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Since the Australian Lending & Investment Centre (ALIC) was founded in 2009, it has lived up to its promise of ethical lending and accumulated significant awards, most recently as one of Australian Broker’s 5-Star Mortgage Innovators in 2022. ALIC’s innovative offerings – including home, commercial, renovation and construction loans – have enabled Australians to cultivate their wealth through property purchases. In this interview, ALIC’s managing director Damian Brander describes the organisation’s purpose of educating its clients “on how to manage their investment strategies, particularly around wealth creation and enablement through lending scenarios”.
Over the years, the concept introduced by founders Mark Davis and Kevin Agent has evolved into a business with the means to capitalise on market opportunities through effective resource management. One factor that has contributed to ALIC’s continued success is its transition from paper-based to digital operations, which Brander calls “a matter of necessity”. From adopting traditional bank facilities and methods previously, ALIC decided during the pandemic to improve its business processes by digitising them.
“We took a lot of time to really review and look at each and every process map that existed in the business to remove the manual and cumbersome paper process that existed,” said Brander. “We effectively digitised our whole back-office operations both here in Australia and in Manila, and then we were able to accelerate and scale up our Manila operations to provide a lot more efficiency that allowed us to adapt even faster and quicker.”
Due to the digital program’s resulting efficiencies, which allowed ALIC to capture more opportunities and capitalise on its offshore model, the organisation was able to sign $1 billion worth of loans in 2021.
With every loan originated, ALIC – in partnership with WLTH and Parlay – is now supporting the clean-up of 50 square metres of beach or oceanfront around Australia. “We’re developing a new slogan because we are extremely excited about this. We’re saving the oceans one loan at a time,” said Brander.
Along with ALIC’s commitment to environmental sustainability, another priority is to keep up its digital adoption, particularly in the user experience area, by employing digital forms that gather information about customers. ALIC also plans to overlay its customer relationship management system to obtain a “three-dimensional snapshot” that ensures a better understanding of clients’ backgrounds and needs.
