make it worthwhile to stick it out for the next three or four years.” The deal At the time of writing, NAB’s proposal to purchase Challenger’s aggregation platform and mortgage management operations for $385m occupied much of the press and was at the forefront of Hall’s mind. It was yet to be confirmed by the ACCC, but Hall says the regulator sees the acquisition as being beneficial for competition. “I actually think something like this transaction is a net positive for competition. It puts mortgage managers on the map. Mortgage managers now get access to a very secure balance sheet and the ability to write products that are more competitive than they have been for a number of years.” He adds that securitisation has always had a few pitfalls – a good example of which would be lenders mortgage insurance on loans below 80% LVR. “It was often hard to compete in that space because to securitise you had to get an insurance contract on every loan which made the process less efficient.” Things like higher exit fees, which were symptomatic of the securitisation model, also

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affected the product mortgage managers were able to offer, he says. So far the response from mortgage managers has been warm, Hall says. Challenger currently has between 300 and 400 active relationships (depending on how you define the level of deals coming through), which is a significant drop from its peak, which was 700. A number of mortgage managers stepped back into the broking model, but the recent NAB announcement has given them hope that they can return to mortgage management, Hall says. “But they can see the light at the end of the tunnel and they can come back. There’s probably more blue sky than there was in late 2006 and early 2007.” Lack of funding has put many mortgage managers on the ropes over the last two years. Hall adds the model also suffered from mortgage insurance restrictions and the way that some participants exited the market, which created a poor experience for their customers. “All of those things can be cured now because you can have a product that is funded by a bank balance sheet. We can some address some things about fees, the issue about the strength and longevity of the channel, and funding sources for the loans as well.” He says the new NAB/Challenger deal will give mortgage managers a much needed boost and make the market more competitive, not less. “The ones that have good processes, good customer service and scale are the ones that will be successful.” Hall says many are just waiting to see what can be done in terms of product offerings. “The deal isn’t finalised yet of course, and we want to get the rubber on the road and start changing things. But we’re not owned by NAB yet so plugging into their balance sheet will take a little bit of time to do.” As for brokers, Hall says the investment in the third distribution channel by the NAB is “actually cementing a commitment into that channel”. “At different times we’ve seen varying levels of support by several institutions in the broker channel, and I think this really does change the landscape in a positive way. It’s in our interest to

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see the broker business prosper, and broker businesses prosper by being able to offer choice and independently deal with their customers.” Since the announcement, Hall has been fielding questions from brokers, but one of the most common is about the integrity of data and assurances that NAB won’t use information for other purposes. He says both parties have made commitments to both brokers and other lenders on the panel that there will be segregated source systems. The other concern he’s heard from brokers is about commissions. According to Hall, NAB has made public commitments to not change commission levels. “And as CEO of a business that has the broker platforms it’s very much in my KPIs [key performance indicators] to make sure that our brokers are running successful, profitable businesses. That’s what part of my performance is

judged on – the ability of those businesses to grow and be profitable.” Going forward While the worst is over, Hall says that from a ‘whole market’ point of view it’s going to be a slow cure for the global financial crisis. In saying that however, he says that he’s always thought Australia would weather the storm better than most. Part of his world tour of investors was convincing them of Australia’s key differentiators. Hall says low levels of government debt, a shortage of housing, and the fact that many borrowers are on a variable rate loan (which in turn means interest rate cuts made a significant difference) are huge advantages for the nation. “We have a very strong banking system. Yes, some credit has been tightened but it is nothing compared to what happened offshore.” MPA

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feature target market

press to

invest

First homebuyers did an excellent job of boosting the housing market, but as the grants are phased out many say investors are already stepping up to the plate to take their place

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ustralians have always had a love affair with property. The dream of owning your own home isn’t limited to Aussies, but the desire to accumulate more than one property is much more pronounced Down Under. Recent surveys of 2,000 mortgagors in the UK and Australia (published in Retail Finance Intelligence’s report The Lucky Country?) found a greater percentage of UK property owners were solely owner-occupiers. Of survey respondents, 31% of Australians owned an investment property, compared to just 16% in the UK. Only 2% of UK respondents only owned an investment property, compared to 6% of Australian respondents. The data is a reflection of how highly Australians value investment property. And while tax laws which allow negative gearing on investment properties have always made property an attractive investment option, that sentiment has only increased through the economic downturn. The June 2009 RFI report found 61% of Australians said they felt now was a good time to buy investment property. This feeling of optimism was reinforced by the next survey question which asked respondents if they are planning to invest in the next 12 months, to which 13% responded positively. According to the survey, key motivators for investment in Australia are: capital growth, retirement, tax purposes, low interest rates, income stream purposes, strong sentiment that the property market has bottomed out, and poor performance of the share market. These findings have been backed up by Your Investment Property magazine. According to

its research, three in five respondents feel now is the best time to buy an investment property, while three in seven plan to buy another property now. Almost all (98%) of those surveyed consider property a safe investment, while one in three investors are depending on property for retirement. Brokers are coming up with similar findings. AFG recently found 30% of all new mortgages were arranged for investors in July, up from 24.5% in March – indicating many are taking over the property market as first homebuyers phase out. AFG general manager of sales and operations, Mark Hewitt, told SmartCompany that the return of investors was sparked by a falling stock market. “The return of investors has been talked about in meetings for six months, but only in the last two months have we seen it transpire. A lot of people pulled cash out of the stock market when it crashed and have been sitting on the sidelines waiting to get into that market.”

why Australians invest in property Reasons to invest

Percentage of AMC survey respondents

Capital growth

28%

Nest egg

19%

Tax purposes

13%

Current low interest rates

13%

Income stream

12%

Feeling that property market has bottomed out

Poor share market performance

[source: RFI]

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target market

“The property market is starting to pick up, and there’s still demand for rental properties. A lot of the fear about whether there will be a housing crash has subsided, as it’s fairly clear that’s not going to occur.” On the ground Brandi Financial Services’ general manager Sam La, who is based in Melbourne, says he derives about 80% of his business from property investors. He hasn’t yet noticed a significant surge in the number of investors returning to the market, but he says that softened property prices over the last 12 months have kept smart investors trawling through the weekly classifieds to find good deals. “If you do the right homework, and have a keen eye, there are great purchase opportunities out there,” he says. He predicts the potential “investor-boom” will last for three to five years. “Melbourne’s population growth figures and subsequent drive for continued increase in demand for housing is still outstripping supply. The Victorian State Government is going on an infrastructure spending spree over the next few

“ The return of investors has been talked about in meetings for six months, but only in the last two months have we seen it transpire ”

products for investors Tiffen and Co. director Gerard Tiffen says many of his investor clients use pro-packs, but St.George’s new offering is “pretty sharp”. St.George traditionally promotes its Portfolio Loan as part of the Advantage Package and Fixed Rates to investors. The Portfolio loan is a secured line of credit facility where one overall credit limit may be divided between up to ten (separate) sub-accounts. Sub-accounts can be set up for different loan purposes as required by the customer (eg, owner-occupier, investment or personal). ANZ announced its own product designed for the investor market in July. The ANZ portfolio enables property investors to bring together all of their home and residential investment lending under a single credit limit. The product, which is available through brokers, was developed on the back of research commissioned by ANZ which found more than 50% of investors go on to purchase more than one investment property and 60% of investors secure an investment loan over existing property. ANZ general manager of mortgages Michael Bock said ANZ Portfolio was designed for investors looking to build wealth over the long term using equity in their property portfolio. Bock says the turmoil in the global financial markets has highlighted the relative security of investing in residential property. The ANZ Portfolio features the ability to create up to 12 sub-accounts from a variety of loan types including a line of credit, fixed or variable rate mortgage under one single limit. The loan comes with a one-off upfront fee of $750 and an annual fee of $550 (payable in arrears) covering all sub-accounts and ongoing sub-account administration.

