Regulatory changes set to elevate the role of brokers

Home loan customers face the prospect of no longer being protected by the regulation introduced after the global financial crisis to ensure banks don’t recommend unsuitable products.

Sebastian Watkins, Chief Operating Officer at Lendi, believes changes designed to free up the flow of credit are good from a macro perspective but he’s not sold on the benefit for all customers.

“If the banks have no obligation to act responsibly or in the best interest of customers, those who go direct to a lender to take out a loan may be at risk of getting in over their heads,” he said. “Customers who use mortgage brokers will be protected by the incoming Best Interests Duty but there’s still 40 per cent of the market that go direct to lender and that is who we worry about.”

Lendi has had a best interest policy coded into its platform since it launched in 2016.

“When we first designed our platform back in 2016, we knew that by protecting our customer’s best interests we would be able to differentiate ourselves in the category not only with our technology but with our culture and customer centric approach,” said Mr Watkins.

Lendi’s market-leading technology compares hundreds of data points from the customer against thousands of data points from the 35+ lenders on their panel to find the best suited and most competitive home loan based on the borrower’s individual needs, circumstances and goals.

“Our culture is very much based around our mission to change the way Australians get home loans by making the process more customer centric by improving security, efficiency, transparency and outcomes,” said Mr Watkins.

This customer-first approach, coupled with market leading technology, has seen Lendi continue to grow despite the headwinds of 2020.

Their team is now over 470 people strong and still expanding.

Lendi has recently adopted a flex first approach to its people and workspaces, whereby individuals can nominate if they would like to work in the office or remotely and what proportion of time they will spend in these different workspaces.

Find out more about job opportunities with Australia’s number one home loan platform here.

Written by Lendi

Last Updated: 14 March 2022

Published: 20 October 2020