The Finance Brokers Association of Australia (
FBAA) will hold a nationwide series of classes on commercial and equipment lending.
Peter White, director of the FBAA, told
Australian Broker he was working with Glenn Mitchell, Vow Financial’s head of commercial & leasing, to develop the association’s upcoming Commercial & Business Lending Master Class series.
“[Glenn’s] brought together a group of lenders including
CBA,
ANZ, ING, Macquarie,
Thinktank and a few others as a part of this collaborative effort to put a masterclass together into the commercial space,” White said.
St George will also be involved in a “very big way” writing content for the training, he added.
Lenders want to see a higher level of skillsets in brokers, White said, while broker market penetration is significantly lower in small business lending than in the home loan sector.
“A lot of this is because [brokers] don’t take time to research or understand the industry sector. Part of this masterclass series will be understanding what that means.”
“I believe quite strongly that there’s no reason why, in the small business sector, that brokers couldn’t be writing 50% or more of all lending in that area. Brokers have such a strong professional value proposition for the marketplace.”
The FBAA’s course will be held in Sydney, Melbourne, Adelaide and Perth, although the official dates haven’t been locked in as yet.
The training will also be “bank agnostic,” White said, and will focus on putting together a professional submission for a commercial transaction.
“It won’t be about how they do things at St George or CBA. It will be about how you do it as an industry professional. It’s got no badge attached to it so the assessments are not badge-related.”
The classes will be designed in two spheres: one for people who want to become specialists in the commercial area and another for those already in the sector who wish to upskill themselves.
“This is something that we bring to the total marketplace that members and non-members will come to. It’s not going to be steered in any direction. Same from a banking point of view – it’s not about brand. It’s about best practice in commercial and small business lending,” he said.
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