Industry must help ASIC weed out dodgy brokers

As usual MFAA trying to find a purpose! ASIC will manage just fine. Brokers & individuals all have a duty of care to report issues as they arise - the same way as normal complaints get raised!

The banks have their own set of NCCP & ASIC rules as "Country Broker" alludes to. Happens many times over that they do deals that we couldn't get through. A client came to us recently after his broker had two applications declined through major banks. A $5000 unpaid credit default was an obvious issue as well as non gen savings but a non conforming lender was considering after a third application. Concerned by the higher interest rate on offer, the client went back to another major bank on their own which meant the fourth credit enquiry in 3 weeks and the loan was approved at 80%LVR. A bank that claims to have strict credit scoring in place and who would have laughed at us had we submitted that quality of business to them...our BDM's tell us all the time it can't happen, yet we experience it regularly with all the banks....at branch level they often seem to have their own set of NCCP rules.

NCCP introduction has certainly assisted many in understanding the rules and regulations of the industry and sets out clear guidelines for everyone to follow, rather than what was in place before and now let’s just throw some fuel onto the fire with what I am about to say here.
Has NCCP stopped some brokers from placing clients into loans that produce the highest returns in commissions or some from actually encouraging people to borrow more than they need? Simple answer is no and yes there is evidence to this fact in the market.
When the Finance Brokers Licensing was implemented in Western Australia did it stop some brokers from doing the wrong thing and the simple answer is no and will NCCP stop this, simple answer again is no. No matter what rules and regulations is in place in whatever profession these things will always happen.
Another issue is if say a whistle blower in a broker’s firm wishes to report certain behaviours to ASIC one story told to me was that ASIC told them that they may also be implicated and would also be investigated, so the broker refused to report the matters but chose rather to leave that particular company. Given they were not seeking to have their identity revealed to their place of employment. So is there a smarter way this can be handled as well, given outstanding commissions may not have been forth coming on departure.
I commend the associations for taking a strong stance on these matters but not all Finance Brokers are members of associations.
Future of Financial Advice (FOFA) has been forced on Financial Planners due to the fact that commissions had became an issue so realistically given ASIC now recognises Credit as a product what do you really think the end game will be if the behaviours by some as mentioned above do not cease. I prefer to leave that to your imagination rather than saying the obvious. So it’s a serious matter that everyone pulls together and stamps out behaviours that tarnish what has become a professional industry.

Come on haters, start laying into the MFAA on this.

Don't let them get away with it!!

(Not serious - just having a shot at whinging brokers hehehe).

Get back to loan writing. It's almost the weekend :-)

I Agree with the comments from old Country Broker , some bank staff are just plain wrong !

All for it - we don't need these cowboys tarnishing the industry for everyone else. Why they are at it though, let's not forget the dodgy bank staff in lending roles. Lost count of the number of times I have seen clients that don't fit a particular lenders policies only for the local branch to somehow write the deal. For some reason we never hear about this??