The Reserve Bank of Australia decided to once again reduce the official cash rate, this time to 1% in a concentrated effort to boost household spending and the economy in general. In making the decision to lower rates again this month the RBA has signalled its focus on supporting employment growth as it looks to […]
With the uncertainty of the federal election behind it, the RBA has decided to reduce the official cash rate to 1.25% as it tries to stimulate household spending and the economy. This is the first rate move since August 2016 and I’d like to share some thoughts on why the Reserve Bank of Australia has […]
The RBA has decided to leave the official cash rate unchanged at 1.5% for the 29th consecutive time and we’d like to share some thoughts on why the Reserve Bank of Australia has made this decision. Only twice before has the RBA elected to drop rates during an election campaign and on both those occasions […]
Today industry, government and consumers came together at Parliament House for a forum discussion about issues affecting the housing industry, including changes to broker remuneration and the ALP’s proposed changes to negative gearing and capital gains tax. I was invited by Senator Zed Seselja, Assistant Minister for Treasury and Finance, to be part of a […]
AFG is expanding its current partnership with iSelect and has entered into a joint operation agreement with iSelect to help them provide an improved customer experience and to further enhance the provision of a digital home loan service to Australian borrowers. The joint operation will commence on 1 April. AFG has not acquired a financial […]
Australian Finance Group Ltd (ASX:AFG) said the Federal Government’s announcement on trail commissions today confirmed the vital role mortgage brokers play in generating competition in the home loan market. In response to the Banking Royal Commission recommendations, Treasurer Josh Frydenberg said the Government had decided not to prohibit trail commissions on new loans and opted […]
The RBA has decided to leave the official cash rate unchanged at 1.5% for the 28th consecutive time and we’d like to share some thoughts on why the Reserve Bank of Australia has made this decision. Following its February meeting, the RBA said the case for the next rate move to be a decrease was […]
As financial markets digest the findings of the Banking Royal Commission, the Reserve Bank of Australia has made its first rate announcement for 2019. The RBA has decided to leave the official cash rate unchanged at 1.5% for the 27th consecutive time. The RBA continues to balance the worrying parts of the economy – inflation […]
Australian Finance Group Ltd (AFG) said the Federal Government’s public acknowledgement of the importance of competition in the home loan sector directly recognises the benefits mortgage brokers bring to consumers. AFG welcomes the Government’s support for the industry and the need to protect competition in Australia’s home lending market. In its response to the final […]
AFG today said the ACCC’s Residential Mortgage Price Inquiry report has provided damning evidence of the major banks “synchronising” interest rate increases, underlining the importance of ensuring a competitive home loan market. AFG chief executive officer David Bailey applauded the ACCC’s conclusion that consumer choice and lower interest rates on offer from smaller lenders competing […]
As widely anticipated, in the final rate announcement for 2018, the Reserve Bank of Australia has left the official cash rate unchanged at 1.5% for the 27th consecutive time. The RBA continues to balance the positive parts of the economy including strong infrastructure spending, increased export earnings and 5% unemployment with some of the negative […]
AFG has launched a campaign designed to highlight to Australians and our key policy makers the important role mortgage brokers play in providing competition to the big four lenders. This campaign focuses on the many benefits competition brings in providing choice to borrowers and keeping downward pressure on interest rates. The competitive tension delivered by […]
AFG has today called for the customer to be first and foremost in the debate on mortgage brokers and the big banks. AFG Chief Executive Officer David Bailey has urged a careful and considered approach to policy settings preserving the best possible competitive arrangements as big banks seek to consolidate lending back to their branches. […]
As the nation stops to enjoy today’s Melbourne Cup, the only sure bet of the day was that the Reserve Bank of Australia would leave the official cash rate unchanged at 1.5% for the 27th consecutive time. Rates remain on hold while the RBA assesses domestic factors including slow economic growth, falling house prices and […]
The Reserve Bank of Australia has decided to leave the official cash rate unchanged at 1.5% for the 26th consecutive time. I’d like to share today’s rate announcement and the thoughts on why the Reserve Bank of Australia has made this decision. In making this decision the RBA looks to have balanced low unemployment, strong […]
The Australian broking landscape is changing. We’re seeing an unprecedented shift in AFG brokers broadening their capabilities to offer commercial finance. It’s no surprise, the commercial lending market is worth $39 billion per month, and yet brokers have volumes below 10% of the market. It’s time to get cracking and make your mark in this […]
Thank you to everyone who attended the AFG NSW and ACT 2018 Awards function on Friday 24th August at Hyatt Regency. We would like to take this opportunity to congratulate all of our award finalists and ultimate winners in each category for the 2018 year. It has been an amazing year for us all in […]
