MyState appoints new head of broker distribution

Mr Cameron, who has worked at MyState for the past five years and was mostly recently MyState’s regional manager for Victoria/Tasmania, commenced in his new role last Monday (23 October).

In his new position, he will be tasked with growing the MyState brand via its broker networks across Australia, strengthening relationships with existing brokers and aggregators, and enhancing the broker and customer experience by delivering a consistent service proposition.

As well as having been regional manager and senior business relationship manager at MyState Bank, Mr Cameron has previously worked as a mortgage broker and Aussie franchise owner and has been a business development manager (BDM) at St.George Bank and RAMS.

Speaking of the new head of broker distribution, Tim Newman, MyState’s general manager, lending, highlighted the vast experience Mr Cameron had in the broker space.

“James has a proven track record over 23 years in mortgage broking and banking industry and is well placed to expand our broker network,” Mr Newman said.

“The broker network has been instrumental in MyState growing mortgages by 43 per cent over the past two years and James is the right person to enhance this success.”

Mr Cameron said he was excited to take on the role as head of broker distribution at MyState, telling The Adviser: “This is a great opportunity for me to play bigger role in expanding our broker networks and delivering the best possible service to brokers and aggregators.

“My understanding of the mortgage broker industry comes from nine years as a mortgage broker and mortgage broker franchise owner and 14 years working in banking.

“MyState is rapidly growing its mortgage book and I’m keen to show more brokers the strength of the MyState product and service proposition.”

Mr Cameron’s appointment came after the lender promoted Mr Newman from his role as head of business transformation to that of general manager, lending, where he is now responsible for MyState Bank’s retail home lending and end-to-end lending operations.

Mr Newman has more than 20 years of financial services experience, having been an executive for financial crime and head of product at ING (where he worked for nearly 15 years), and having worked as a lender panel and product analyst at Mortgage Choice in the early noughties.

The bank has been on a growth path recently after having grown its loan book by more than 14 per cent, or $961 million, according to its full-year results for the 2023 financial year.

Managing director and chief executive of MyState Bank, Brett Morgan, said the increase in the lending portfolio was due to the bank expanding its strategy with independent brokers.

Speaking to The Adviser in August, he said: “Broker-originated loans are up to 82 per cent of our portfolio, 88 per cent of our flow and we now have 68 per cent of our mortgage book outside of Tasmania, and that is 100 per cent broker-originated flow.

“We have year on year been increasing our lending book and that increase has been driven by our broker relationships.”

MyState Bank’s results revealed the lending portfolio increase took its overall home loan book up to $7.8 billion, with $3.5 billion in applications and $2.6 billion in settlements throughout FY23.

[Related: MyState Bank reveals over 14% home lending growth]