New back office for brokers

A new beast is looming larger in the mortgage menagerie: a comprehensive back-office support service called Plan New Zealand already has more than 30 independent mortgage brokers signed up since it launched in Auckland in April.

Although its official launch in Wellington isn’t until September 26, it already has one Wellington-based broker signed up.

"We’re behind-the-scenes business partners, we’re not a competitor," says Plan’s business development manager Julie Stevens.

The Australian-based company started in late 1999 and now has more than 800 brokers writing more than A$500 million in home loans each month taking its services.

It provides brokers with all the back office support services from lenders’ agreements and business systems including a loan product database, customer relationship management software and research tools to access to better deals from lenders due to the benefits of scale.

While there are plenty of mortgage "aggregators" in the market who offer the latter, there isn’t anyone else in the market offering such a depth of services, Stevens says.

Her particular focus is improving the mortgage broking industry’s information technology skills. "The level of IT in this industry isn’t good."

Plan’s Melbourne-based managing director Alex Moulieris says the factors driving his firm’s success is being driven by brokers’ growing commitment to professionalism and a greater emphasis on quality of service.

"There is a growing recognition that mortgage brokers must conduct themselves in a professional, systematic and ethical manner," Moulieris says.