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• MPA Online

Loan Market executive director Sam White has detailed his vision for the group's next 12 months, with plans to put "more brokers in more offices", increase diversification, and focus more on clients.

Speaking at the group's annual conference in Sydney, White said the group would target continued growth in market share, in a challenge to Australia's top two players Mortgage Choice and Aussie. White said Loan Market has overtaken Aussie as the largest retail broking group in the state of Victoria.

The group will target increased profitability, after a year that saw productivity rise from $1m to $1.18m per broker per month - an increase of 12% on the previous 12 month period, according to White.

Diversification would be a key driver of growth, with White arguing brokers should be a client's "private banker", and that brokers have "a moral duty of care to provide insurance". Loan Market will offer ALI Group's mortgage protection products, as well as offer life insurance via online broker Lifebroker.

Chief operating officer Dean Rushton said the group is continuing to build a specialised commercial lending business, in an effort to keep these leads in-house, rather than risk losing clients through external referrals.

Brokers were also urged by White to focus more on clients, including seeing all clients face-to-face, rather than using pre-qualifications to screen out those who it was obvious could not afford a loan. He said the "deals will come", if brokers don't only chase business that can be closed immediately.

In an effort to stay closer to clients, Rushton said the group is in the prototype phase of upgrading its Symmetry CRM software, to ensure its use in tandem with other systems, such as Microsoft Outlook. Customer satisfaction data would also be published regularly online.

In conclusion, White said brokers were "forced to do more for less" over the past year, when a lot was asked of the channel, including dealing with regulatory changes due to NCCP legislation, managing their lender mix due to minimum volume requirements, and having to write more loans at better quality.

However, he said Loan Market "individuals stepped up", with the group having risen in CBA's internal rankings of growth, measured by mortgage group, and having come second in the bank's overall measure of conversion rates and submission quality.

White's market outlook was also upbeat, believing the industry had passed a low point in 2010. He said current conditions were reminiscent of the early 90's, that gave birth to non-bank lenders, and that ex-RBA interest rate increases could increase bank margins and bring in more competition.

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