The 2018 annual awards function held on the 24th of August on the Gold Coast was a great success. We would like to take this opportunity to congratulate all of our award finalists and ultimate winners in each category for the 2018 year. Looking back it has been an amazing year for us all, plenty […]
On Behalf of AFG SA we would like to take this opportunity to congratulate to all of our SA Award finalists and ultimate winners in each category for the 2017/2018 year! It has been an amazing year for us all, plenty of changes in a vibrant industry, that continues to grow and flourish and provide […]
The Reserve Bank of Australia decided to once again leave the official cash rate unchanged at 1.5% with the last rate move back in August 2016. I’d like to share today’s rate announcement and the thoughts on why the Reserve Bank of Australia has made this decision. In making this decision the RBA looks to […]
The 2018 WA Broker Excellence Awards were held on Friday, 31 August at a cocktail reception held at the beautiful State Theatre of Western Australia. Brokers, partners, lenders partners and the AFG team gathered together to celebrate broker excellence. We would like to take this opportunity to again congratulate all of our award finalists and […]
The 2018 Victorian annual awards function held on the 23rd of August was a great success. We would like to take this opportunity to congratulate all of our award finalists and ultimate winners in each category for the 2018 year. Looking back it has been an amazing year for us all, plenty of changes in […]
AFG has today announced a new program of education for its top performing brokers. Called AFG Academy, the program involves an intensive 3-day live-in course in Sydney next month, delivered by Harvard Business School Professor, David J Collis. Commenting on the program, AFG CEO David Bailey said it provided a rare opportunity for attendees to […]
The Reserve Bank of Australia decided to once again leave the official cash rate unchanged at 1.5% with it now being two years since the last cash rate move. I’d like to share today’s rate announcement and the thoughts on why the Reserve Bank of Australia has made this decision. With a combination of factors […]
Major banks may well be the unintended beneficiaries of any move to ban trailing commissions for mortgage products, AFG has warned. Speaking after the release of the Productivity Commission’s final report into competition in the Australian Financial System, AFG CEO David Bailey cautioned that any move to ban trailing commissions for mortgage brokers would have […]
Today, the Mortgage Broking Industry Group* (MBIG) has launched The Value of Mortgage Broking, a report by Deloitte Access Economics. This report demonstrates the value that our industry brings to consumers, lenders and the Australian economy, by driving competition and delivering greater choice and valuable services to the Australians who need them most. The Value […]
The Reserve Bank of Australia decided to once again leave the official cash rate unchanged at 1.5% with the last rate move back in August 2016. I’d like to share today’s rate announcement and the thoughts on why the Reserve Bank of Australia has made this decision. The economy appears delicately poised with slow wages […]
Pipeline is your new broker workflow management software we’ve been designed in collaboration with our brokers, for our brokers. Pipeline brings you the software you need to keep track of your prospects, manage your loan applications and pre-set your activity plans to enable outstanding customer service. Opportunities start with Pipeline The customer card view in […]
I would like to share with you AFG’s response to the Productivity Commission’s Draft Report on Competition in the Australian Financial System. As you are aware we have been engaging with the Productivity Commission over and above the submission process and they have asked AFG to collate some real examples of the work you do […]
Earlier this month, Mark Zuckerburg, co-founder and CEO of Facebook, announced the latest update to Facebook’s algorithm, which will result in changes to the content that users are presented with on their news feed. Originally intended to be a social platform whereby users can interact and communicate with their friends and family, Facebook more recently […]
2017 has been an eventful year for the broking industry, and with the year coming to an end, it’s time to take a step back and reflect on the achievements and challenges experienced by our state team and members. Earlier this month, approximately 300 of our brokers in VIC, and AFG state office staff celebrated […]
2017 has been an eventful year for the broking industry, and with the year coming to an end, it’s time to take a step back and reflect on the achievements and challenges experienced by our state team and members. Earlier this month, our SA brokers and AFG state office staff celebrated the successes of the […]
With the end of 2017 fast approaching, it’s a time to reflect on the achievements and challenges throughout the year for our state team and members, and head into 2018 with optimism and passion for the industry we’re part of. Last week, approximately 350 WA brokers and AFG head office staff celebrated the successes of […]
The broking industry faced several challenges this year, but with the end of 2017 fast approaching, it’s time to reflect on the achievements of our team and re-charge ready for a successful 2018. Earlier this month, we celebrated the year with our brokers and AFG state office staff in several locations across QLD and NT: […]
Thank you to everyone who attended the AFG NSW and ACT 2017 Awards Night and Christmas function on Thursday 7th December at Doltone House, Hyde Park. We would like to take this opportunity to congratulate all of our award finalists and ultimate winners in each category for the 2017 year. It has been an amazing year […]
