Login
ISCOVER
Common pain points facing the mortgage industry across the world include gender diversification and education standards, according to the FBAA head and chairman of the IMBF Global Board of Governors.
Peter White, the managing director of the Finance Brokers Association of Australia (FBAA) and chairman of the International Mortgage Brokers Federation (IMBF) Board of Governors, has revealed that despite having different mortgage products and markets, mortgage broking industries in the IMBF member countries (Australia, the US, UK, Canada, and Ireland) are experiencing similar challenges at the moment.
To continue reading the rest of this article, please log in.
Looking for more benefits? Become a Premium Member.
Create free account to get unlimited news articles and more!
Looking for more benefits? Become a Premium Member.
Speaking to The Adviser following the Inaugural World Summit of the IMBF, which was held in Las Vegas on 8 September, Mr White flagged that 86 members of the mortgage broking community gathered together to share ideas, refer clients, gather market intelligence, identify trends, and stay up to date on regulatory matters and industry best practices.
The first international summit was held at Caesars Palace and coincided with the 50th anniversary summit of the National Association of Mortgage Brokers (NAMB), the US peak industry body.
Over the course of the day, delegates shared best practice in the hopes of assisting the different communities with understanding and preparing for regulatory and lending changes in comparable markets.
Speakers included representatives from different member countries, including Finsure chief executive Simon Bednar (Australia) and Freddie Mac’s affordable lending manager Nora Guerra (US).
According to Mr White, while the mortgage market operates differently in each of the countries, there were several universal pain points highlighted by delegates.
He told The Adviser: “The principle of it was to get a whole lot of brokers from around the world together, to be able to sit down and talk through the issues and challenges that they’re having in their country and then work through what we would believe could be the potential result of those issues.
“One of the commonalities identified was around the lack of diversification, on balance, within the global mortgage industry. It is all heavily male-dominated. We need to make sure that there is an opportunity for women to join and stay in our industry, without any glass ceilings or barriers to entry. It’s an open marketplace for everyone to be in and we want to make sure that each country is able to demonstrate that there are no barriers to women joining the industry.”
The proportion of brokers identifying as female in Australia, for example, dropped to 25.5 per cent in the six months to March, the lowest figure since records began.
Another common issue flagged at the conference was around education and ensuring that “the professionalism of the broking industry is strong and maintained around the world”. He said this could include by ensuring that brokers are members of associations, undertake continuing professional development, and stay across changes in compliance and technology – particularly when it comes to identifying fraud, money laundering, and identity theft.
“There is a genuine desire for professionalism in this industry on a global scale, and we want to ensure that that never slips. We talk very proudly about our market share – with Australia and the UK having among the highest broker penetration in the world – and we want to ensure that professionalism never slips. Education is key to that,” he said.
The FBAA also noted the ongoing digitisation of the mortgage industries across the member countries but highlighted that Australia “seems to be in front” when it comes to providing technology to the broker channel and embracing innovations such as open banking and AI.
When it came to the major differences in the markets, Mr White suggested that as well as having much longer fixed rates (for example, both the UK and the US have 30-year fixed rates), the US also had a much greater reliance on private lenders (or non-bank lenders), which were more mainstream and prevalent in the consumer space.
“I think we underplay the depth of opportunity that non-banks bring over the mainstream, major banks in Australia. It’s where competition comes from – both in pricing and in product innovation. But if we don’t support the non-majors all we’re going to do is continue to be beholden to the majors and have a lack of innovation in our market,” Mr White said.
Mr White said that the IMBF will now work to harness the “intellectual think tank” of the World Summit to create a white paper to present to each of the member state governments, “highlighting solutions that will assist our industry into the future”.
“This has never been done before and will demonstrate to governments around the world that the broking channel is focused on best practice globally,” he said.
“It will outline the issues that our industry needs resolved in our country, and highlight the experiences around the world and the results of what they’ve done that might need to be implemented.
“It’s so we can show that this is a global conversation and a global group of associations.”
To learn about the tools and support systems available to women in finance and how to increase representation across generations, come along to the Women in Finance Summit 2023.
It will be held on Friday, 10 November 2023 at The Star, Sydney.
Click here to buy tickets so you don’t miss out!
For more information, including agenda and speakers, click here.
JOIN THE DISCUSSION