Aggregator brands PLAN Australia, Choice Aggregation and FAST are the latest to be ‘retired’ as the broking industry continues to consolidate. We take a look back at the evolution of the aggregator heavyweights over the years.
In the September 2022 edition of The Adviser magazine, we recapped the huge amount of consolidation that the broking industry has been through over the past few years, as the big brokerages snap up smaller players and others fuse together their offerings.
Just five months later, another three aggregator brands are set to be mothballed - PLAN Australia, Choice Aggregation and FAST - following Loan Market Group’s decision to bring together all of its aggregation brands under the banner LMG (see page 6 for more).
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The three brands were among the first players in aggregation and have been instrumental in shaping the mortgage broking and aggregation space.
Indeed, many senior figures from across the aggregation and broking industry today have worked at one of the three groups at some point in time, including:
- Mark Haron, Connective executive director (FAST CEO 2000-2006)
- Anja Pannek, MFAA CEO (PLAN CEO 2016-2021)
- Greg Pennels, Purple Circle founder and director (Choice Home Loans founder and director 1997-2007)
- Michael Russell, MoneyQuest managing director (Choice CEO 2001-2008)
- Anthony Waldron, financial services CEO and Mortgage Choice at REA Group (NAB executive general manager, broker partnerships, NAB 2013-2019)
Given the major role PLAN, Choice and FAST have had on the broking industry, we take a look back at the history and evolution of PCF.
Choice Aggregation (Choice)
Choice Aggregation (Choice) was founded in 1997 by WA brokers Greg Pennels and Ross Begly.
The duo wanted to help more brokers start their own businesses so created a range of modules on how to do this, launching Choice Home Loans as a new franchise brokerage alongside John Bignell.
The franchise built its own workbook for brokers to follow, firstly in WA, and then moved to Brisbane. It was in Queensland that Choice began offering an aggregation model, where brokers could operate under their own brand (as the state laws did not require brokerages to operate under one brand, like WA did).
Over time, the wholesale aggregation side of the model became the lion’s share of the business, and had a particular focus on providing a higher level of support for brokers.
Reflecting on what made Choice different, former Choice CEO (2010-2021) and outgoing PCF managing director Stephen Moore said: “It might be seen as an overused term, but Choice had a real family feel about it. It was certainly a business that had very tight relationships, not just within the team but also amongst brokers, as well.
“For many, that was what was very appealing about Choice, because for the average broker, business can be quite isolating.
“There's real value in having a sense of belonging and having events that people can participate in together in having a peer group around you. So, that was something that we were very deliberately focused on, because we knew it was valued by brokers,” Mr Moore said.
PLAN Australia (PLAN)
PLAN Australia was founded in 1999 by Alex Moulieris, who had been one of the first loan writers with Aussie, and Rob Webber, a close friend of Mr Moulieris and an IT wizard.
After seeing how the life insurance industry had multi-agent agreements and thinking it could be replicated in broking, the duo started the Professional Lenders Association Network as a means of bringing established brokers together. The group later became known as PLAN Australia (or, more commonly, PLAN).
At the time, mortgage broking was still relatively young; with the major franchise brokerages dominating the space and brokers largely sending loans to non-banks and non-major banks.
PLAN Australia became one of the first wholesale aggregators to offer brokers not only access to lenders, but also back-office and business support. As part of its aim to professionalise the industry, it was also among the first to introduce a requirement for brokers to have a Certificate IV in Mortgage Broking.
It quickly attracted high-performing brokerages from across the country and was Australia’s largest mortgage aggregator up until the mid-2000s. For example, its 2001 move to bring on several brokers at Buyers Choice under one contract was one of the first sub-aggregation agreements in the country.
It was particularly well known for delivering a strong technology offering to its broker members, driven by IT specialist Rob Webber, and for not having retention clauses or hand-cuff clauses.
Speaking to The Adviser about PLAN’s early years, former PLAN national sales manager and CEO Ray Hair (2001-2011) said: “I started in November 2001 as national sales manager and we had something like 300 members and 24 staff.
“We were talking to brokers who had two years experience, and we were really looking at bringing on professional players. We even told new brokers to come back and talk to us after two years, which became a really strong recruitment round for us!
