Bawden's aggregation group to re-brand

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Former NZMBA chairman Geoff Bawden’s aggregation group is about to re-brand with most its mortgage and insurance brokers agreeing to begin operating under the same brand name rather than their individual business names.

Monday, March 2nd 2009, 5:00AM

by Jenny Ruth

"It’s about good people trying to help each other and add value. We’re trying to build something which is going to be more sustainable and of greater value," Bawden says.

The independent chairman of the re-branded group will be Paul Bravo, founder of home equity company Sentinel and before that Sovereign, now owned by Commonwealth Bank of Australia.

“He’s very highly regarded within this industry," Bawden says. "Paul has a demonstrated ability to make new businesses successful. He will bring a maturity to our thinking.”

The new group, which will be formally launched from April 1, will have offices in Whangarei, Auckland, Cambridge, Whakatane, Rotorua, Taupo and Blenheim.

A couple of mortgage brokers currently part of the aggregation group, including Wayne Oliver, inaugural winner of NZMBA’s mortgage broker of the year award in 2001, have decided to keep their own business names while still using Bawden’s group for aggregation. Bawden says the door remains "wide open" for them to join the branded group in future.

Bawden and partner Ali Toumadj, who has an insurance background, bought the Moneyworkz Group two-and-a-half years ago which had an extensive existing insurance business.

The pair also bought the aggregation part of the business of another former NZMBA chairman, Brian Berry, in late 2007.

Bawden says the group wants to move to offering a more complete set of financial services and says Bravo is on the board of Avanti Finance, suggesting a possible avenue of expansion into advice on personal loans.

Bawden says the new brand name of the group hasn’t been decided yet but it won’t be using Moneyworkz because there’s an existing Moneyworks business.

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