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Jessica Darnbrough & Steven Cross
Aussie’s acquisition of National Mortgage Brokers will be the first of many for the brokerage, Aussie executive chairman John Symond has claimed.
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Speaking to The Adviser, Mr Symond said Aussie plans to aggressively grow its presence in the wholesale aggregation space over the coming years.
“We know that 70 per cent of broker originated mortgages are written through the wholesale aggregation space – a market we have not played in until now,” he said.
“We have been looking at this space for a few years and we have decided that now is the right time to grow our footprint in this space. We believe acquisitions such as nMB will complement our existing business-to-consumer model.
“By entering the wholesale aggregation space, it allows us to touch a lot more customers and distribute a lot more of our products, not just mortgages.”
Mr Symond said the company has bullish growth plans in the wholesale aggregation space and hopes to grow its distribution from just under 200 brokers today, to more than 2000 brokers down the track.
“We will take on quality groups by acquisition. We plan to grow aggressively and quickly in this space.”
Mr Symond said any smaller, boutique aggregators that join Aussie will benefit from the company’s strength, “clout and negotiation power”.
“They will get a lot of assistance from us and be able to grow their business successfully,” he said.
“A lot of the smaller aggregators have not been able to grow successfully over the past few years. The cost of compliance, has meant they cannot justify investing in the business. We will help them invest in their business.”
NMB’s managing director Gerald Foley told The Adviser that it was for this reason the aggregator decided to sell to Aussie.
“While you can survive as a boutique aggregator today, with the big players getting bigger, who knows what can happen in the coming years. Now we have some security,” he said.