years, which increases the attractiveness and viability of new satellite suburbs.” National Mortgages’ Mandy Kilgore, who operates out of Sydney, says she noticed a slowdown from investors when the First Home Owner Grant kicked in. “But now that that’s subsided, the investors are starting to trickle back in again.” While there’s always been a demand from serial investors, mums and dads are starting to dip their toes into the water. “They’re getting into it for the first time,” Kilgore says. “They’ve realised that their super has had a hit and that they should be looking at investment properties as well, as opposed to just relying on their superannuation.” While the Reserve Bank of Australia has suppressed interest rates for several months (at the time of writing the cash rate was 3.0%), Kilgore says future movements should not affect the investor market greatly. “With investors, the rent is covering the mortgage anyway, so it’s not as huge a drama. And we’re hoping it might only rise by a couple of percent over the next few years. If we’re only going back to the levels we were when we were stable then 7% is not particularly high for investment.” One of Canberra’s top brokers, Gerard Tiffen of Tiffen and Co, agrees that most are not worried about interest rates going up too much. “It’s not stopping anybody,” he says. Investors have always made up about 50–60% of Tiffen’s business. He says he’s definitely noticed an increase in the number of investors coming through his door over the last three months, “I think the increases have occurred because interest rates are low, money is cheap and accountants are saying you should do this.” Tiffen says reductions to superannuation contributions have many asking their accountants what they should do with their spare cash. “I’m finding accountants are saying ‘I have a new strategy for you: get an investment property’.” Economists say the return of investors is a good indication of growing confidence in the market. The Australian Property Monitors quarterly report showed low interest rates and record low vacancy rates are making it particularly attractive at the moment. MPA

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feature education

Arrears fears Credit Mediation Services’ Laurence Hugo shares tips on how brokers can assist clients facing mortgage foreclosures

ank collection departments will tell you there are two types of customers in this world: those who are sincere and forthright about their situation and then those who are their own worse enemy. For example, consider a bank customer who was six months in arrears on his eight-month old mortgage. Without a commitment to an affordable payment plan, foreclosure was inevitable. This customer sought his revenge by ‘reconstituting’ the house with a sledge hammer a few days before the auction. The penny dropped, along with the house valuation, when he lost most of the equity in his property along with any hopes of starting again in the short to medium term. Instead of bankruptcy, today he could have owned his home by now if he had simply communicated with the bank amicably and traded his way through his financial problems. Communicating correctly is the key to successfully navigating these difficult times. But

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mortgage providers have to deal with some very prickly and unreasonable people. They often decide that if you’re in arrears you’re guilty by association. Empathy is not a word that describes our financial institutions today. The welcoming smiles we see on TV and newspaper advertisements can morph into a fangy hiss when customer’s life circumstances change for the worse. As the broker you might be the first person the customer calls for help. It’s important for you to be aware of what your client can do to stave off foreclosure and trade through their financial woes. When do banks foreclose? Banks will look at taking action if the customer is in breach of their contract by being in arrears. Technically, foreclosure begins the first day of arrears with a polite letter or phone call to remind the customer of their indiscretion. Ridding customers of bad habits is a tried and true bank policy. They will leap onto a ‘defaulting’ customer

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immediately – a wise strategy that avoids heartache (not to mention collection costs) later. Usually by 60 to 90 days in arrears the niceties disappear and it’s battle stations. The urgency to collect the full arrears is dramatically heightened and a collections ‘account manager’ is assigned. When in arrears, the reason some customers feel so much heat is because the account managers are accountable to their own supervisors over loan conduct. Managers may routinely call staff into meetings and examine every single customer mortgage arrears account they are collecting from and ask ‘can we do better?’ The legal process varies from state to state and from regulated to unregulated. However, your customer will most likely face the following actions: yy Notice to Pay (or Notice of Demand). This will usually jolt the customer into action as it gives 30 days to bring the account up-to-date or face further recovery action. yy After 30 days the customer can expect a notice called a Statement of Claim which gives them another 30 days before the seizure process can be enacted. yy Once the 30 days have expired, Judgment is applied for in the courts and a Writ of Possession is granted. yy Eviction is undertaken by a sheriff or bailiff of the court. Locks are changed and the process for sale will begin. At any time before the eviction the bank will accept full payment of the loan Up to the expiry of the Statement of Claim the banks will present customers with opportunities for payment plans, demand for full arrears, moratoriums or deferment of payments if the circumstances allow. But if the bank is spooked by the customer’s real or perceived negative behaviour, they’ll move forward with the seizure process. What can be done? Communication is paramount. This is the most important factor when dealing with collection departments. It’s amazing what can be achieved by being sincere and non-defensive. Ask for a temporary reduction in interest rate and payments. If the customer doesn’t ask, they won’t get it. Apply for a hardship variation of contract. The bank may give payment, interest rate and loan term concessions if the customer qualifies. To qualify, the customer must show temporary inability to pay due to unemployment, illness or some other financial setback. Like anything in life, successfully dealing with mortgage arrears is all about attitude. As long as the customer is being proactive about resolving their financial problems and is honest and forthright, the bank will generally provide concessions. The moment the customer begins to consider the ‘sledge hammer’ approach, the bank will have an easy answer. MPA

“ Communication is paramount. This is the most important factor when dealing with collection departments. It’s amazing what can be achieved by being sincere and nondefensive. ”

Laurence Hugo is the director of Credit Mediation Services P/L, which specialises in securing large reductions in unsecured loan payout figures ready for brokers to refinance. For more information go to www. creditmediation.com.au Note: This article is for information only and should not be relied upon as legal advice.

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feature recruitment

Hiring thaw Hiring in a downturn can be advantageous, but experts say talented recruits still deserve good salaries

any companies were forced to downsize at the onset of the global financial crisis, but recent economic optimism has meant some employers are looking to hire more staff. There can be advantages to hiring in a downturn. But several experts warn: don’t be fooled by ‘cheap labour’. Leading recruiters have urged employers not to take advantage of the flood of candidates in the market by offering sub-standard remuneration and benefits. The employer/ employee power balance, for so many years in the favour of employees, is yet to balance out in employers’ favour. Peter Gleeson, EGM Executive & Professional Recruitment at Chandler Macleod Group, said that good people will always be able to command good salaries – and most employers are willing to pay them. But he added that some employees may compromise their own ambitions in the short term and take roles which they might not normally

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consider. Nevertheless, he believes the medium term upswing will see many of these employees leave those roles for opportunities more aligned to their experience and skills. Some may also consider taking contract roles, whereas in the past this would not have been a consideration. “The bottom of the downturn has already passed. We’re not seeing the candidate shortage we experienced a year or so ago, but good candidates are still in short supply and can command a premium. Adverts run by companies are pulling greater numbers of candidates, but not necessarily better ones. In fact, a lot more company time is being spent having to review many more unsuitable résumés. So I don’t see companies feeling they are controlling things. But candidates feel there is far more competition for roles than there was, so I’m sure they’re feeling less confident when it comes to applying for a job,” he said. Jane Adams, group director of specialist recruitment and HR services company, Randstad,

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added that in some cases the industry sector dictates where the power balance between employers and employees sits. Skills shortages persist in many markets including specialists in the areas of IT, engineering and finance – hence many candidates are still in a position to negotiate strongly for top dollar rather than just feeling lucky to have a job offer. “It’s certainly true of some industries that pay rates have reduced, and if the economists are correct in their belief that we will recover very slowly from this downturn then employers can take advantage of the reduced salary costs in their business for the foreseeable future. “In light of the economic environment that we’re in, you would expect candidates to have lower wage expectations. Yet many people don’t seem to think the downturn has had a significant impact on business. It’s about managing their expectations. Offering incentives, financial and otherwise, could help entice quality candidates to take on the role if a higher salary is not an option,” she said. The other issue raised by engaging employees on lower salaries is retention. Employers will need to be open and willing to negotiate pay rates once business conditions improve. “Employers need to think long-term when hiring people in the current environment, as securing people on lower pay rates will not encourage retention. It might be a

good tactic to get people in the door for the short term, but pay rates will have to be reviewed very carefully. Once the economy picks up, job and career opportunities will begin to present themselves, and it is highly likely that they will walk out the door,” said Adams. Gleeson added that in tough times, some companies may let retention take a back seat as they feel that their employees are less likely to depart due to uncertain markets – but they should do this at their peril. “Good employees will always expect to be rewarded appropriately for their endeavours. While salary freezes may still be in place in many companies, this will change in the next few months,” he said. MPA

Jane Adams

where are the skills shortages? The Randstad Employment Trends Report in 2008 revealed that there was a chronic skills shortage in the construction, mining, resources and utilities sectors with 37% of organisations experiencing difficulties in attracting a skilled workforce. In the 2009 Report an easing in the shortage of skilled talent in this sector is still not prevalent. Seventy-five per cent of businesses say a shortage of talent remains, well ahead of the total response from all organisations surveyed (56%). Healthcare will continue to be short of professionals across the country, in nursing, medical and allied health. Other industries, including engineering and IT, will continue to experience skills shortages – particularly for those skilled specialist and technical roles which are very difficult to find.

