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Finsure has announced that it will be renewing its focus on compliance measures as the deadline for best interests duty looms.
As of 1 July, mortgage brokers will be legally obliged to work in the best interests of their customers, triggering aggregation group Finsure to make compliance measures a “priority” for 2020.
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Finsure general manager of aggregation Simon Bednar stated that the group views compliance as a business “enabler” rather than an “inhibitor” and hopes to ease the legal and administrative burden on brokers through the use of automated compliance programs.
As such, the aggregation group has developed automated compliance measures into its CRM software, Infynity.
“The Infynity system ... uses predictive data to provide insights into broker behaviour, empowering brokers to proactively make changes to their business rather than relying on retrospective reporting and past behavior,” Mr Bednar said.
He added: “The quality assurance and compliance management framework is built into the Infynity system, which allows brokers and licensees immediate access to real time data on compliance reporting and application statuses,” he said.
“All members of the official network are treated equally under the compliance management framework, including credit representatives and independent Australian credit licensees.”
Mr Bednar stated that audit results are broken into four key categories: fraud, anti-money laundering, quality assurance and responsible lending, which will assist in the designing of training and needs analysis on an individual basis.
The aggregator added that by utilising data to create remedial action plans, it has been successful in supporting the ongoing accreditations of brokers when there has been “an attempt by a lender to remove them”, he said.
“This data-driven model also allows for the accurate reporting of lender turnaround times, which will assist brokers in meeting their obligations under the broker best interests duty,” he said.
“It features a file review process, which includes the review of applications prior to the submission to the lender.”
In accordance with obligations outlined in the responsible lending guidelines (RG 209), lenders and aggregators must form their own view on the reliability of information provided by brokers.
“This includes only accepting information from brokers who they are reasonably satisfied have robust compliance arrangements in place,” Mr Bednar said.
Peter White, managing director of the FBAA, stated that meeting compliance requirements is “unquestionably the greatest priority for all aggregators, ACLs and ACRs”.
“The ability to manage these obligations and proactively measure outcomes cannot be understated,” he said.
Mr White congratulated groups and individuals who “embrace this journey” of ensuring brokers are able to meet their regulatory obligations and able to provide the best outcomes for their clients.
