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Mortgage Advice Bureau CEO Peter Brodnicki will be taking the helm of the broker group following the departure of the group’s former managing director for Australia, Darren Cantor.
Mortgage broker brand Mortgage Advice Bureau (MAB) has confirmed that its country lead, Darren Cantor, has stepped down from his position as managing director of the Australian business, with group CEO Peter Brodnicki leading the group as it searches for a successor.
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Mr Cantor left his role last month to take on the position of CEO at Investors Central, which raises funds predominantly for the purpose of funding lending and debt collection businesses operated through its subsidiaries Finance One, Finance One Commercial and Strategic Collections.
Speaking of his departure, Mr Cantor said: “MAB is a brilliant company full of passionate people that deliver brokers a truly unique experience. I’ve seen the business grow despite several challenges that could easily deter the business from being in Australia, but the team remains committed to delivering its market leading proposition.
“After six very enjoyable years at MAB, I decided to take on a new challenge as CEO of Investors Central Group,” he continued.
“I can’t thank the team and our brokers enough for their dedication and support throughout my time. I feel very comfortable and confident with the team in place and look forward to providing support and guidance to MAB in the years ahead.”
The UK-headquartered group told The Adviser that it remains eager to expand in Australia despite the COVID-19 pandemic and major tech upgrades slowing its plans.
When the pandemic hit in early 2020, Australia quickly became one of the most locked down countries on Earth. While this ushered in a new way of working for many Australians, it didn’t necessarily serve everyone.
Prior to the pandemic, brokers including Josh Bartlett , Brisbane-based Home Loan Connexion, led by Tracy Kearey and Ian Cain, and Mark Kevin heading up the Sydney business, joined the MAB Australia network. MAB now has a presence across Victoria, NSW and Queensland.
However, MAB founder and CEO Peter Brodnicki told The Adviser that the lockdowns in Australia had halted the group’s plans to recruit more brokers.
“Our proposition means we need to be in front of people,” Mr Brodnicki said.
“Our charging structure reflects that we are a more strategic operation, focused on attracting the most forward thinking and ambitious broker firms as we have done very successfully in the UK,” he said. “You could probably sell a standard aggregator package over the phone or via zoom, but that’s not who we are.”
While the group has built an extensive pipeline of potential new recruits, physically meeting them became impossible as social distancing and lockdowns plagued much of 2020 and 2021. The UK market was also impacted.
“During the pandemic we were hit harder, purely because we needed to get in front of firms to fully understand their business and ambitions, and whether MAB’s strategic partner model was the right choice for them. But as soon as the doors opened again, things just flew,” Mr Brodnicki explained.
A new platform
Unlike most UK aggregators, MAB builds its own technology. Its business model is based on delivering brokers everything they need in one place to nurture future clients, manage lead sources and scale the business using a team of specialist brokers who service different market segments.
“We decided to re-platform entirely,” Mr Brodnicki continued. “We are building a completely new platform that uses data to learn a lot more about our customers, a complete 360-degree view. We had a roadmap of what we wanted to achieve, but we didn’t want to build it on an old system,” he said.
“The big thing that drives our business is connecting everything up together, not having different systems all over the place. We want to be able to predict future purchasing behaviour of our customers in the same way we can predict refinancing behaviour,” Mr Brodnicki added, flagging the group's partnerships and acquisitions that help generate leads for brokers and expand exclusive referral partnerships.
Setting aside the disruptions created by the pandemic, Mr Brodnicki said MAB’s Australian team have also had to wait until the new platform is built in the UK before it can release the technology Down Under.
As part of that process, MAB is now working with AFG’s tech team (with whom it has a joint venture) to ensure that MAB UK technology is integrated with Flex and BrokerEngine to promote broker efficiencies, quality submissions and a better client experience.
Despite these challenges, Mr Brodnicki said the group is more committed than ever to the Australian market.
“It has been a learning curve. We have learnt what brokers want in Australia and are looking forward to getting back out and meeting them face to face,” he said.
Asked whether he had any fears about the current environment of rising interest rates and slower home sales, the MAB CEO suggested that the group has typically thrived in challenging environments.
“We have a unique proposition, but it’s not for everyone, and it’s not designed to be. We understand our target market, and in the UK after 22 years, we work with only 200 partner firms, which with our support, deliver strong adviser and margin growth,” he commented.
“It has always been easier to promote that when times are tougher.”
[Related: MAB to ‘strategically invest’ in broker businesses]
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