Yellow Brick Road has brought in $3.9 billion of loan settlements in the first quarter of FY2017, bringing its loan book to a total value of $39.4 billion.
This is a 24% increase from the previous corresponding period last year with the current total representing the third highest quarter of settlements since the group was established.
Loan applications increased by 17% from the first quarter of FY2016 thanks to a greater number of leads generated through YBR’s stronger digital campaign.
Although settlements through YBR’s aggregator Vow Financial were down, the number of applications actually went up last quarter which demonstrated “a recovery of momentum in that business,” said chief financial officer, Richard Shaw.
A significant majority of the loans settled through YBR are residential mortgages. Most of these come through the Vow aggregation platform which works with more than 1,000 independent brokers.
YBR also brought in a $980,000 deficit for the first quarter, “a strong result in a period where cash inflows are typically low,” said Shaw. Of this, $800,000 was made up of acquisition and integration costs for the purchase of non-bank lender Loan Avenue leaving the total cash loss at approximately $160,000 for the quarter.
To continue turning the company around, a massive focus on productivity had been planned, Lyndsey Douglas, manager of external affairs, told
Australian Broker.
“We’ve got more than 160 Yellow Brick Road branded branches and we’ve just today appointed a general manager of lending, Andrew Rasby, for that network. His job is to drive productivity of our lenders and brokers. Similarly, we’ve got our general manager of wealth, Adam Youkhana, and his job is similarly to grow wealth and drive productivity.”
This combination will allow the franchise to bring its branches to their fullest potential while expanding out into more than 100 regions countrywide.
“We know exactly where those markets are. We know where there are commercial viable opportunities for branches across Australia and we’re very much focused on finding the right people to fill those.”
The combination of driving productivity and continuing to grow the network base will see YBR reach market expectations, Douglas said.
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