MPA Brokers on Non-Banks 2021 - Brand Recognition
Accolades
Milestones
1992
2005
2013
2016
2021
2023
Aussie Home Loans founded
1992
Launch of Aussie retail
2005
Lendi founded
2013
Launch of Lendi platform
2016
Lendi and Aussie merge to create Lendi Group
2021
All 1,400 Lendi Group brokers live on platform by the end of June
2023
Unleashing potential across the Lendi Group network
The massive job of merging the Lendi and Aussie home loan brands is hitting milestone after milestone.
As of the end of June, the Lendi Group had migrated all 1,100 Aussie brokers onto the new Aussie platform just eight months after the first batch were moved across in November last year.
“To successfully complete that, in that time frame, has been a massive achievement,” says chief distribution officer Brad Cramb.
Now the group’s retail stores have been invited to opt into its Platform Plus operating model. But despite the whirlwind of ongoing activity, Cramb has his eyes firmly set on the growth he sees coming down the track.
“We’re super intent on helping our franchisees to build a bigger and more scalable business, ” he says. “In simple terms, our ‘franchise of the future’ strategy is about delivering scalable systems and processes to help our franchisees grow their footprint and drive their efficiency and productivity.”
Cramb says he wants to make franchisees in the extended Lendi Group “into CEOs of their own businesses” and explains how the company is providing them with the tools to achieve that.
“Platform Plus allows franchisees to grow their footprint like they’ve never been able to before. Our aim is to see each of our franchisees have a minimum of three brokers in their team and in each of their stores.”
Each store in the Aussie network has the capacity to have over five brokers attached to it. Around 30% of Aussie’s franchisees are multisite owners, with some owning up to four stores.
“We’re confident that new franchisees will not only come into the network but we’ll also continue to build out those multistore franchisees beyond 30% to 40% and maybe even 50% of our stores in the future,” Cramb says.
He is quick to quash any impression of growth for the sake of it. Rather, expansion will be a result of the natural advantages that brokers in the group will have over the competition.
Indeed, Aussie has actually limited the number of new stores it is opening, with the exception of a few “hot territories” it’s still recruiting for.
“It’s not so much a store-growth strategy, as opposed to a composition strategy or a broker-growth strategy,” Cramb says. “[We want to] help those franchisees and give them a scalable model that allows them to bring in brokers and, importantly, remove the fixed costs [normally involved in setting up a business] at the same time.”
Spotlight
Lendi Group was created in 2021 though the merger of Aussie Home Loans and Lendi to form Australia’s largest retail mortgage broker. Both were founded as market disruptors to help Australians get better deals, better rates and better information on home loans. Lendi Group’s platform helps customers compare, apply and settle loans online while being supported by a team of experts and brokers who power its brands, products, services and relationships. With a shared history of challenging the status quo, the two brands provide different experiences for customers and have the same goal of helping more Australians achieve homeownership.
Company Profile
$96bn+
Loan book value
1,400
Brokers in Lendi Group distribution network
600+
Team members powering Lendi GROUP brokers
225+
Aussie retail stores across the country
1 million +
Customers helped with home loans since 1992
Bio
Spotlight
Milestones
Media
Accolades
Company Profile
Years of experience
20+
tenure IN current position
3 years
Career highlight
“I’ve been involved in mergers before, but none at the same size and scale of bringing together Aussie and Lendi, so playing a part in the creation of Lendi Group ranks as a career highlight”
Brad Cramb
Chief distribution officer at Lendi Group
With its platform migration complete, Lendi Group is shifting up a gear to help Aussie franchisees grab the opportunities for scalable growth with both hands
Read on
“Our ‘franchise of the future’ strategy is about delivering scalable systems and processes to help our franchisees grow their footprint and drive their efficiency and productivity”
Brad Cramb,
Lendi Group
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Milestones
2011
2012
2015
2016
2019
2021
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2011
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2012
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2015
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2016
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2019
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2021
Inspiring women to reach the pinnacle
Spotlight
Years of experience
20+
Tenure at current position
3 years
Fun Fact
On the weekends, Cramb trades his business suit for a wetsuit and can be found searching for the next great wave with his two sons
Karen Adams
President and CEO at Fundserv
Before becoming CEO of Fundserv, Karen Adams held a variety of leadership roles around the world – and she learned that listening and understanding are key to both providing service and developing talent
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BRAD CRAMB,
LENDI GROUP
Aussie’s 1,100 brokers join the more than 300 Lendi brokers using one of the most powerful and unique platforms in the market.
