MPA Brokers on Non-Banks 2021 - Brand Recognition

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Media

Milestones

2019

2020

2022

ORDE established in partnership with property and consumer lender Wingate

2019

ORDE launches to market; core of early relationships with brokers developed

2020

More than 1,000 brokers accredited; new senior executive team in place

2022

ORDE at the door, focused on service

There’s a new non-bank in the $1bn lending club. ORDE Financial, established in 2019, recently passed the milestone and looks set to continue a strong run based on its unique approach. “ORDE is unprecedented amongst Australian non-banks, launching from day one as a broad-spectrum lender backed by its own funding program and with a primary objective of delivering better service levels to all brokers at scaled volume,” says chief executive and managing director Paul Wells. Wells says maintaining service at scale can only come from a new non-bank lender established by a team experienced in high-volume lending and decisively oriented to brokers. “This setting allows freedom to implement a newly built digital environment, select a range of updated best-of-class business practices, and bring a fresh culture and a primary focus on delivery to market,” he says. The non-bank’s chief lending officer and other managing director, Ryan Harkness, says the key underpinnings of ORDE’s better service levels are efficiency, reliability and timely access to people. “That high service is delivered through efficient and effective process management, strong solution development, and broker education to identify both opportunities and how to work effectively with ORDE,” says Harkness. ORDE believes that if it can consistently maintain these service levels across a broad product set, it can build strong relationships as brokers’ preferred non-bank lender.

Building momentum Delivering this objective at scale requires a skilled and culturally integrated lending team leveraged by end-to-end cloud digital operations specifically built to expedite human-based decision-making. ORDE appears to have hit the nail on the head in providing an immediate and genuine alternative to the large, incumbent non-bank lenders. It has had strong momentum since launch, settling over $1bn within its first 18 months through a narrow distribution footprint. “[This] is evidence that ORDE is delivering for brokers,” says Wells. The lender only accepts applications via mortgage brokers and managers. ORDE doesn’t pursue a direct retail channel, seeing its potential for causing misplaced conflict with its distribution partners.

Spotlight

ORDE Financial is a specialist lender focusing on residential, commercial and SMSF backed by Wingate, a leading investment business and one of Australia’s most successful private property lenders, with more than $11.5bn of financed property transactions. ORDE provides competitive rates with no ongoing fees; comprehensive digital operations; and a highly experienced credit team. ORDE’s business team has extensive experience in leading and operating Australian specialist lending businesses and uses this experience to implement today's redefined digital technology capabilities, unlocking big improvements and delivering them to broker and borrower customers.

Company Profile

>$1bn

Total loan settlements

>1,000

Accredited brokers

75%

Max LVR for commercial loan

80%

Max LVR for residential loan

30 yrs

Max loan term

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CAREER HIGHLIGHT

“Without doubt the people that have chosen to join ORDE, sharing its objectives”

FAVOURITE QUOTE

Paul Wells

CEO at ORDE Financial

One of the newest non-banks is breaking barriers and building an impressive record based on a service-first ethos as it aims to be brokers’ lender of choice

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Paul Wells, ORDE FINANCIAL

ORDE at the door, focused on service

Spotlight

Years of experience

Paul Wells

CEO at ORDE Financial

One of the newest non-banks is breaking barriers and building an impressive record based on a service-first ethos as it aims to be brokers’ lender of choice

Read on

Bringing ORDE to market was the culmination of over 20 years of preparation by Wells and Harkness. In 2019, ORDE partnered with investor and financial sponsor Wingate, an experienced and successful Australian property and consumer lender, and formally launched to market in late 2020. Wells and Harkness consider the key achievements of the company so far not as numerical milestones but as the building of a broker-market-oriented culture based on integrity, service and solution delivery, supported by the strong relationships it has developed with brokers. Harkness says ORDE’s overarching success to date is reflected in the team it has built and its strong performance culture. “The whole team has been selected for their ability to make a difference, and ORDE has attracted outstanding individuals with determination and ability to improve ORDE’s proposition and to advance themselves in so doing,” he says. ORDE now has over 50 staff and continues to grow, and a senior executive team has recently been put in place to help steer the non-bank as it expands further.

Ready for the future Launching in the middle of a pandemic might sound a little hair-raising, and there was some uncertainty at the start caused by the early days of COVID, says Wells. But ORDE is now firmly focused on the issues of the day, such as the inflationary environment. “You can’t blame borrower caution right now,” says Harkness. Nobody knows how high interest rates will go or how long they will remain up. Pressure on property prices is also difficult to quantify in terms of how much they may decline and what types of properties may be affected, he says. “On the other hand, the certainty we do have is that borrowers will be exploring opportunities to refinance to lower rates and also to fund out or consolidate debts.”

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

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Another good thing about current market dynamics is that the corrective trend unfolding appears to be relatively mild and healthy so far. “Australia has some strong anchor points that buffer downside scenarios,” says Wells. He points to strong employment, trade, and commodity prices. Given that borrower rates are reverting from record lows to levels more commonly serviced a few years ago, he believes many Australians, including investors, are in a strong position. “There is no basis to substantially question the Australian attraction to property as a primary asset,” says Wells. “Potential price adjustments that reflect reduced ability to borrow appear likely to be moderate.”

ORDE doesn’t see any indication of forced sales, with typical valuation reductions being discussed as a return to levels seen in 2020 or 2021. But it is realistic about the challenges, even though the ability of the majority of borrowers to prioritise the payment of their loans remains broadly strong. “For many borrowers, high living expenses and rising mortgage rates represent a significant adjustment and more challenging expenditure profiles than in previous years,” says Harkness. Lenders are assessing customers’ ability to repay loans at higher interest rates, but the danger is that rates could increase within 12 months to beyond those critical test levels, he says. “Marginal difficulty servicing loans has not been a strong feature of mortgage lending in recent years, but it will likely return by degree in the near term,” says Wells. “Lenders need to think carefully about what they will do to work with very good borrowers caught out, literally marginally, by this situation in the immediate term.” ORDE is ready to work closely with borrowers to help them maintain their loans while adapting to the new environment. Educating brokers on opportunities available in the transitioning economy will be an important part of this process. The fact that there may be a few squalls on the horizon simply reinforces the need for a range of funding options. Looking ahead, ORDE plans to continue to expand its warehouse program and has an inaugural capital market funding product pending. Other than that, it will stick to its original game plan of significantly improving simple and timely access to information for brokers, as well as providing them with other service and relationship support. For ORDE, the future will be all about continuing to leverage the focus of its highly skilled teams on the inherently human-based aspects of specialist lending, says Harkness. It’s a formula that will likely bring many more milestones.

“There is no basis to substantially question the Australian attraction to property as a primary asset”

1999

2015

2021

Joins NAB as executive broker distribution

2021

Appointed head of asset finance at CBA

2015

Waugh debuts as a professional rugby player with the Waratahs; makes Test debut with the Wallabies

1999

Milestones

- Buddha

"All is illusion”

IN PARTNERSHIP WITH

“The whole team has been selected for their ability to make a difference, and ORDE has attracted outstanding individuals”

Ryan Harkness, ORDE FINANCIAL

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