Since August, our advocacy work has been in full swing, highlighted by Anja Pannek’s appearance before the Senate Committee to underscore the critical service and support mortgage brokers provide to homebuyers. This article explores key advocacy efforts, including our response to the Senate inquiry on financial regulation and home ownership, the expansion of the reference checking protocol to aggregators, and the continued focus on cyber security and member resources. Discover how these initiatives support our members and strengthen the industry’s reputation and sustainability.
Appearing before the Senate Committee, Anja Pannek shone a light on the service and support mortgage brokers provide to their existing and prospective homeowner clients.
In response to the Senate’s announcement in August of an inquiry into the financial regulatory framework and home ownership, we undertook a number of activities to ensure our members had the opportunity to contribute to our submission, including:
- surveys of our members to gather insights into the challenges faced by first home buyers, and
- roundtables with our members of our National Aggregator Forum to gather their perspectives on the regulatory framework.
Following our written submission, the MFAA appeared in mid-October before the Senate Economics References Committee to answer their questions in relation to the 4 key priority areas and 8 recommendations made, particularly those related to first home buyers.
Read our submission.
Final piece of the reference checking puzzle now in place
Since it was introduced in 2021, the MFAA has been advocating for the reference checking and information sharing protocol to be extended to aggregators so that it is comprehensive, reflects how the industry operates and makes the broker accreditation process simpler.
In August, ASIC announced that the protocol will now allow aggregators to participate in the reference checking process for brokers moving to and from them, regardless of if they are the broker’s licensee or not.
The MFAA’s reference checking and information sharing online learning module has been updated to reflect the changes, including case studies so brokers know what to expect from the reference checking process if they choose to change licensees.
The module is available to MFAA members free of charge until 30 November 2024.
Other advocacy matters
- Since the start of the financial year, we’ve made six submissions across various topics (including Consumer Data Right, scams prevention, home ownership, responsible lending, self-regulation and credit reporting) and had our regularly scheduled meetings with AFCA and Treasury. Pleasingly, AFCA reports broker-related complaints continue to remain <1% of all complaints received.
- We’ve made it simpler to answer the question “How do mortgage brokers gets paid?”. Available on our website, our fact sheet helps to explain that mortgage broker commission is business revenue, that the upfront and trail components reflect a share of the economic value that the lender expects to earn from the loan, and the effects of clawback policies and net-of-offset calculations. Not only can the fact sheet be used when new brokers consider joining the industry, it’s also designed to be shared with broker clients.
- Cybersecurity remains one of the most important things for the MFAA and was the theme for a number of activities during the month of October. For example, in our submission relating to the proposed Scams Prevention Framework, we described the important role our members play in supporting scam awareness and education for their clients. We encourage all our members to complete the Cyber Wardens course and to watch the webinar recording where we explore cyber risks in the mortgage broking and financial services sector.
To stay updated with our advocacy activities read our submissions.
