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The SME lender has fully digitised its product range but says it continues to have unwavering support for brokers.
SME lender Shift held its Broker Roadshow 2024 in Sydney on Tuesday evening (28 May), where it showcased the lender’s journey towards digitising its products in order to make the lives of brokers and their customers easier.
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During the course of the evening, sales director Kristian McCausland and head of broker sales Andrew Wagg highlighted the lender’s digitisation process, starting with the development of Shift Connect in 2020, which was piloted in 2021 before an enhanced version launched the year after.
Shift has since introduced Asset Finance limits and broker-led online settlements (both launched in 2024), which it says has given brokers "complete control" over the settlement process and confidence in streamlined settlements.
According to Shift, all credit decisions are based on transaction data across its product suite, with a financial summary of businesses being shared with brokers, which reportedly allows for a better application experience and ongoing client management.
Broker focus and the opportunities over the next 10 years
Speaking during the presentation, Shift CEO Jamie Osborn reiterated the lender’s commitment to brokers in the wake of recent news of banks looking to shift away from third-party distribution.
“Banks are looking to go direct and bypass the [third-party] channel, we’re exactly the opposite,” Osborn said.
“This relationship [with brokers] is important to us and we’re going the other way. We’re investing more, we’re committing to trying to make [brokers] as successful as possible and doing what we can out of that self-interest.
“We think you being successful will make us successful.”
Furthermore, in a Q&A, Shift national manager strategic partnerships Marie Boyagi spoke to former Pepper Group CEO and Shift board member Patrick Tuttle on the opportunities for brokers that are on the horizon.
When asked about the role of brokers as trusted advisers, Tuttle said: “I think brokers, particularly finance brokers, are in a really unique position [to] understand the needs of small-business clients.
“Most of my career was in mortgages, and I found that for mortgage brokers, it was much harder to build rapport with their customer base because a residential mortgage is very much a one-off transaction.
“There’s not often the ability to go back for multiple transactions across a range of different funding opportunities, which is really an opportunity that exists for good finance brokers.
“My view is brokers should always be seeking ways to reach out to their customer base to understand what’s happening in the business, and where [there] needs to be change.
“I’d encourage you to understand the Shift Connect platform and the information you can get out of that as a catalyst for starting conversations with customers, because I think finance brokers would have a much better position to build that rapport as a trusted financial adviser than perhaps even mortgage brokers, even though you might do mortgages as well.”
[RELATED: Asset purchases are the biggest opportunity, say commercial brokers]
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