Specialist lender adds 25 new staff

Of the 25 new appointments, 14 are experienced senior credit analysts boosting its national credit team to 46 dedicated loan writers, while the balance of the new hires are BDMs and administrative support staff.

“This makes us one of the largest specialist credit teams in Australia,” Cory Bannister, La Trobe’s vice president and head of distribution, said.

“These new staff will further bolster our commitment to brokers by continuing to deliver Australia’s broadest product suite in the specialist market, currently originating in excess of $300 million in loan applications per month.

“We are very fortunate to have maintained our independent private-ownership structure, our large retail credit fund, and our broad product range catering for residential, commercial, SMSF, construction, non-resident finance, and our latest innovation parent-to-child (P2CTM) loan products.

“It’s this breadth of products on both a lite-doc and full-doc basis that makes us the best choice for brokers and we are looking to expand our market penetration further in the coming months,” he said.

Mr Bannister said that with additional new funding lines for future growth secured, La Trobe’s retail Credit Fund is paying 5.20 per cent per annum for a 12-month term investment, and a further RMBS issue due to market shortly, the lender’s capacity to continue to grow “is now all in place giving us the most flexibility in Australia.”

La Trobe Financial’s group revenue last financial year was $148 million. The lender holds group net assets in excess of $88 million and Mr Bannister expects this figure to reach $100 million by December.

“This is larger than some of our listed peers and bigger than nearly all non-listed operators in the sector,” he said. “La Trobe Financial really is bringing its size and strength to bear in the market.”

The group has over 150 staff and offices in Melbourne, Sydney and Shanghai.

[Related: Aussie relocates national headquarters]