MPA sits down with NAB’s John Flavell to talk about the evolving role of the mortgage broker and new opportunities for business.
Video transcript below:
MPA: Will the role of the broker evolve?
John Flavell: The big opportunity is that when the customers finds themselves in a situation where they are overstretched, because of the close working relationships they have with brokers and because of the access to a broader range of solutions that a broker has and my experience is that brokers are in a better position to help people out and therefore the bad and doubtful debts for the write offs would diminish and at the end of the day, that’s what costs, it’s the write offs. It’s not the total impaired rate, that’s an indicator, but it’s the write offs and brokers are in a great position to manage that.
MPA: Does that present a new opportunity for brokers?
John Flavell: I think that in terms of a lender and broker and consumer working collaboratively when we do identify that there is a potential issue with performance of a consumer’s loan, I think there is huge potential there and from a, the perspective of how we fully leverage and explore and deliver the optimum outcomes there, then I think that we scratch the surface. But if you look at it on the surface, lenders have got good intelligence and good insight in relation to some of the lead indicators as far as loans are not performing and if a lender is engaging with a consumer, then sometimes it could get a bit awkward, because the lender has actually got facility in place and so I think if you have a look at the broker and the customer and they have built that relationship, it’s almost an impartial third party if you like and our general experience is that the willingness and the openness and the collaboration between the broker and the consumer, if they know they are working to the same end, is a really positive thing.
We also factor into that the fact that brokers have got a raft of different lenders that they deal with on an ongoing basis. Different lenders have got different risk appetites and different sorts of solution sets, so you’ve got information that points to a potential issue. You got a strong relationship between broker and end consumer and then you have got a raft of potential solutions and if you can address all three of those points and do it early, then I think you can certainly outperform what would otherwise be the case and that’s been our experience as well. There is probably I think some uncertainty and some complexity associated with privacy and legislation and I think that’s not a reason to not explore these things. I think it’s a really good opportunity to turn around and get some clarity around it and you know to maybe ask for [anti-types] and change in terms of regulation to better meet the end customer’s needs and I don’t think there would be a regulator in the country who would be opposed to that.
If you are in Melbourne and need more information on how to become a mortgage broker or you need a mortgage broker mentor, look at our exciting website https://www.melbournemortgagebrokermentor.com.au/