“It was all about helping brokers grow their business with technology support to make it easier, having transparent contracts with no handcuffs, and being a conduit to facilitate them in growing their business. It was a relationship business. It had a collegiate culture, a ‘culture of people’ and people at PLAN became lifelong friends, both brokers and the staff. We all grew together with the industry. It was the best job I ever had!”
As it grew and required more capital, it sold a 15 per cent stake to Challenger Financial Service in 2006, at which point Mr Hair became CEO. At that time it had around 110 staff and close to 2,000 brokers.
FAST
Perth-based aggregator Finance & Systems Technology (FAST) was founded in 2000 by a group of WA mortgage brokers, including senior leaders of mortgage brokerage Select (Garry Ralston, Garry Sullivan, Les Gray, and Michael Maxwell), and LoansCorp director Anne-Marie Syme and FinanceCorp directors Geoff Parker, Brett Gibbings.
The company was originally set up to help create a technology system for brokers. Qualifier Plus, one of the first pieces of software that brokers could use to qualify clients. As such, it was called Finance & Systems Technology.
Speaking to The Adviser about the early days of FAST, founding member Geoff Parker commented: “The co-founders were all good friends and we had worked together in finance broking.
“Technology in our industry was virtually nil at that time… there were virtually no other options for software for brokers. So we started the company to provide some consistent technology to brokers. So we had a program called QualifierPlus, which brokers could use to qualify their customers.
“Looking back on it now, it was very rudimentary for that kind of software, and the way it worked was basically Excel, HTML Pages and product information. So, that was the start of FAST; we put it together to be able to provide software to other brands and companies and set up an aggregation model.
FAST initially started in WA, but within a year, it had started talking about moving east (starting with Sydney). It was at this time that Mark Haron came on as general manager, to help grow the company’s presence.
The group quickly became known as a home for mortgage brokers and those specialising in commercial finance, one of the first groups to have a focus on commercial broking. It attracted big broker players in the commercial broking space, including Greg Wells (Wells Partners) and Andrew Kelly (Anasta Finance Consulting).
Its other point of difference was that it introduced the flat fee model; charging a flat fee per transaction rather than a percentage model.
“I never thought that it would grow as fast, or as big, as it did… I think the fact we had a flat-fee model probably helped the company to grow as fast as it did. Brokers hadn’t really seen that before then and it helped save them a substantial amount of money.”
In 2007, Challenger approached the company for acquisition.
PCF comes together under the Challenger acquisition
Challenger had bought securitisation funder Interstar in 2003 and started making moves to grow its distribution capacity quickly thereafter.
While Challenger already had a minority stakeholding in PLAN Australia, it grabbed the remaining shareholding and announced the Choice Aggregation and FAST acquisitions in quick succession in 2007. The total spend for the three groups came in at more than $300 million.
The move was part of Challenger’s push to expand its mortgage management business, with the aggregation acquisitions offering it a strong distribution network for its funding program.
"In 2005, we identified the rapidly growing mortgage aggregation platform sector as a logical extension to our existing mortgage management business," Challenger chief executive Mike Tilley said at the time.
"Participating in this segment of the market provides us an attractive additional source of ongoing fee income.”
But when the Global Financial Crisis (GFC) hit in 2008, the funding markets tightened up, leaving Challenger unable to fund loans for its broker network. It therefore sought to sell the companies, and started talks with National Australia Bank (NAB).
NABreggators take form with the NAB acquisition
In 2009, NAB completed its acquisition of Challenger Mortgage Management - bringing the 4,600 brokers operating under the three aggregation brands into its fold.
The three brands, which quickly gained the colloquial group nickname of ‘the‘NABreggators’, really took off in the NAB years.
As NAB sought to expand its distribution, it dedicated a lot of resources to the broker channel under NAB Broker (which also included wholesale arm Advantedge), both in personnel and in technology. NAB was also responsible for building the new Podium platform, which was one of the leading CRMs at the time.
Speaking about the brands under NAB, Rob Ryan, who worked at NAB in WA and then became FAST’s head of the northern regions (NSW, ACT and QLD) in 2013, told The Adviser: “FAST was called Finance & Systems Technology but we didn't really have many systems and limited technology until NAB came on the scene!”
