Aussie celebrates 30th anniversary

Founded in 1992 by former chairman John Symond (“Aussie John”), Aussie was widely credited for bringing more competition to the Australian home lending industry, establishing its iconic “We’ll Save You” messaging.

While the Symond family started the company as a non-bank lender, it has grown to become the largest retail brokerages in Australia, with around 1,000 brokers and 229 stores (21 of which were opened last year).

Last year, the brokerage merged with online brokerage Lendi, becoming the distribution arm of the new Lendi Group.

Speaking of the milestone anniversary, Brad Cramb, the chief executive of distribution, told The Adviser: “Aussie was the original disruptor – and part of that disruption was, arguably, being the leading force in bringing competition to the Australian [mortgage] marketplace…

“Over the last three decades, Aussie has led the industry and helped over 1 million customers on their home loan journey by understanding their needs, being in their corner and providing straight-talking home loan advice.”

He noted that “the power of the customer” choosing brokers has ramped up considerably in the past three decades, highlighting that “better customer outcomes and better customer experience” were “driving and fueling the penetration of the sector – with 67 per cent of all origination now through brokers”.

“The importance of the broker to both the industry and the customer has never been more important and we are seeing this play out in category growth as well as our own Aussie results,” he said.  

Mr Cramb flagged that financial year 2021 was Aussie’s best financial year ever, with the past 14 consecutive months seeing record settlement volumes. 

He added that January total settlements were up over 40 per cent year-on-year, with last month also recording the largest number of new broker inductees in three years and marking the first time the Aussie Home Loans portfolio surpassed $10 billion in value.

To mark its 30th anniversary, Aussie has said it will give five (existing or new) customers the chance to “win and live mortgage free for a year” if they attend an appointment with an Aussie broker between 14 February and 30 April 2022.

New tech to be rolled out this year to Aussie brokers

Looking forward, Mr Cramb told The Adviser that the brand is now “gearing up for a new era of growth”, by marrying the experience of its brokers with the technology of Lendi.

“As we look forward to the next 30 years, technology is going to be central to not only Aussie’s continued growth, but how we create better experiences for our customers and our brokers,” Mr Cramb said. 

According to Mr Cramb, this will manifest with the roll-out of Lendi’s loan approval predictor tool, Approval Confidence™, to Aussie brokers.

The platform – currently available to Lendi brokers – directly integrates with participating lender systems to provide a “a high 90 per cent confidence” rating of whether a deal can be approved.

It is expected to be rolled out to Aussie brokers in the “second half” of this year.

“This direct lender integration piece for us is a game changer,” Mr Cramb said.

“With the approval confidence rating, a broker can get – in real time – an approval confidence rating from the five lenders that we have the direct integration with at the moment. So when they’re talking with the customer, and as the scenario is being entered into the system, they can say: ‘We know within x degree of confidence that this will actually be approved’.

“It’s a key part of the technology that we will be putting in the hands of our brokers. It improves the lender process, the customer process, and the broker process, because it gives us that confidence...

“When you put the two together [brokers and technology] it really is a supercharged experience and, I think, creates great efficiencies and productivity.

“As the original category disruptor, pushing the boundaries and finding new ways to drive the industry forward is in our DNA.

“The modern version of that is bringing that disruption through customer experience and broker experience, super powered by technology. And that’s definitely what we see as an exciting part of the next part of the journey of the merger.”

You can find out more about Aussie’s history and influence in the mortgage broker market in this 2021 Mortgage and Finance Leader podcast, run by our sister brand Mortgage Business:

[Related: Aussie-Lendi merger officially completes]