by Paul McBeth
In an effort to beef up efficiencies in the mortgage broking industry, Mortagenet Director Kieran Trass has developed a separate processing company, MPL, to provide a link between brokers and mortgage lenders.
Trass says his own broking firm Mortgagenet began using MPL's services a couple of weeks ago, another broker will use the service from April and he's already fielding further enquiries from round the country.
Trass claims that difficulties are now becoming apparent in New Zealand's relatively immature mortgage broking industry and are potentially restricting further growth. He says that successful brokers are getting held back by the large amount of administrative work that's generated after a mortgage application is received.
MPL (Mortgage Processing Limited) handles a lot of the admin side of mortgages, runs credit and information checks and liaises with the bank or other mortgage lender. Trass says its services revolve round a database tailored for the mortgage broking industry and it charges mostly on a set fee basis rather than percentage commissions.
"My attitude is, why penalise successful people for doing lots and lots of mortgages."
Trass isn't aware of any similar companies in New Zealand or Australia, but says such firms exist in the UK and American markets.