“The key benefit that we see is connectivity – and what I mean by that is live connectivity,” Cramb says.
Brokers and customers can conduct key fact-finding, as well as the application process, across more than two dozen lenders and thousands of loan options in real time on the platform.
“The real-time interface with the customer is something that really doesn’t exist anywhere else in the industry.”
Normally, brokers are often forced to rely on offline processes that can take many hours from time of first contact through to lodgement in a typical situation, followed by weeks of anxious waiting for the customer.
Three of La Trobe Financial’s state managers are mums.
“It shows to females in the industry that it's possible; as much as it’s a juggle and a balance and hard work, don’t give up your career just because you have the title of being a mum,” Bannister says.
“La Trobe Financial has continued to provide me with great support, encouraging me to strive to be my best and supporting me both in my day-to-day role and also by allowing me to progress my career whilst raising my young children.”
MPA Brokers on Non-Banks 2021 - Foreign Non-Residents
AMA 2021 Non-Bank of the Year Excellence Award
AMA 2021 Best Non-Major Bank BDM
$1m+
Annual donations
BRAD CRAMB,
LENDI GROUP
Brad Cramb,
Lendi Group
“We’ve digitised that whole process to ensure that the application process and the experience is more seamless for both brokers and customers, with lodgement speeds that are almost four times the industry average.”
The benefits accrue to brokers in the form of more time to spend on value-added and customer-focused tasks, and to customers in terms of experience and choice.
“[Our] platform provides productivity and operating efficiency through reduced manual processing for the brokers and the customers. It enables our brokers to work even closer with their customers and the lenders and really helps deepen those relationships; and importantly, it gives choice to the customer,” Cramb explains.
Customers can select the level of involvement they want in a transaction, ranging from a typical hands-off broker-borrower interaction to one in
For brokers more specifically, Platform Plus and Lendi Group’s support systems help by finding and quickly converting strong leads through back-office support and lead-priming work, including guiding customers through prequalifying. The group’s client solutions team provide centralised loan processing support and have strong knowledge of all the lending options available, resulting in a level of requests for more information (RMIs) from lenders that is less than half the industry average. Finally, brokers can feel confident that they’re meeting the ever-tougher expectations of customers thanks to the range of tools on the interface, combined with the speedy and superior experience enabled.
“[The] direct integration into lender decision engines … provides our customers with a real-time indication of their likelihood for approval, so the appointment, the submission and the approval can all be made in one day,” Cramb says.
“Our ‘franchise of the future’ strategy is about delivering scalable systems and processes to help our franchisees grow their footprint and drive their efficiency and productivity”
“The platform changes the way that the Aussie retail broker can engage with their customer in a truly omnichannel way ... they’re ready for their next chapter”
“Our ‘franchise of the future’ strategy is about delivering scalable systems and processes to help our franchisees grow their footprint and drive their efficiency and productivity”
“The platform changes the way that the Aussie retail broker can engage with their customer in a truly omnichannel way ... they’re ready for their next chapter”
“The platform changes the way that the Aussie retail broker can engage with their customer in a truly omnichannel way ... they’re ready for their next chapter”
Victoria, Australia
based in
1999
2003
2007
2015
2020
2021
Joins NAB as executive broker distribution
2021
Becomes head of private wealth north at Westpac
2020
Appointed head of asset finance at CBA
2015
Named captain of the Waratahs
2007
Named vice-captain of Australia's Rugby World Cup team
2003
Waugh debuts as a professional rugby player with the Waratahs; makes Test debut with the Wallabies
1999
Milestones
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Published 23 Aug 2023
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On the weekends, Cramb trades his business suit for a wetsuit and can be found searching for the next great wave with his two sons
Fun fact
Unique versatility and connectivity
which they can do much more of the application themselves through the functionality provided to them.