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Envelope please… It has been a tough year, but tables to the eighth annual Australian Mortgage Awards were sold out weeks before the closing date as the industry’s best lined up to recognise their peers

see the footage live See the footage live: If you didn’t get a chance to attend the evening, you didn’t miss out on all of the action from the Australian Mortgage Awards 2009. See the footage online at www. brokernews.com.au/TV/

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he theme for this year’s commemoration of the industry’s finest and standout achievers was science fiction; although – save for one lone Silver Surfer – there were no Vulcan War Lord or Darth Vader impressionists in the room. Instead, the ones to watch were the guests themselves who proved that the Australian mortgage industry can ‘scrub up well’. Sydney’s Westin Hotel was awash with colour and glamour as more than 800 honoured guests pulled on tuxedos and evening dresses for the awards evening. It has been described by a director of one of the country’s leading aggregators as the premier awards event in the industry. While the speakers vibrated with music from Star Wars and The Matrix, the charged mood was fortified by what has now become somewhat of an AMA stalwart – the finalists’ video montage. Each of them, across all award categories, played out scenes from well known science fiction favourites to enthusiastic applause. The MC for the evening was Cameron Williams, sports presenter on Channel Nine’s Today Show and host of Today on Sunday. Williams entertained the guests with his detailed sports knowledge, and kept the pace of proceedings flowing with regular score updates from the big NRL preliminary final Eels/Doggies clash. With each one came either a fervent roar – or an agonising groan. But the chief business of the evening was to credit and pay respect to the mortgage industry’s leading brokers and professionals for their stand-out performances during another challenging financial year in a market

still hamstrung by the effects of the global economic downturn. This year proved to be as difficult as 2008, with the industry still facing the challenges associated with limited funding, impending regulation and ongoing credit tightening. But the AMA organising committee was nonetheless inundated with hundreds of award nominations across all the categories. As event partner Westpac’s Huw Bough said: “The mortgage market has faced very challenging market and economic conditions of late, yet the successes we celebrate this evening demonstrate the continued strength, professionalism and drive in the mortgage industry”. In the end, many industry professionals were called on to make the tough decisions about the winners. Twenty-four professionals were given due credit for the contribution they have made to the mortgage industry over the course of the year. The big winner on the night, Smartline’s Joe Sirianni, summed the mood of the event up eloquently. “Tonight is a reflection,” he said, “of all the good work that we are doing in the industry. It is a wonderful occasion to recognise its professionalism and excellence”. MPA caught up with each of the winners to find out what winning the award meant to them, and get a glimpse of what it was that kept driving them forward. Many told us of a commitment to long hours and good old fashioned hard work, and all took the opportunity to give praise to the outstanding teams each has working with them. Read on to hear from this year’s winners.

EVENT PARTNER

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broker news

most effective internet presence Commonwealth Bank of Australia It’s been a tremendous team effort over the last eight months, so winning this award means an awful lot to me and my team. Simon Elwig, CBA

best industry advertising campaign St.George Bank Winning this award feels fantastic. We’ve really focused on doing a lot of work for our brand advocates during the course of the year: it’s been a massive team effort. Steven Heavey, St.George Bank

We listened to what our brokers wanted in a website and we delivered it. And I absolutely endorse what Simon has said – it is all about teamwork. Kathy Cummings, CBA Above: Jason Hayden and Steven Heavey JUSTIN KENNEDY PUBLISHING DIRECTOR, Broker news P 02 8437 4775 E JUSTIN.KENNEDY@keymedia.com.au W www.brokernews.com.au

Above: Kathy Cummings and Simon Elwig

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FrontRunner Consulting Group I am absolutely stoked. I didn’t expect to win this at all. I know many of the companies we were up against tonight personally and, honestly, I am thrilled to be mentioned with them. Doug Mathlin, Frontrunner Consulting Group

JUSTIN KENNEDY publishing director P 02 8437 4775 E justin.kennedy@keymedia.com.au W www.brokernews.com.au

MPA

best industry service

Left: Doug Mathlin

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eurofinance

best customer service from an individual office

Intelligent Finance: Bondi Junction I’m at a loss for words but absolutely ecstatic. I believe we offer the best service in the industry. I know our clients believe it – and now we have won the award to prove it. We never say no. We keep fighting until we get the deal across the line. Justin Doobov

Colin Sherry general manager P 02 9252 8311 E colin@eurofinance.com.au W www.eurofinance.com.au

Above (left to right): Annaleise Fessl, Yianni Socratus and Justin Doobov

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australian first mortgage

best new office on the block Who Finance: Melbourne In the last year when everyone was talking doom and gloom, we saw opportunities which have been right for us. Our success is in our optimism, sense of fun and in our great teamwork – we love our clients and they love us. Michelle Coleman and Lee Dittmer

Iain Forbes founding director P 02 9643 4301 E iforbes@australianfm.com.au W www.australianfm.com.au

Above (left to right): Michelle Coleman, David White and Lee Dittmer

EVENT PARTNER

citibank

franchise operation of the year Smartline

commercial brokerage of the year LJ Hooker Financial Services: East Perth

To win this award is recognition of all the hard work our staff and franchisees have put in. So it means a lot to us. It is fantastic. Our success is our people; no doubt about it. We have a wonderful team and a great bunch of people. Joe Sirianni, Smartline

P 1300 651 059 W www.mortgagebroker.citibank.com.au

Winning this award is a great privilege because our team in WA, led by Barry Hurst our commercial loan writer, has done an excellent job looking after our franchised network as well as some of their independent clients. This recognition will go a long way towards what he has been doing over the last couple of years with our business. Peter Bromley, for LJ Hooker in East Perth

Above: Tim Carroll and Peter Bromley

Above : Julie Adams and Joe Sirianni

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pepper homeloans

mortgage house

under five staff

more than six staff

brokerage of the year Smartmove: Neutral Bay

Choice Home Loans: Berwick

It feels great, but this is not my award. It’s on behalf of the whole team – they have put a lot of work in towards this. We are a real family. We work together, and when one person is down we all stick together and come back as a team. David Brell, Smartmove

This is a very well-received award. It’s enormous I’m a bit speechless to be honest – which doesn’t happen very often. It’s a massive team effort and a testament to all the hard work put in over the last 12 months. The whole team will enjoy it when we get back to Melbourne. Leith Wickstein, Choice Home Loans

Duco Sickinghe executive director sales and distribution

Sean Bombell general manager

P 0414 900 990 E dsickinghe@pepperhomeloans.com.au W www.pepperhomeloans.com.au

P 02 9407 3000 E seanb@paladin.net.au W www.mortgagehouse.com.au

Above (left to right): Michael Letts, Duco Sickinghe, David Brell, Cameron Wiles, Haley North, Mark Lyons, Simon Orbell

brokerage of the year

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Above (left to right): Colin Sheppard, Sonia Rohlf, Sean Bombell, Leith Wickstein and Jo Kous

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finance tools

best aggregator bdm

best non-bank bdm

including mortgage managers

SAM ZAMMIT PLAN Australia

paul concannon Liberty Financial

I’m absolutely ecstatic. I didn’t believe I would win the award since I’m just doing my job: returning phone calls and e-mails, and doing everything I can for my members. Sam Zammit

It’s been a tough year, but I’ve approached this as I do all the others – to have a strong focus on customer service, and to treat the brokers as they would like to be treated and try and get a win/win situation for everybody. I’m absolutely rapt. It’s totally unexpected but a great honour and I’m really, really pleased to have won this award. Paul Concannon

Sam Benjamin director

Above: Paul Concannon

P 1300 300 790 E sbenjamin@financetools.com.au W www.financetools.com.au

Above: Sam Zammit

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connective

best bank bdm

commonwealth bank

young gun of the year franchise

gerard rolfs Commonwealth Bank of Australia

paul bieg Club Financial Services: Norwood

I’m stoked, ecstatic and very humble – I was up against some fantastic competition.

