Mortgage and wealth group Yellow Brick Road has grown its mortgage book by 19% on a year-on-year basis, bringing the total loan book amount to $42.5bn.
The franchise’s financial results for the third quarter of the 2017 financial year show a decrease in total loan settlement volumes by 8% to $3.7bn versus the same time period the year before.
Despite this decline, which was driven by tighter lending conditions, “higher margins and the benefits of the company’s rationalised operating structure have delivered improved operating cash surpluses,” said Yellow Brick Road chief financial officer Richard Shaw.
On a normalised basis, the company’s operating cash surplus in the third quarter rose by $2.28m to a surplus of $0.53m (from a deficit of $1.75m in the previous quarter).
Results also show an increase of 14% in the number of representatives, bringing the total to 1,620 in the year prior to the third quarter of the 2017 financial year.
To further improve the lending productivity of YBR’s branches, new recruitment measures have doubled lead flow and quality. This has resulted in a larger, more skilled team with 80% of recruits having “significant broking or financial planning experience”.
The firm has also invested in new technology with the Ruby lead management app rolled out across the network as well as new improvements in the Vow CRM platform in collaboration with IT provider Rubik.
YBR has also restructured Vow’s distribution channels, refreshing its state sales leadership and shifting its focus to better education, diversification and utilisation of the group product.
Finally, the group has attempted to leverage its brand through a series of retail seminars featuring YBR chairman
Mark Bouris which have been held across the country’s major markets.
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