James Symond, one of the biggest names in Australian mortgage broking, is to quit as CEO of Aussie Home Loans at the end of the year.
Symond, who has been in post for six years, will leave having overseen the merger of Aussie and Lendi. It will call time on over thirty years’ service to the company, which was previously run by his uncle, founder John Symond, until he passed it onto James.
Aussie has grown massively under James Symond’s leadership, culminating in the firm writing a record $3 billion loan lodgements last month.
“Mortgage brokers will continue to lift their dominance in the home loan market as they provide a one stop shop to investigate and deliver great value mortgages for all Australians,” Symonds told Australian Broker. “Mortgage brokers keep the lenders on their toes and Aussie has been leading the charge in delivering competition, providing a great outcome for the Australian economy”.
The firm announced plans to merge with Lendi back in December 2020, a move that they described as providing customers with more choice and adding a tech background to Aussie’s offering.
That was added to this week when Aussie partnered with fintech Tic:Toc to create a digital lending product, to be known as Aussie Online, that combined elements from the digital banking space with their traditional mortgage business.
“I am extremely proud of what Aussie has achieved over the past three decades,” said Symond in a statement announcing his decision. “From humble beginnings Aussie has come a long way, from revolutionising and bringing healthy competition to the Australian home lending industry to where we are today with the largest retail footprint of any mortgage broker brand in Australia.”
“Aussie now has a national distribution network with over 220 stores, over 1,000 brokers and 300 team members, who are part of the family-style culture John and I successfully built over three decades.”
