Broader industry association idea canned

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Plans to morph the New Zealand Mortgage Brokers’ Association (NZMBA) into a broader mortgage industry organisation along the lines of the Mortgage Industry Association of Australia (MIAA) failed at the final hurdle: the lenders wouldn’t agree.

Monday, September 6th 2004, 6:51AM

by Jenny Ruth

The MIAA represents lenders, lenders’ mortgage insurance companies and representatives of the major mortgage broking aggregators and franchises.

Retiring NZMBA chairman Brian Berry, who had put in many hours of work in trying to establish the new organisation, including a trip to Australia to investigate how the MIAA works, told the NZMBA annual meeting that the all-emcompassing mortgage industry model had been rejected.

That means the current organisation representing only mortgage brokers, although including the participation of lenders (including having representatives on the NZMBA’s executive committee) will continue.

The lenders’ decision is all the more curious because it was lenders, not mortgage brokers, which drove the MIAA’s formation, and because all the major mortgage lending banks in New Zealand are Australian owned.

After the meeting, Berry said the lenders had a problem with the concept of an industry body representing all the mortgage distribution channels, not just mortgage brokers. The current structure allows lenders to sit on the sidelines.

"They need to sort our inter-lender issues so they would be consistent in the treatment of brokers generally," he said, adding that the idea of a wider industry body "took them out of their comfort zone."

While a driving force behind the idea of a wider industry body had been to gain more clout, particularly when approaching the government and regulatory bodies, the rejection of the idea hasn’t led to any reconsideration of the NZMBA becoming a chapter of the Financial Planners and Insurance Advisers Association. The FPIA has about three times the number of members as the NZMBA.

"We think our issues need specialist treatment and representation at the moment, but we’re working closely with the FPIA," Berry said.

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