“NAB just didn't have the retail market reach that CBA and Westpac had so they placed a lot of investment into the broker channel by buying PLAN, Choice and FAST, and in turn by establishing their technology platform, and re-designing the PD days into a more structured development program. NAB invested time into broker training and building a best practice, robust compliance system.
“I think having a major bank owning these three aggregators really helped validate the channel, as it showed that a major player was investing in it,” he said.
“And I think some brokers were also drawn to the three brands because of the NAB ownership, as it gave them the security that a major bank was investing capital in their businesses (and the channel more broadly), and the financial security of knowing that their commissions were being paid by a bank.”
During this time, the PCF brands were also very active in broker advocacy, representing the channel at various government reviews, the Productivity Commission’s Sedgwick Review on remuneration, and then at the banking royal commission.
Under NAB’s Anthony Waldron, the teams at PLAN, Choice and FAST also led the charge with several leadership roles at the Combined Industry Forum (CIF), which was set up in response to the Sedgwick Review.
Mr Ryan said: “Anthony certainly encouraged us all to be involved in the industry. I was involved with CAFBA as Vice President of their Education Foundation, Stephen Moore was on the board of LIXI, Anja was Chair of the MFAA Aggregator Committee and a lot of us were leading streams in the Combined Industry Forum.”
“We worked with the rest of the leaders of the industry on self-regulation to try and stave off what had happened in financial planning (where regulation has significantly impacted that industry).”
“So the industry became quite collaborative and I think Anthony, the PCF CEOs and the teams at PLAN, Choice and FAST under NAB, really set the tone for showing how organised and self-regulated we could be,” Mr Ryan said.
The Loan Market acquisition
In 2020, it was announced that National Australia Bank (NAB) had entered into an agreement to sell 100 per cent of its broker aggregation businesses – PLAN Australia, Choice and FAST – to Loan Market Group.
The sale followed a “strategic review” of the broker aggregation business and NAB’s move to simplify and focus on its core banking business following the banking royal commission.
On 1 March 2021, Loan Market officially completed its 100 per cent acquisition of NAB’s three broker aggregation businesses, the corporate credit licence holder and compliance services provider (BLSSA), associated broker aggregation technology, including the technology platform Podium, and commissions systems and related sales and operation services.
It said at the time that the four businesses – Loan Market, PLAN Australia, Choice and FAST – would continue to run independently of one another for the foreseeable future.
The purchase of the three networks from NAB made Loan Market one of the largest aggregators in Australia, with over 5,000 mortgage brokers.
Loan Market executive chairman Sam White commented at the time: “As of today, a larger portion of mortgage brokers are working in the marketplace with no ownership affiliations with banks, and we believe that is a great result for customers.
“Being 100 per cent family-owned – not owned by a bank – resonates with Australians particularly in a post-BID world. We see this with customers voting with their feet, with broker market share continuing to climb.”
Seven months later, the group reshuffled its leadership team, with Choice CEO Stephen Moore leading the PCF brands, while FAST CEO Brendan Wright began working on a commercial and asset finance arm for the group and PLAN CEO Anja Pannek took on a newly created role of group executive, lending solutions and strategy.
Farewell to PCF
In February 2023, Loan Market Group announced that it would be consolidating all of its aggregation brands to form one aggregator: LMG.
The move, which is being rolled out in a phased approach over the next few months, will ‘retire’ the PLAN Australia, Choice Aggregation, and FAST brands.
It is expected that the roll-out of the LMG brand will complete around July 2023.
Speaking to The Adviser about the end of the PCF brands, Stephen Moore, reflected that when he first joined the company (which was just as the industry was moving into a regulated environment under the NCCP Act) it had around 600 brokers, but this ramped up to around 1,500 brokers in recent years.
Mr Moore said he was honoured to have helped support brokers grow more successful businesses and help navigate the business through all the regulatory challenges over the last 12 years, towards professionalisation.
He told The Adviser: “PLAN, Choice and FAST have grown with the industry as it has professionalised. Certainly, among the sentimentalists amongst us, there really is strong affinity to the individual brands but as the industry evolves, so does the business.
“I think it's going to be net positive to bring together the businesses as a group. I agree with that direction and I think it makes a lot of a lot of sense.
“The key is to use size and strength for good, not evil, and that's something that I'm confident that Loan Market Group, led by Sam White, will do. They certainly have the industry's best interests at heart, and that's what we need to focus on.”
