From the Sedgewick report, to the Productivity Commission and ASIC’s investigations, brokers – particularly their remuneration – have been under fire from all corners; via Australian Broker.
Now, a cohort of industry execs have come together to help the industry unite through a dedicated forum.
The Mortgage Industry Forum (MIF), is backed by 16 founding members from Yellow Brick Road, Foster Finance, Mortgage Success, Shore Financial, ALIC, Intelligent Finance and Loan Market, among others.
Revealing the details during a National Finance Broker Day event in Sydney, YBR executive chairman Mark Bouris said, “This is important. It’s about time we reacted and there is something happening, that I’m involved in, and I would be happy for you to join us.”
Reiterating that MIF is “not against ASIC” or intending to become a competitor to the MFAA or FBAA, the group is intended to be “adjunctive to the Combined Industry Forum”.
Bouris continued, “The objective is to assess all the recommendations that are being made about us as an industry
“I paid for it, we meet every week or two and we cull through every recommendation that has been made by the CIF, Sedgewick, every recommendation from the Productivity Commission, ASIC and anybody else who matters,” he added.
MIF has written and submitted its own report to Treasury and the royal commission, which contains industry observations and recommendations from the broker perspective, with a heavy focus on protecting trail commissions.
Bouris explained, “We are trying to build a case for brokers so we, as a segment of the market can hand over …. a document to show how we should be regulated or managed around fee structures, our obligations, our transparency, training and compliance for the future. “
Next, a survey of broker input on the six CIF recommendations – available for all brokers to contribute towards through MIF’s Facebook page – will also be taken to key decision makers.
“We need to take to the government a document that will say, of the 17,000 brokers in this country, this many support all the recommendations. Otherwise all we have is people speaking for us, on our behalf, and that doesn’t work,” Bouris continued.
In addition to gauging sentiment, the group will also make practical suggestions as to how brokers can demonstrate the ongoing work they do in return for trail commission. Further, the group will also suggest new tools to support compliance and best practice.
Among the ideas floated, Bouris revealed an idea for a broker app that records client conversations and uploads them to a cloud accessible by ASIC, banks, aggregators and other key players in monitoring and compliance.
Adding that he believes the chances “right now are 50/50” that remuneration structures will change, Bouris said, “If 20% of our income is lost, the industry will collapse and if our industry doesn’t survive, the banks will just get stronger.”
He added, “We are the easy ones to target. We are fragmented. Banks have teamed up together and they have massive balance sheets and lobby groups, they are politically connected and they are the biggest tax payers in the country – so nobody is going to hurt them.
“If you don’t support the group and something happens that isn’t in your favour, you have only yourselves to blame. Something radical could happen – I’ve seen it happen in the past.”
