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Mortgage Choice has announced this morning Macquarie Bank will be the latest addition to its growing lender panel.
The announcement was made during the franchise mortgage broker’s half yearly financial results briefing delivered this morning where the franchise brokerage also revealed that Credit Union Australia would join its lender panel.
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The latest additions follow the introduction of non-bank lenders Liberty Financial and Homeloans which were rolled out to franchisees late last year.
During the financial results briefing Mortgage Choice also announced its net profit after tax had climbed 21.9 per cent on the previous corresponding period to $7.8 million.
The mortgage broker’s loan book also posted an increase, growing 9.6 per cent to $37.7 billion over the period.
Mortgage Choice’s chief executive officer Michael Russell said the company’s strong results were in line with its expectations.
“Despite housing credit growth having slowed for the time being, we are pleased to have achieved significant milestones during the first half of this financial year. Most importantly, approvals, settlements and franchise recruitment are all up on the previous corresponding period,” Mr Russell said.
“It is important to note we are not forecasting the second half of this financial year to rival the first, however Mortgage Choice is on target for a sound FY10 result."
Macquarie Bank edged back into mortgage lending late last year. The bank initially tested the water with aggregation group AFG and a number of other distributors with a "small scale trial" geared to help the bank gauge broker appetite, a Macquarie Bank spokesperson told The Adviser.
“Macquarie has been monitoring the market for some time and looking at a variety of opportunities. Our focus has been very much on building our diversified funding strategy and building a sustainable business for the long term,” the spokesperson said.
Mr Russell said there were two reasons the mortgage broker had decided to add the bank to its growing panel of lenders.
"Firstly, I commend Macquarie Bank for how they have managed their back book, and did not move to raise their rates at the first opportunity. This was one of the things we took a very close look at when considering them as one of our panel lenders,” he said.
“Secondly, we knew that Macquarie’s exit was not going to be forever– as they had communicated this to their brokers prior to exiting the market. Macquarie’s exit was only temporary until funding improved.”
