Login
ISCOVER
Firstfolio has unveiled plans to change its name, roll out new technology and double settlements.
Chief executive Peter Andronicos told The Adviser that shareholders would vote on changing the company's name to eChoice Limited in the new year, which he expected to be a "formality".
"Obviously the eChoice brand has been around for over 15 years: it's got a number of strengths within the market and it's been recognised by both the industry and the public," he said.
"There has been a lot of money spent on that business and that brand over the years and it's something that we've put forward to the shareholders as something that could potentially strengthen our business."
Firstfolio includes a retail loan aggregation and broking division, eChoice, and a wholesale finance, franchise and leasing business, Folio Mortgage & Finance.
Mr Andronicos also revealed that Firstfolio had unveiled stage one of its new broker management system, Fleats Online, in November.
"Stage one allows brokers to see their business in their hand – on their mobile phone, on their iPad, on their computer," he said.
That includes performance results, sales comparisons, invoicing and client management, he added.
Mr Andronicos said a loan-matching system would be rolled out later this month as stage two.
"So you will be able to sit with a client and do a full loan match over the mobile phone, and email or SMS them all the details of the loan-matching scenarios," he said.
More planned technological improvements have been shared with brokers at recent PD days, Mr Andronicos added.
"A lot of those key features are around data-driven initiatives to try to help our brokers make more efficient decisions and work practices to allow them to settle more," he said.
Firstfolio announced at its AGM last month that the firm planned to double settlement volumes over the next five years.
Mr Andronicos told The Adviser that the growth would come through a mixture of increased recruitment and productivity.
About 400 brokers are affiliated with Firstfolio's aggregation business, while about 50 additional brokers work for its loan writing business, according to Mr Andronicos.
"All our brokers have access to the technology and the benchmarking tools that we've put in place to show the strengths and weaknesses of what a good performing broker looks like," he said.
"There's a lot of psychometric testing, profiling and analysis that we've done over the years around what a hungry broker looks like that wants to slot into an existing business, help build it and potentially take that business over."
[Related: Firstfolio appoints Peter Andronicos as CEO]
JOIN THE DISCUSSION