I’m shocked, but absolutely rapt. I love being a mortgage broker and dealing with property investors. It is a passion of mine. It is a fun job and I really enjoy it. Paul Bieg, Club Financial Services

Gerard Rolfs

Mark Haron principal

Broker Assist P 13 25 88 (option 3) E brokerassist@colonial.com.au W www.colonialfirststate.com.au

P 1300 656 637 E mharon@connective.com.au W www.connective.com.au

Above: Gerard Rolfs and Mark Haron

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Above: Paul Bieg

EVENT PARTNER

see the footage live Find out what made Hany Pham a success this year and helped him capture the Young Gun of the Year award. See the footage online at www.brokernews.com.au/TV/

hany pham Central Choice I’m pretty stoked. It gives us true validation of the work that we have been doing. We get a lot of feedback from clients who say that they are happy with our service – but to be recognised by the industry is absolutely a huge honour. Hany Pham, Central Choice

Broker Assist P 13 25 88 (option 3) E brokerassist@colonial.com.au W www.colonialfirststate.com.au

Right: Kathy Cummings and Hany Pham

commonwealth bank

young gun of the year independent

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Tanya Sale from Finconnect expresses her views regarding part-time brokers australian college of professionals

liberty financial

commercial real estate

non-conforming

broker of the year greg wells Wells Partners/Mortgage Link

Scott vine Lending Solutions Group

After 35 years in the industry it is a great recognition. We are right behind the broking on the commercial side. It is a team effort, so celebrating with the team tonight is very special. Greg Wells, Wells Partners/Mortgage Link

I’m very surprised. I won it last year and certainly didn’t expect to win it back to back, but this is a fantastic result. Over the last 12 months I’ve made some massive changes to my business, and taken it in a completely new direction – and we’ve never looked back. Scott Vine, Lending Solutions Group

Australian College of Professionals

Rosy Sullivan director and college principal

Rick Zylinski manager of marketing

P 02 9659 4699 E vivienc@leverageaustralia.com W www.collegeaus.com

P 03 8635 9915 E rzylinski@liberty.com.au W www.liberty.com.au

Above (left to right): Rosy Sullivan, Greg Wells and Bailey Compton

broker of the year

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Above: Scott Vine and Bob Turnbull

The new Broker news website has been launched! »» New look and format for quicker navigation »» Breaking news at your fingertips - FIRST only on www.brokernews.com.au »» Listen and watch industry leaders on the popular Broker news TV »» Keep up with all the general news and views on Market Talk »» Meet the industry online - join the Forum and you could win a promotional advertising package worth $10,000! Don't miss out on all of the action from the Australian Mortgage Awards 2009

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royal bank of scotland

commercial finance

equity release

broker of the year danny masri Mortgage One Australia

DARREN MOFFATT Seniors First

It’s really good to be recognised in the industry, especially having been in it for almost 10 years and this one being the toughest. It’s very fulfilling to be recognised by all your peers. I have a great team that I work with so it’s a combination of a lot of hard work and planning. Danny Masri, Mortgage One Australia

This is a really nice reward for effort in a difficult and challenging year. It is nice to know that we are towards the top of the industry. I’m very pleased. Darren Moffatt

steve kane managing director

Martin Lynch director of reverse mortgages

P 02 9233 8222 E steve.kane@fastgroup.com.au W www.fastgroup.com.au

P 02 8259 5000 E martin.lynch@rbs.com W www.rbs.com.au

Above: Danny Masri and Steve Kane

broker of the year

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Above: Darren Moffatt and Martin Lynch

EVENT PARTNER

see the footage live Re-live the memories of the Broker of the Year award winners from the 2009 Australian Mortgage Awards 2009. See the footage online at www.brokernews.com.au/TV/

joshua egan Club Financial Services This award will mean everything to him. He’s on the phone to his mum right now and this will be a great honour for him. He’ll be over the moon. Rob Egan, collecting the award for his son Joshua

penny sutcliffe marketing manager Intermediary Distribution - Retail Bank P 02 9236 2953 E howarde@stgeorge.com.au W www.stgeorge.com.au

st.george Bank

broker of the year franchise

Left: Joshua Egan

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st.george bank

broker of the year independent

australian rookie of the year

david brell Smartmove

Hany pham Central Choice

It feels great. But then again, it’s not about me it’s about the whole team. My team is great and they have supported me all the way – it will mean a great deal to them. David Brell, Smartmove

I do not know what to say – I am so grateful. It is absolutely mind-blowing. I’m stoked. Hany Pham, Central Choice

penny sutcliffe marketing manager Intermediary Distribution - Retail Bank P 02 9236 2953 E howarde@stgeorge.com.au W www.stgeorge.com.au

Above: Steven Heavey and David Brell

commonwealth bank

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Broker Assist P 13 25 88 (option 3) E brokerassist@colonial.com.au W www.colonialfirststate.com.au

Above: Hany Pham and Kathy Cummings

EVENT PARTNER

national brokers group

australian bdm of the year

westpac

australian broker of the year

sam zammit PLAN Australia

Joshua Egan Club Financial Services

I can’t even believe I won the first award. To win the second is unbelievable. I’m speechless. I’d like to give a big rap to my state manager Clint Hawthorn and the team from Plan. Without them, I’m just another person, so it’s all about the team effort. Sam Zammit, Plan Australia

Josh works really hard for what he has. He sometimes has as many as seven interviews a day. Last month he settled 45 loans by himself – he puts himself out for his clients; sometimes too much even. It’s a very proud moment for me. Josh started out in my business as a 19-year-old not knowing where he wanted to go in life; and now eight years later he’s teaching me how to run my business. Rob Egan, collecting the award for his son Joshua

Steve Lambert CEO P 1300 730 050 E stevel@nationalbrokersgroup.com.au W www.nationalbrokersgroup.com.au

Above: Sam Zammit and Steve Lambert

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Neville Anitelea manager, communications & marketing, Mortgage Broker Distribution, Westpac P 02 8254 8133 E nanitelea@westpac.com.au W www.westpac.com.au

Above (left to right): Rob Egan, Karen Egan and Huw Bough

Watch Australia’s top BDMs accept their awards from the Australian Mortgage Awards 2009. See the footage online at www.brokernews.com.au/TV/

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JOE SIRIANNI Smartline It’s an honour and a privilege to win this. Look it is nice to be recognised, you don’t do these things for awards – you do them because you enjoy it. And it’s a great industry with great people – I mean I love what I do. The industry has a lot of work to do. We are in a transition period and, going forward, the industry really is going to grow and develop into professional standards. I’m very positive about the industry. Joe Sirianni, Smartline

westpac

golden morgie for lifetime achievement in the mortgage industry

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Neville Anitelea manager, communications & marketing, Mortgage Broker Distribution, Westpac P 02 8254 8133 E nanitelea@westpac.com.au W www.westpac.com.au

Left: Joe Sirianni and Huw Bough

MPA LENDER legal

Real

changes Lawyer and mortgage law expert Matthew Bransgrove provides a summary of recent legislative changes that will impact on the lending and property sectors

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n 14 May 2009 the Real Property and Conveyancing Legislation Amendment Act 2009 (NSW) was passed. This amending legislation makes several key changes to the Real Property Act (RPA) and Conveyancing Act, both of which will significantly affect lenders. Borrower identification requirement: Reasonable steps Lenders are now required to take ‘reasonable steps’ to ensure the person who signs the mortgage is the mortgagor. The legislation envisages that regulations will be published that will guide lenders on what is sufficient. The fact that no regulations have as yet been proclaimed does not relieve lenders of their obligations in the meantime. According to a recent speech of the Attorney General the identification procedures will likely follow the 100 points ID scheme.