AFG (ASX: AFG) has today called on the banking Royal Commission to recognise the significant inquiries that have already been conducted into the mortgage broking sector and the important role mortgage brokers play in the Australian lending market, as the government outlines the inclusion of mortgage brokers in the scope of the banking Royal Commission. […]
Andre Eikmeier is an Entrepreneur, Co-Founder and Joint CEO of Vinomofo, one of Australia’s fastest-growing companies and a leader in innovation, disruption and culture. Andre spoke to our brokers earlier this year at our National Broker Conference in a talk titled Road to vino – how Vinomofo survived and conquered. Andre shared the failures, triumphs and […]
A few months ago we sent you our first training module in a series of learning and development topics aimed to educate and help future proof your business. That module was based on commonly asked questions of our marketing team regarding social media. We hope you found the Introduction to Social Media training video of interest. What training we have coming up The […]
Speaking at our National Broker Conference earlier this year, Dr Catriona Wallace, Founder and CEO of FinTech company Flamingo, highlighted the key customer experience trends. Catriona provided our brokers with practical, useful actions related to navigating this new paradigm. Customer experience has moved beyond personalisation to individualisation – where customers not only want a personalised offer […]
2017 has been an impressive year for so many of our 2850 brokers around the country, and for the industry more broadly. With broker market share now widely reported at around 55% there are many reasons to celebrate and also many ways to capitalise to ensure our continued growth. Looking forward to next year, we […]
Last, but by no means least, in our Women in Broking series, we interview Amber Linzner, Founding Director and Senior Mortgage Advisor of AKL Finance Group, in Melbourne, VIC. What inspired you to pursue a career as a mortgage advisor? When I started as a mortgage advisor’s personal assistant 11 years ago my aim was […]
Cosi De Angelis, General Manager Commercial Origination at ANZ spoke about cybercrime at our AFG National Broker Conference this year. With business and consumer interactions moving to digital formats, there is a world of opportunities before us. Unfortunately, this also brings increased risks and vulnerabilities for organisations regardless of their size. Digital development is making it […]
David Bailey joined AFG back in 2004, becoming our Chief Executive Officer in the inaugural year of our National Broker Conference 2017. It seems fitting his speech would, therefore, be titled The industry today, the industry tomorrow, and the importance of championing competition. The mortgage broking industry has much to be confident about and much to celebrate, […]
Following in our Women in Broking series, we interview Katrina Rowlands, director of Mortgage Success, in Wollongong, NSW. What inspired you to pursue a career as a mortgage advisor? The fact that I could self-manage my time, as a broker, and self-manage my success really appealed to me. I had been told in my previous […]
The Hon. Jeff Kennett AC, former Premier of Victoria and founding Chairman of beyondblue is a change merchant. He spoke at our National Broker Conference about the increasing speed of change and how it is neutering the political process from delivering good government In a talk titled With an increasing speed of change, should we change […]
In light of the ASIC report into broker remuneration and in his role as ASIC Deputy Chair, Peter Kell spoke at our National Broker Conference this year on the key themes of competition and positive customer outcomes. Peter focused on how brokers can ensure they are meeting these objectives, as well as how they can […]
Australian Finance Group (ASX:AFG) is pleased to announce the appointment of Lifebroker to AFG’s life insurance referral program. The new arrangement will make it easier for AFG’s 2850 brokers to offer life insurance referrals to clients, providing them with a wide choice of options for their needs from Lifebroker’s range of comprehensive life insurance products. […]
Following in our Women in Broking series, we interview Peta Siebert, General Manager of Avenue Financial, in Melbourne, VIC. What inspired you to pursue a career as a mortgage advisor? My role is a little different to a Mortgage Advisor I am now the General Manager and Partner for a sub-origination Mortgage Broking business partnered […]
At our National Broker Conference this year, our General Manager – Commercial, Keiran Evans, spoke about diversifying your broking business. AFG’s focus and investment in diversification has never been stronger. Now more than ever it is important we’re helping each and every one of our brokers step into new markets across an array of customer needs, […]
Following in our Women in Broking series, we interview Marissa Schulze, Director and Mortgage & Finance Adviser of Rise High Financial Solutions, in Adelaide, SA. What inspired you to pursue a career as a mortgage advisor? Before becoming a mum I was working in Commercial Banking. I loved my job but once I became a […]
Thank you to everyone who attended the AFG Victoria 2017 Awards Night on Wednesday 19th July at Showtime Events Centre. We would like to take this opportunity to congratulate all of our award finalists and ultimate winners in each category for the 2016/17 year. It has been an amazing year for us all, plenty of changes […]
Following in our Women in Broking series, we interview Michelle Towner, director of Towner Finance, in Perth, WA. What inspired you to pursue a career as a mortgage advisor? There was no one thing that inspired me and to be honest I almost fell into the industry. In 2000 we were buying a property and […]
