by Jenny Ruth
Bawden and NZMBA chief executive Megan Salt appeared before the task force in Wellington in early March.
The task force's first paper included an inference that residential lending issues would be excluded from its recommendations, Bawden says.
"They weren't that bothered about residential lending. It was only investment properties that they were interested in, in terms of regulation," he says.
"They almost implied that they didn't see us as high priority. We agreed with that stance," he says.
"The risks of what we do aren't as great as in other areas."
The NZMBA has also argued that trying to differentiate between purchases of investment properties and owner-occupied purchases is fruitless because they are so inter-related.
Nevertheless, Bawden does want mortgage broking to be regulated.
"We should be part of the process, but we should be looked at separately." Bawden stopped short of agreeing that the regulation NZMBA is lobbying for is compulsory membership.
"What we want is legislative guidelines that everybody has to abide by."
But he does acknowledge the weakness of the NZMBA's position as long as membership remains voluntary.
"We would like mortgage brokers to have to belong to a registered body of some description. It could be the NZMBA or somebody else," he says.
"We've also said we're well positioned to manage that going forward."
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