Record keeping The lender must keep records of the steps taken to verify the mortgagor’s identity, and copies of the identification documents must be kept for seven years from the date of registration. Identification requisitions The Registrar-General (RG) has been empowered to make requisitions of the lender to determine whether or not the identification requirements have been complied with. These requisitions can be made before or after registration. Refusal of registration If a lender fails to answer requisitions the RG may ‘refuse to register, or reject, the mortgage.’ One anomaly of the drafting is that the power to refuse to register a mortgage does not arise if no identification check was made, but rather only if you do not tell the RG about it when asked. But as will be seen, this can be rectified immediately after registration if the mortgage was indeed forged.

MPA LENDER LEGAL

Cancellation of a registered mortgage The biggest innovation introduced by the amending Act is the power of the RG to cancel the registration of a mortgage. Up until now once a mortgage was registered the lender was safe. Nothing but actual fraud on the part of the lender could dislodge the mortgage or impede its enforceability. If the fraud was discovered after registration there was nothing the RG, or anyone else could do about it. Now, under the changes, the RG can under two circumstances cancel the registration of a forged mortgage. Cancellation for failure to take reasonable steps to identify The first ground upon which a mortgage can be cancelled is if the lender has failed to comply with the identification requirements. This dilutes indefeasibility as it applies to imposter fraud. Cancellation where there is ‘constructive notice’ of fraud The second basis upon which the registration of a forged mortgage can be cancelled is where the lender had ‘constructive notice’ of the forgery. Constructive notice is where the RG can point to the lender and say: “he ought to have known about the fraud based on the material he had before him”. It is a de facto negligence standard but lacks the safeguard of the lender being able to claim its oversight was no more than that of an ordinary reasonable person (which is the test in negligence). It is a very loose concept in practice because, with the benefit of hindsight, virtually every fraud could have been detected. For example if a fraudulent letter on the application file had an ABN number with less than eleven digits then arguably that put the lender on constructive notice of the fraud. This is a radical departure from the safeguards contained in the Torrens title system. All the case law for the last one hundred years has rejected the suggestion that constructive notice was sufficient to impugn a mortgage. It was no good to say the lender ‘ought’ to have known; you had to show the lender actually did know of the fraud. Another difference introduced by the amendments is that the determination is being made, in the first instance, by the RG – not the court. As the RG is the nominal defendant which defrauded owners sue, there seems to be an inherent conflict of interest in the powers granted. The RG has an incentive to strike down mortgages

ie, stretch the definition of ‘constructive notice’ as far as it needs to do the job. And the amendments do not address what happens if the RG oversteps the mark and cancels a mortgage improperly. Can a court order it to be re-instated? Certainly, no express power has been included in the changes. Transferee tainted One of the key elements of indefeasibility was the protection it gave to a funder that took a transfer of a mortgage without actual notice of a fraud by the transferor. Under the changes this is has been done away with, and a transferee suffers any consequences which would attend the original lender. So any lender proposing to take a transfer of a mortgage will have to be certain of the identity of the borrower or else hold title insurance. Summary In summary it will now be necessary for lenders to take out title insurance. These changes effectively dilute the state guarantee of title under the Torrens Systems to almost nothing. Although the extent of the dilution will remain unclear until the case law beds down the changes, it is immediately clear that lenders cannot be certain of ever being able to rely on title in the event of fraud. Bransgroves urges lenders to consider the impact of these changes and implement title insurance. Limits on amount recoverable from the Torrens Assurance Fund The new section 129B is headed Limits on amount recoverable in respect of mortgage obtained by fraud. It might be thought that this section has the potential to affect the rights of lenders. However, assuming a forged mortgage is not cancelled under the new provisions, it is not the lender who makes an application for compensation. The party which suffers a loss is the registered proprietor. It is therefore the registered proprietor that is entitled to make a claim. Accordingly as drafted the only occasion on which the new section 129B will come into play is when a fraudulent discharge of mortgage has been registered. In those circumstances the amount of compensation that the lender could recover will be influenced by the section. Aside from some superfluous provisions the only significant element in the new section 129B is that the maximum interest that can be recovered by the lender is the official cash rate plus 2%.

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MPA LENDER legal

Duty of care when exercising power of sale The amending act inserts a new section 111(A)(1) into the Conveyancing Act which reads: “A mortgagee in exercising a power of sale in respect of mortgaged land, must take reasonable care to ensure that the land is sold for: • if the land has an ascertainable market value when it is sold – not less than its market value, or in any other case – the best price that may reasonably be obtained in the circumstances.” This brings the law in relation to the sale of land owned by an individual into line with the law in relation to the sale of land owned by a corporation. This is governed by section 420A (1) of the Corporations Act, which reads: “In exercising a power of sale in respect of property of a corporation, a controller must take all reasonable care to sell the property for: • if, when it is sold, it has a market value – not less than that market value; or otherwise – the best price that is reasonably obtainable, having regard to the circumstances existing when the property is sold.” The previous common law duty was a duty to act in good faith. This meant that so long as the lender was not fraudulently selling the property to a friend for a knock down price, or behaving with reckless indifference, then the fact that the property was sold at less than market value was irrelevant. Under the new individual regime, presumably the jurisprudence that has applied under the corporation regime will apply. In that regard Whelan J in Irani v St.George Bank Ltd. (No 2) [2005] VSC 403 at [142] set out at [142] set out the following principles: • It first is necessary for the court to determine whether the property in question has a “market value”. If it does, (a) applies. If it does not, (b) applies. The question of whether a property has a “market value” depends upon the degree of certainty with which value is ascertainable by reference to events in a market. A property does not have a “market value” where market experience does not yield a value with sufficient certainty to be used as an integer. Both limbs of s 420A are concerned with the process of exercise of the power of sale. On the one hand, breach of the duty provided for is not established merely because market value or the best price reasonably obtainable is not achieved.

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On the other hand, breach may be found to have occurred even where it is established that market value or the best price reasonably obtainable was achieved. The final paragraph is at odds with the literal wording of the legislation. As worded it imports a strict liability on the lender to get the market value or the best price available. Whelen J’s formulation seems to suggest that what is important is the steps that were taken. This in turn amounts to an analysis of the lender’s bona fides and that can be seen as a reversion to the common law good faith test. Thus Whelen J is shying away from the strict liability of the legislation. Do the judges follow him? In a June 2009 case where Bransgroves acted for the lender Winters v H G & R Nominees [2009] NSWSC 467 Bryson J noted: It is essential to the borrowers’ case to establish that there was a serious discrepancy between the market value of the property at the time it was sold and the sale price. Unless there was a serious discrepancy, criticisms of the lender’s conduct cannot affect the outcome. This seems to show a deference for the literal construction of strict liability (although adding the qualified of serious where none exists in the legislation). However, later His Honour seemed to back away from this. Although it might be that he only meant to address the subsisting common law duty of good faith: “This document shows careful consideration and review of factors relevant to a decision to sell and to the price, going through the information and advice available and supporting the decision to recommend it with careful reasoning. This rebuts any view that the defendant acted with any extraneous or improper motive, or with indifference or lack of appropriate attention to the business in hand and its importance.” The distinction is probably irrelevant to lenders. The main lesson applies either way, more professionalism is required in order to cover the lender’s position. It is not good enough to sell in a casual manner. There must be a paper trail which demonstrates the steps taken, for example valuations before setting reserve prices etc. Care should be taken to address any anomalous valuations or claims as to value at the time rather than later in court. Write every letter, e-mail and memo as though it will one day be read by a judge because it will be discoverable.