CX stands for Customer Experience. We use the term CX to refer to the interaction between you and your customer over the duration of their relationship with you. The CX movement has been a catalyst for the redesign of customer processes and interactions to increase customer loyalty, improve relationships and create more true advocates of […]
In the first of our Women in Broking series, we interview Bridget Headland, founder and director of her own financial brokerage, Vision Money, operating in Darwin and Brisbane. What inspired you to pursue a career as a mortgage advisor? I worked within the finance industry, a different role to start with and then I was […]
Our SMART program is unique. You won’t find it anywhere else. We know because we built it. SMART is completely integrated into your lodgement engine — simply process your leads and applications then any aspects of the SMART program that you’ve chosen to utilise are automatically triggered. That means your leads are reminded of the […]
We’ve got some big numbers on our books with over 2,850 brokers around the country. And it’s no surprise we attract some of the best names in the business, brokers we’re so proud to see grow year after year. One particular number we’re super keen to see growing is the number of female brokers we […]
We pride ourselves on being at the cutting edge of industry and regulatory change and take even greater pride in protecting our brokers’ business and reputation by ensuring best practice in all we do. We are continuously working to integrate and automate compliance as much as possible via FLEX. These improvements are there to help […]
Are you taking full advantage of Broker Fact Find to do the legwork to help you speed up a deal? Broker Fact Find is your online customer tool that lets your customer take care of the data entry basics at a time and place that suits them. It helps streamline the application and approval process […]
We like to think we’re breaking new ground in the mortgage broking space in a lot of what we do. From our machine learning applications, our Business Intelligence tool, the new AFG Business platform on its way to help grow commercial volumes, the new broker websites with clever email capture functionality to our ongoing integration […]
We’ve been overwhelmed with the positive feedback we received from our National Broker Conference, have a read of the highlights from the conference. As Australia’s largest mortgage broker event ever held, the impact of the event extends beyond just the two days. We aim to help our AFG members become some of the best educated […]
Last week celebrated the success of our WA AFG brokers at our 2017 State Awards event. These awards are a time to recognise and reward those WA members who are leading the way and who, despite tough conditions, have achieved success and great consumer outcomes this past financial year. We would also like to acknowledge […]
Analytics is AFG’s interactive reporting tool for our brokers on SMART where they can access data on deals lodged and settled, commission payments, portfolio growth, customer statistics, and key indicators which let you know about the health and growth of your business. A reporting tool that’s just like having your own Business Analyst on staff. Some […]
Each and every one of the 2,850 brokers under the AFG umbrella is different. You have different business models, and we expect you will use the tools available to you in different ways. That’s why, more and more, we are building flexible features into our solutions, helping you use the tools that work for you, […]
At The Adviser Australian Broking Awards 2017, we were very proud to have been awarded in two categories, Aggregator of the Year and Technology Platform of the Year. Technology is a key strategic focus for us and the backbone of our business and the businesses of our 2,850+ brokers. AFG has invested over $70m in technology […]
We don’t like to make blanket statements at AFG. Our industry works in facts, figures and codes. But the words being used to describe AFG’s National Broker Conference 2017 are worth sharing here and the 1,150 who attended will confirm them: An industry first The largest gathering ever of mortgage brokers in Australia Insights from […]
With mortgage brokers now responsible for more than 52% of home lending flows, Australian consumers are clearly indicating a high level of comfort with the service they receive. Today’s results are a testament to our focus on maintaining a strong core broking business, which continues to provide essential competition in the lending market and a […]
Congratulations to all of our SA Award finalists and ultimate winners in each category for the 2016/2017 year. SA Broker Group Of The Year WINNER: Assured Home Loans Second Place: Afirm Financial Third Place: Oracle Lending Solutions SA Broker Of The Year WINNER Leon Spadavecchia, Afirm Financial Second Place Judy Wang, J & H Finance […]
Offering your clients a holistic finance offering is more important than ever. Diversification of your product offerings and your value proposition helps attract a wider range of business development opportunities and it can help safeguard your income when regulatory or policy changes affect one of your market segments. It can create additional income streams and […]
As buzzwords become more ubiquitous, it’s easy to tune out. Disruption, virtual reality, fintech, chatbots, blockchain, robo-somethings, robo-everythings, algorithms, machine learning… the list goes on. The good news is we’re here to wade through it all for you, serving you up what you need to know when you need to know it, and breaking down […]
Our role is to help support and help you grow your business, and we’ve talked a lot on this blog about just some of the ways we achieve these aims. Something somewhat outside our remit, but something that is important to mention, particularly on the back of the presentation held at this year’s National Broker […]