The boost in productivity and operating efficiency that results from reduced manual processing and other changes will allow for a virtuous cycle of growth.
“These efficiencies enable us to realise significant cost and revenue synergies for our brokers and of course for the group. And ultimately that allows us to invest even more in future growth,” Cramb says.
Lendi Group has some ambitious targets for its brokers to aim for now that these new systems are up and running across the network. The incumbent Lendi brokers, who have been using some of these systems for several years, set the standard by averaging 12 submissions a month. This compares with an industry average of only 3.5 submissions a month.
The top quartile of Lendi brokers write over a deal a day in some cases, and Cramb believes that over 30 submissions a month is possible for brokers using Platform Plus going forward. One industry survey shows that only a handful of top brokers were writing loans at this pace in 2022, a record-breaking year for broking overall.
Cramb points to Lendi Group’s new graduate program as evidence that these targets are achievable. Each graduate group of 10 to 15 new brokers hit the ground running when they engage with Platform Plus, going from zero to submitting an average of eight lodgements in their first eight weeks.
“That’s sort of unheard of in the industry … we’ve got new-to-industry brokers now that will settle $50 million in their first year.”
They’re performing at a remarkable pace considering that only several hundred brokers in an industry of over 19,000 last year wrote more than $100 million, some of whom have decades of experience.
The future for brokers in the Lendi Group will clearly be a high-octane one of pursuing growth. Cramb says both the Lendi and Aussie brands were established as industry disruptors, and bringing the two together enables the group to continue to challenge the status quo.
“No one can argue with the fantastic brand that’s been built over the last 30 years and the strength of the Aussie channel. But it also helps future-proof the business as well, as the platform changes the way that the Aussie retail broker can engage with their customer in a truly omnichannel way … they’re ready for their next chapter.
“Ultimately, we’re all here for the same thing. And that’s helping borrowers get their dream of homeownership in a seamless way.”
Leveraging the benefits for future growth
Media
careeer highlight
“I’ve been involved in mergers before, but none at the same size and scale of bringing together Aussie and Lendi, so playing a part in the creation of Lendi Group ranks as a career highlight”
“I headed up credit for nine years prior to moving into a sales role, which gave me a great foundation along with a high degree of confidence to back my decisions in the field, which is what I built my sales career on,” she says.
La Trobe Financial has always had a focus on employing females – the number of females entering its workspace has remained steady and is holding at close to par with the number of males.
“Opportunities are available to everyone – period. If you can prove yourself, and you do the work, the job is yours,” Bannister says.
“In recent times, we have experienced an extremely high calibre of females joining us, often coming out of larger corporate organisations where in some cases they tell us they felt that they lost sight of their future career path and felt more like a number with a limited voice.”
Bannister says what has changed externally is that 20 years ago a typical broker was a mature-aged male, but that’s no longer the case, as younger women and men have become brokers.
“That’s helped the transition to a greater level of acceptance of females in the industry and a greater deal of respect.”
The industry has also come a long way in accepting and promoting women, Bannister says. “That wasn’t the case 15 years ago. You look at every industry body back then, and it was 100% male dominated; well and truly over 80% of the industry was male.”
Bannister says her move away from an individual sales role to her current role in which she looks after a 35-strong sales team has been rewarding.
“My role now is about helping people under me succeed. I’m proud to have mentored a number of people and assisted them in finding leadership opportunities.”
Unique versatility and connectivity
Leveraging the benefits for future growth
400+
career highlight
On the weekends, Cramb trades his business suit for a wetsuit and can be found searching for the next great wave with his two sons
Unique versatility and connectivity
Leveraging the benefits for future growth
Read on