Matthew Bransgrove is the senior partner of Bransgroves Lawyers. He is co-author of the Lexis-Nexis textbook The Essential Guide to Mortgage Law in NSW. His articles in the NSW Law Society Journal and textbook have been cited with approval by the NSW Supreme Court.

column

e-marketing

building

loyalty Finance Tool’s Sam Benjamin breaks down the basics of building customer loyalty

uccessful mortgage broking businesses have mastered the concept of getting “more bang for their buck” when it comes to their spending on marketing and lead generation techniques. Imagine if every one of your clients were champions for your business – loyal, proactive salespeople helping you to grow and expand your broking service. Nice thought, isn’t it? But how do you make this a reality? Once you have put in the hard yakka and got that lead – or even better, converted the lead to a settled loan – you cannot afford to ignore that person at any stage. Think about how much it cost you to generate the lead, in terms of dollars, time and effort. Regardless of the outcome of your activities with this client or prospect, communication with this person – before, during and after the loan process is the key to what, in many broking businesses, remains an untapped source of revenue. This is your opportunity to get more out of your marketing budget. The driving factor in the success of many enterprises is ongoing regular communication with both clients and prospects. You need to get your clients talking about your business. Providing a remarkable service is the first step – after all you don’t want them talking for all the wrong reasons! Go above and beyond their expectations. Be proactive rather than reactive. Anticipate their needs and strive to meet them – contact them before they contact you. Give them reasons to refer work to you from their network of contacts by providing a service that is worth talking about. In the words of author Seth Godin, create a “Purple Cow” by building ‘remarkable’ into everything you do. Communicating with your clients is about talking to your entire database, not just the ones you clicked with. Let’s face facts: we naturally have clients that we can talk to easily and enjoy speaking to – and then there are the ones we

struggle to have an affinity with. If you set a system in place whereby your entire database of leads and clients received regular communication, you eliminate the risk of ignoring the clients you would not normally speak with. To create the perfect client communication system takes time. But once built, it forms part of your business procedures. To be highly effective it should be as automated as possible. Most small business people lack the time to devote to ongoing correspondence. This is one of the first tasks to be overlooked when you are busy. Do you store all contact information in a database or client relationship management (CRM) system? Most aggregators provide their brokers with basic CRM software. The trick with any CRM is to actually enter all the details necessary so that you can access the information you need. Ensure you are storing up-to-date client contact details (especially e-mail addresses) and that you have the ability to filter your database according to the type of communication you wish to send or your client needs. Using preset e-mail templates is the easiest way to keep in contact with your clients. Automating and systemising these sorts of repetitive communications makes your job easier, keeps the client in the loop and begins the process of creating loyal clients. By creating loyal clients I am not just talking about creating satisfied clients. Satisfaction is an emotion associated with the past experience. I am talking about building active loyalty. This is behaviour, not an emotion, and involves getting your clients to do something: use your services again, refer clients to you and so on. If you don’t have the necessary skills or time to sit down and create all the templates you need to communicate with your leads and clients, then find someone who can do it for you. The opportunity exists in every broking business to cultivate loyal customers. Turning every lead or client into a walking, talking marketer for your business is leveraging at its best. Make it a priority in your business and reap the rewards.

Sam Benjamin works for Finance Tools. To contact Finance Tools visit www.financetools.com.au or call 1300 300 790

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mpa lender news

contents 54 A review of news in the world of non-bank lending and mortgage management 58 in profile: Non-bank pioneer Resimac 62 Opinion: Kim Cannon calls for more government support

Small lenders looking for new solutions With the AOFM’s initial $8bn RMBS scheme drawing to an end, a number of small lenders are anxiously waiting to hear if the government will launch a new program to back the sector. The government is reportedly looking at three main options to support small lenders. The options include an extension to the AOFM’s RMBS program; a new program that would see a government buy-up of RMBS in the secondary market; and a government guarantee of AAA-rated RMBS. The third option is probably the most difficult to get across the line, given the government’s aversion to creating more debt and the pressure on it to take banks off the wholesale funding guarantee. Many small lenders have indicated that the government’s RMBS program allowed them to keep distribution lines open over the last 12 months and offer some good products to the marketplace.

100% 54

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Funders to give mortgage managers more notice Mortgage management funders have agreed to adopt a new standard that provides reasonable notice of significant amendments to credit policy and product changes, the National Mortgage Management Committee of the MFAA announced. The funders include FirstMac, Challenger, ING Direct, Resimac, Adelaide Bank and Origin. “We consider that a minimum of five working days notice is an acceptable industry standard,” the mortgage managers said. Garry Driscoll, chairman of the MFAA’s National Mortgage Management committee, said the mortgage management sector had traditionally been “a great supporter” of the broker channel. “We appreciate the support our funders have provided on this issue, along with their ongoing support of this important segment of the home loan industry,” he said. The initiative was taken in response to issues raised at the MFAA-sponsored Industry Roundtable held recently in Sydney.

Abacus, the industry body representing credit unions and building societies, refutes claims that majors are writing 100% of new loans

mpa lender news

RAMS saves trees and speeds processing

1 2 3 4 5 days Mortgage management funders extend notice of credit policy changes to five days

In a win for the environment, RAMS Home Loans has moved to a paperless loan application process. Tony MacRae, head of operations, said the implementation of the new technology would “improve the processing capability of RAMS by reducing manual touch-points throughout the loan application process.” “This, in turn, will lead to faster processing times, a better experience for RAMS franchisees and brokers and ultimately a better experience for RAMS customers,” he added. MacRae confirmed that brokers will still be able to send in their application forms via fax, and borrowers will need to physically sign documents – but they will now all be received electronically by RAMS. The launch of paperless processing is part of a wider program by RAMS that will see an increase in the use of elodgement of applications and the introduction of automated pre-approvals. MacRae said RAMS anticipated the introduction of paperless processing would not only minimise the amount of time spent locating files and retrieving information “but, critically, it will lead to an improvement in conversion rates.” The non-bank lender will reduce its carbon footprint in the process. The new system is expected to reduce the amount of paper used by approximately 21,000 reams per annum – the equivalent of 105 tonnes of CO2. It will also significantly reduce distribution and storage requirements. MacRae said the RAMS credit and operations teams were already up to speed with the new systems, and had completely cleared their desks of folders.

Minority RHG shareholders try to axe Coe Twelve shareholders that hold 5% of RHG shares are seeking to axe David Coe (founder and former chairman of Allco) as a director, in an effort to deliver a new strategy and better returns to shareholders. Due to the 12 shareholders’ combined 5% holding, the directors of RHG are required by law to comply with the request and hold a general meeting within two months of it being made (the request was made on 7 September). RHG (then known as RAMS Home Loans) was listed in June 2007, but due to the collapse of overseas debt markets the share price tumbled and the RAMS brand and franchise network was sold to Westpac for a fraction of its market value at the time of listing. Early this month RHG said future trail commissions to brokers would continue to be paid.

AFM expands commercial offering Accredited brokers will soon be able to offer commercial loans via mortgage manager Australian First Mortgage (AFM) after it was appointed to Adelaide Bank’s panel of commercial lenders. Introducers will be able to offer commercial loans from the bank’s SmartSuite product range. Founding director of AFM Iain Forbes described the move as a “big win” for the mortgage manager. AFM main selling point will be its experienced team with brokers and clients dealing with three senior commercial specialists, Iain Forbes, David White and Noel Brown. In recent years AFM has introduced leasing and hire purchase facilities to its product range. The lender is a finalist in the 2009 AMAs for “Best Customer Service from an Individual Office” for its office in Homebush. It won this award in 2005.

