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A lender’s radio advertising campaign suggesting that brokers are biased towards recommending products that pay the highest commissions has been criticised by the industry and the MFAA.
According to reports, an Acuity Home loans advertisement that ran earlier this week on Sydney's 2UE radio station made claims along the lines that 'In a tough market, what home loan is a struggling mortgage broker going to recommend to you? Easy, the one that pays him the biggest commission,' and 'Acuity Home Loans, sharp, clear, precise…first home lending that puts customers before commissions'.
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A number of Sydney broker complaints were lodged with the MFAA on Wednesday.
Phil Naylor, CEO of the MFAA, told Mortgage Business the MFAA did not approve of such advertising strategies.
“If you’ve got a story worth telling you should be able to sell it on its own merits rather than by attacking others."
Acuity general manager Sam Toutsis told Mortgage Business that the intention of the advertising campaign had not been to attack brokers but rather to highlight the strengths of Acuity.
“It’s the first time we’ve advertised on radio; it’s all new to us. The advert was produced on our behalf by the radio station and they misinterpreted our message – as soon as we were contacted by the MFAA regarding the complaints we immediately withdrew the advert.”
Mr Toutsis said that Acuity had worked with brokers and aggregators for a number of years and had not intended to cause any negativity toward the broking industry.
“We’d just wanted to communicate that we’re still around when others have disappeared and thought that local radio would be a good channel. As soon as we realised there was a problem we took action.
“A number of brokers are accredited with us and we value their business.”
According to Mr Toutsis the original advertisement will not be aired again and the radio station producers are working on a new advertising message; “We want to focus on our strengths and on the positives and will not advertise again until this is rectified.
“If any brokers are concerned or upset by the advertisement I’m happy to chat with them.”
