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The FBAA has fired back at a well-known finance journalist who scrutinised the remuneration structure of mortgage brokers in a recent news story.
The Australian Financial Review published a column last week by Tony Boyd, which claimed that brokers received, overall, around $300 million in upfront commissions during the September quarter last year.
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“The September quarter lending would have locked in another $50 million in annual trailing commissions,” he added.
However, the FBAA’s Peter White said that if Mr Boyd’s calculations were correct, Australian brokers would, on average, be receiving a monthly gross income of approximately $4,166.
“That represents an annual income of around $55,000 which honestly can hardly be considered over the top and excessive when the average Australian yearly income is around $70,000,” he said.
Mr White said trailing commissions had also been unfairly maligned by Mr Boyd.
“The truth is, they take time to accumulate and a year’s gross trail can never be seen as excessive or wrong by anyone’s standards,” he said.
“This AFR piece from a columnist that clearly has an agenda was totally misleading and even malicious, and gave the impression that brokers are blatantly ripping off customers. Self-employed people have a right to earn as much as they can just like anybody else.”
The FBAA said it is concerned that this type of “unbalanced” news reporting could also have serious implications for the review currently being conducted by ASIC into broker commission structures.
[Related: Commercial lending spared from broker commission review]