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mpa lender

SANDSTONE Special Report news

The benefits of lending process transformation Transforming and automating the end-to-end loan origination process is enabling lenders and other originators to offer new levels of customer service and faster credit decisioning, while at the same time giving them the flexibility to adapt their lending offerings in a fast-moving and competitive market. This is offering access to new technological opportunities, including direct retail and broker origination and self-service processing on the web. Here are some justifications to consider: Do we have to do it now? Putting it off won’t make it any easier, less expensive or less risky. Costs are always increasing and the opportunity advantages of moving quickly can be very significant – especially if all of your competitors are less able to move quickly. Drive down cost According to the Fujitsu/ JP Morgan Australia Mortgage Industry Report (Volume 3), the average cost of originating a mortgage in Australia today is around $1200. Lenders with transformed origination processing are already getting this down to around $600 with additional improvement still on the horizon. So, if you’re originating, say, 20,000 mortgages per year this saving could potentially drop $12m per year more from the bottom line. Grow revenue and market share How much new business are you capturing from competitors in this relatively small and closed Australian market? Consumer and broker reviews have consistently reported the following major buying criteria when selecting a mortgage product and lender: Fast approval decisions This relates to new customers wanting a full new mortgage with unconditional approval - or even a fast rejection decision - right now, and regardless of the channel they came in through. This ability to capture additional business through fast and efficient credit-decisioning can add up to a significant business benefit. The rule of thumb is a 2:1 increase in revenue for every dollar saved, but we’ve seen cases where the ratio has been as high as four dollars of revenue uplift for every dollar of cost saved. Simple, hassle-free processing – done right the first time, with customer information re-used where it’s already available (from the banking system or data already captured in previous processing steps). No errors – predictable and reliable settlements. Improved service Brokers, for example, are always complaining, often with some justification, that the lender’s branches and internal channels get preferential loan processing service. What if you could offer them direct access to the same online decisioning, assessment and loan processing systems the branches use for business they originate? Compliance A well transformed and automated system will control and record user accesses and over-rides, manage all lending processing within a controlled and gated workflow process and provide detailed and auditable data on all cases entered into the system, showing exactly who did what at every step of the process. Sooner or later we have to reform our processes and systems, so the question is ‘when’ rather than ‘if’ this needs to be done. Martyn Beer is the GM of Lending Solutions at Sandstone

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mpa lender news

RAMS cuts off lowvolume aggregators Up to 18 aggregators will have their accreditation with RAMS cancelled, the non-bank lender has confirmed. Lynne Wyatt, head of brand and marketing at RAMS, said it was “rationalising its broker panel” due to being inundated with business this year and battling to operate within its SLAs. “To service the majority, we are looking at brokers that don’t put a lot of business through with RAMS,” Wyatt said. She said RAMS was looking at as many as 18 broker groups. Wyatt said RAMS would honour all deals in the pipeline.

Abacus: CUBS competing with majors Credit unions and building societies (CUBS) are providing genuine competition to the major banks, according to Abacus. According to the industry body, media commentary suggesting that big banks are writing 100% of all mortgages was not true, with CUBS by far the most dominant alternative mortgage providers, writing around seven out of every 10 new mortgages approved outside of the banks – 40% more than this time last year. “Credit unions and building societies across Australia are approving close to 5,000 new mortgages on average per month, getting back to the levels seen before the GFC took hold,” Abacus said in a statement. Furthermore, mortgage approvals for the three months ended June 09 are 26% above the level of 12 months ago. In the past year, 47,000 Australians have used a credit union or building society loan to own their own homes. Abacus said media commentaries were based solely on APRA data released on Monday that relates only to bank lending, not any other lenders, and appears to be based on loan balance growth – not new mortgage approvals. “Competition is clearly taking a battering, but consumers can be heartened that credit unions and mutual building societies are actively lending and offering Australians a great alternative,” said Louise Petschler, CEO of Abacus.

business Profile lender

Cusp of change A long-time performer in the non-bank sector, Resimac is on the cusp of launching some major initiatives. We spoke to COO Allan Savins about Resimac’s plans

hroughout the GFC, Resimac has kept its doors open and its head down. As it quietly kept doing business over the last 18 months, it has been in think tank mode – strategically planning a company-wide re-invention. For those unfamiliar with Resimac, you’re about to feel its presence. “It’s an exciting time for Resimac,” confirms chief operating officer Allan Savins. “We have spent a lot of time and resources on re-engineering our business to deliver a viable offering to our customers. We have a number of initiatives which have been in development and will be released to the market during the next quarter.” At the time of writing, the company was scheduled to launch a retail offering called ‘Hemisphere Financial Solutions’ in late September, which will deliver a branded offering to the borrower initially via the aggregation channel.

Evolution Before delving into where Resimac’s going, it’s important to look at where it’s been. Resimac was originally created to service and securitise residential loans for HomeFund, a New South Wales State government housing program under the name of FANMAC in 1985. The Sydney-based company was the Australian ‘pioneer’ of Residential Mortgage-Backed Securities (RMBS). It became the first issuer of RMBS in 1988 and has since issued nearly $11bn through 15 domestic and international RMBS issues.

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Over the years Resimac has evolved to become a wholesale funder, originator, servicer and securitiser of loans – operating in both the residential and commercial mortgage space. The company has a number of warehouse facilities with both Australian and international banks. These facilities are provided on the basis that the mortgages are securitised in rated-issuing trusts on a regular basis. Although the securitisation markets have been subdued in recent times, Savins says the warehouse banks have continued to have confidence in Resimac and support its funding requirements. The feather in the company’s cap is its residential loan servicer ranking of “strong” by Standard & Poor’s. Accounts currently under management exceed 30,000. The company’s focus has also evolved over the

“ Our longevity over the past 24 years has meant we’ve seen and faced cyclical challenges before so this experience has held us in good stead during the past 18 months. And we have continued to maintain our conservative management, stable operations, appropriate lending criteria and performing portfolio. ”

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years. More recently, it’s added specialist lending products to its prime suite, available through its third party distribution network. In addition to wholesale lending and loan servicing, in late 2008 Resimac introduced Capel Court Financial Services, which offers loan packaging, a contact centre, and residential and commercial finance solutions to mortgage professionals. Resimac also offers Novasure, which provides mortgage management solutions to loan introducers including products, wholesale pricing, loan processing and system support. “Our service focus has also expanded to ensuring speedy loan processing turnaround times and technology to deliver online loan application and verification,” Savins says. GFC survival The company’s 24-year history has allowed it to foster long-term robust banking relationships. That, coupled with its proven ability to weather economic downturns, has stood the company in good stead throughout the GFC. “I think there are several reasons why we have continued to be a viable operation while others have failed,” Savins says. “Our longevity over the past 24 years has meant we’ve seen and faced cyclical challenges before, so this experience has held us in good stead during the past 18 months. And we have continued to maintain our conservative management, stable operations, appropriate lending criteria and performing portfolio.” By its nature Resimac is a quality-driven organisation with an ingrained risk culture, so when credit standards dropped, Savins says the company did not aimlessly follow the market. “We are fortunate to have longstanding strong relationships with all key counterparties including our banks and our investors. All of these factors have contributed to our success in surviving the maelstrom.” But the lynchpin to its success over the last 18 months has been the AOFM’s $8bn investment scheme in RMBS. Resimac received two RMBS transactions. Savins says the Australian government recognised “Resimac’s commitment to meeting the

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needs of Australian borrowers by becoming directly involved in the purchase of RMBS by the AOFM as a cornerstone investor and backing Resimac’s continuing funding availability.” Resimac put the proceeds of its two AOFMsupported transactions towards originating new mortgages. Following the December 2008 deal, the wholesale lender launched a new product called the Horizon Loan, in addition to a new customerbeneficial feature in the Loan Access Card. The company currently has a number of projects in development which it will be rolling out over the next quarter. But one of the greatest benefits from the AOFM mandates has been the injection of confidence to the market, says Savins. “Despite having secure and available funding, many participants were wary about the strength and stability of non-bank lenders – particularly since some opted to leave the market.” He adds that the injection by the government has meant that Resimac can place a greater emphasis on building new products to generate business volumes, as well as develop closer relationships with key mortgage managers. “We have been provided with the confidence to devote resources to our companywide reinvention in 2009. Early in 2010 Resimac will be ready to have a strategically compelling offering for its distribution channels.” Resimac is urging the government to expand and extend the AOFM-sponsored program as the cornerstone investor in RMBS transactions. “This would go some way in rebalancing the funding issue and ensuring Australian borrowers benefit from true competition,” Savins says. “It is time to reinstate competition by strengthening the non-bank lenders. Unfortunately because the major banks have utilised their enhanced government guaranteed access to funds to purchase their major competitors, the market no longer operates on a level playing field. Also their cost of funding is significantly lower and much more accessible when compared to the smaller ADIs and the non-banks.” National regulation Resimac is anxious for regulation to cleanse the industry of less professional brokers. Savins

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Loanworks Technologies Special Report

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Commissions like clockwork believes that while a percentage will leave the industry as a result of the new rules, the bill will have some positive effect on new business volumes for non-bank lenders. “The possibility of smaller broker numbers actually provides a real opportunity for those who remain to be successful, depending on whether they are willing to comply with the education and various legislation and compliance requirements. “Brokers need to place more confidence in their expertise to offer borrowers loans that will suit their requirements, rather than simply forwarding these loan applications to the banks. If a broker truly values their service, they should have no hesitation in recommending a comparable product with a non-bank lender – otherwise they are not placing enough value on their own service.” While some industry players, particularly the Australian Bankers’ Association and Abacus (the industry body that represents building societies and credit unions), have expressed concerns that the pending legislation could unnecessarily burden lenders which in turn would negatively affect borrowers. But Resimac has adopted a ‘wait and see’ approach. “At this stage it is too early to determine whether overregulation is a possibility. We have not seen the impact of the soon-to-be-implemented legislation,” Savins says. For the moment, Resimac prefers to just concentrate on its own business, Savins says, while it looks forward to executing its new strategy. MPA

big changes For the last 12 months, Resimac has been strategically planning its next moves. It’s on the cusp of launching a complete re-invention. Here’s a play-by-play of their short- and long-term goals: Short-term goals: • improve diversity of product offering • deliver a compelling online origination system • diversify distribution channels • launch a retail offering called ‘Hemisphere Financial Solutions’ which will aim to deliver a branded offering to the borrower initially via the aggregation channel • the core focus will remain on the wholesale funding sector with RESIMAC totally committed to supporting mortgage managers for the long term. • re-educate the market on the benefits of dealing with a non-bank lenders • form strategic alliances with select distribution groups Long-term goals: • diversify distribution to continue penetration • maintain strong ties with our warehouse providers and investors to ensure long-term funding availability • strategic alliances with key industry participants

Commission processing is often viewed as a black art – or a black hole. It doesn’t need to be. Accurate and timely payment of commissions is at the heart of the industry, but is often peripheral to conversations about system and process capabilities and improvements. In evaluating your current system and process capabilities, there is a simple health check you can conduct. Calculating Your Commission Productivity Ratio To get a feel for how healthy your commission payment processes are, you can calculate your Commission Productivity Ratio (CPR). Simply divide the number of transactions processed by the number of staff hours it took to process them. Look at this information historically, and as staffing levels change and/or transactional volumes change. Does your CPR decrease as your volumes grow? If so, then your process may not be efficient. You can then take this one step further: by looking at your staff costs you can quantify the bottom line impact on any improvements you make in terms of measurable cost savings. We have calculated CPRs for a number of our clients. While the CPR is more useful as an internal benchmark, it is interesting to see what can be achieved. Here’s an example: We implemented a new commission system for X Inc. Their Commission Productivity Ratio was 21.0 initially. On implementing the new commissions system, the CPR improved to 56.1. As transactional volumes and sales channels grew over time, the CPR continued to increase to 171.3. This represents an immediate productivity gain of 167%, with a 714% productivity increase over time. X Inc experienced both an increase in transactional volume and a decrease in processing staff hours. Benchmarking While the overall CPR gives you a broad-brush indication of the health of your commission payment process, you can then work to generate benchmarks for each individual process: for example, data import and validation, processing calculations, generating and distributing commission statements, making payments. These individual processes can then be further analysed and refined. Focusing on the root causes of manual payments and adjustments will also highlight process failures and suggest areas for improvement which will have a direct impact on recipient satisfaction. These refinements will in turn improve your overall CPR and reduce processing costs over time. For more information, e-mail cpr@loanworks.com.au or download a fact sheet from www.loanworks.com.au/cpr Andrew Duerden is the Director - Business Development at Loanworks Technologies

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non-banks cry more, please! FirstMac’s Kim Cannon champions the AOFM’s support of the non-bank sector through the GFC and argues for further help

Kim Cannon

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he banking system gets most of the attention when we talk about the resilience of the Australian economy during the GFC, but the Federal Government’s scheme via the AOFM to support the non-bank residential mortgage sector cannot be underestimated. Over the past 12 months, the Federal Government has injected $8bn of secured funds into AAA-rated RMBS tranches issued by the non-bank lending sector and second-tier banks. This has played a strong part in stabilising the country’s residential property market, maintaining confidence in the non-bank financial sector and ensuring consumer choice as the recovery takes hold – in stark contrast to the pandemonium in the United States. The current downturn in the Australian economy has resulted in a concentration of market power with the Big Four banks, but the “other lender” category is now seeing a pick-up in activity. It is in the interests of all consumers for a robust and multi-tiered banking system to exist. There are currently several participants in the non-bank sector, but how long will this be the case? The recent purchase by NAB of Challenger’s mortgage management division reminds us of the opportunities that currently exist for the Big Four banks to concentrate lending in Australia. The Australian economy seems to have weathered the worst of the initial GFC shock, but there are still risks to consumer choice and competition in sectors like property lending. The non-banks, second tier banks and building societies provide critical competition to the Big Four banks. They were largely responsible for the historic reduction in home loan margins following the banking deregulation of the 1980s. So how has the Federal Government’s scheme worked? As an example, through tender processes running since November 2008, FirstMac secured $1.2bn of RMBS investment in two tranches, with the AOFM providing a cornerstone investment of $1bn and an additional $200m being raised by FirstMac from external investors. The

investments, which were rated AAA by two rating agencies, were made in prime residential mortgages to borrowers who had no credit default history, were fully mortgage insured, and had an average loan to value ratio of 71%. Before the NAB/Challenger transaction there were four major non-bank providers of prime residential mortgages in Australia, and all four received mandates from the AOFM. Three of them, including FirstMac, have received two mandates. The Federal Government’s thinking is that this type of investment in RMBS would pass through to homebuyers and investors in the form of competition in residential lending. FirstMac was able to significantly increase new lending volumes as a consequence of these successful transactions. Since the first investment, $880m of loan applications have been taken with daily volumes continuing to climb. In tandem with the bank deposit guarantee, the injection of spending via the two major stimulus packages and the rapid reduction of interest rates by the Reserve Bank to near-record lows, the RMBS scheme has ensured that an important sector outside the Big Four has continued to provide loans to people who prefer to have a choice of lender. FirstMac has seen steady demand through the 2008–09 financial year and a marked increase in loans over the past three months. Participants in this sector are committed to providing a competitive and quality alternative to traditional banks in the residential mortgage sector. Continued government support in the form of the existing AOFM scheme until we see a recovery in the wholesale markets is critical. A second round of AOFM RMBS investment will satisfy the government’s requirement of being timely, targeted, and temporary. This is clearly a superior approach to the alternative of government guaranteed RMBS, as the market difficulties relate to liquidity, not credit.

lifestyle favourites

Paul Eldridge + chief executive + Intellitrain

Favourite things Movie Life is Beautiful by Roberto Benigni. Magic story about the lengths a father goes to in order to protect his child during Nazi occupation. His acceptance speech at the Oscars was hilarious.

Food Japanese, Vietnamese and Italian (in no particular order). We honeymooned in Vietnam and the food is tremendous, along with the people and the countryside.

TV Star Big fan of Jessica Alba for her … acting ability

Sport Typically Aussie here. I like footy (AFL – go the Hawks!) and cricket. Stayed up late to watch Australia lose the Ashes again. I play a bit of tennis and golf (badly) and will pretty much watch any sport on TV.

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Music/Band Fairly eclectic tastes really. Have to admit I’m a bit of a fan of '80s music, especially '80s British pop/rock.

Vacation Spot If money is no object then I love northern Italy. Tuscany region. Nothing like an afternoon glass of red and some antipasto. Money being an object, it’s usually the Sunshine Coast or Tweed Coast.

Hobby I do a bit of rock climbing when I get the chance. Climbing at the Glass House mountains on the Sunshine Coast is an awesome experience.

Drink Oettinger. It’s a German beer brewed according to the German Purity Law which means no preservatives or additives. I’m also partial to a good Scotch or a good Red.

Book I’m reading a few books at the moment, one that is fascinating is Outliers: The Story of Success by Malcolm Gladwell who is also the author of The Tipping Point. I am going to make sure any future children I have will be born in January…

Place to be At home with my lovely wife and my newborn daughter. She’s 11 weeks old now and just starting to smile and giggle. As a new dad it’s a magic experience for me.

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