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Resolve Finance is in expansion mode and is betting on the addition of new bilingual brokers to help it reach new segments of Australia's increasingly diverse population.
The end result could help the mortgage brokerage increase its national footprint threefold.
“We're very bullish on our aspirations to grow our business over the next six years – we’re aggressive towards 2030,” Resolve Finance general manager of retail Sandy Paravizzini (pictured above left) told Australian Broker. “We want to triple our current business. ”
Paravizzini said the expansion of Resolve's settlement volume, as well as staff, over that time frame would be focus areas for continued growth.
At the end of the 2024 year, Resolve's settlement volume totalled $1.75 billion, according to Paravizzini. He added that there was a need for brokers of different backgrounds because of Australia's growing diversity.
In 2023, about 30% of the Australian population, or 8.2 million people, was born overseas, according to the Australian Bureau of Statistics. That's an increase of nearly half a million people from the year before. Many of them don't speak English as a first language, and need help understanding complex financial terms and regulatory guidelines when taking out loans.
According to Australia's 2021 Census, the most recent available, approximately 22.3% of Australians speak a language other than English at home.
Among the 6 million homeowners in Australia with a mortgage, about 12%, or 700,000 people, use English as a second language, according to 2023 data from financial research firm Mozo
“It's hard to navigate the market if you don't speak English,” Paravizzini said.
“There's a real opportunity for financial services to support these customers in their language and in a culturally aligned way.
“Speaking to clients in their native language helps build rapport; it's more inclusive, sensitive. We can build that client connection. They feel more comfortable and it helps the borrower build confidence that they can understand the process.”
Paravizzini said that there was no set number of new brokers that Resolve Finance planned to hire, but the firm was continuously looking for "good-quality mortgage brokers."
“We're filling the customer segment where there's a need. We're actively seeking and welcoming bilingual talent. We value the skills that bilingual brokers bring to the table.”
Resolve Finance has offices in Melbourne, Perth and Bunbury, with 84 brokers based across four states.
Nearly 40% of its brokers speak more than one language, including Paravizzini, who speaks Italian. The newest additions to the team – including Melbourne-based Joanna Lu, who speaks Mandarin and Cantonese – bring the firm's total language offerings to 20. Languages include Cantonese, Mandarin, Vietnamese, Greek, Italian, Arabic and a number of different dialects from India.
“Those communities are growing,” said Paravizzini.
Mandarin-speaking Resolve Finance broker Shutong Wan (pictured above right), who is based in Perth, estimates that about 50% of her client base is Mandarin-speaking, compared with about 20% nearly three years ago when she joined Resolve.
In Australia, Mandarin is the second most commonly spoken language after English, with Mandarin speakers making up about 2.7% of the population, according to translation services firm Lexigo.
Borrowers can find brokers through their respective language communities, with brokers able to expand their client base by word of mouth, Wan said.
“It's also reassuring for clients to discuss financing in their native language,” said Wan. “The key challenge with finance is the complexity of mortgage and the concepts and financial terms. The biggest hurdle is understanding."
Wan, who is originally from China, but has been living in Australia for about 13 years, said conducting complicated financial matters in a second language required a great deal of patience and clear communication.
She said it also meant having the institutional knowledge and understanding of regulatory rules that often differed from country to country.
Clients had to be made aware of all their options, whether they were first home buyers or refinancing.
Being a native Chinese speaker, Wan is able to operate under different cultural norms.
“In China, the focus is often on the long-term and the family,” Wan said. “So parents will want to sit in on the conversation. That means there’s more opinions, more questions.”
But Wan said she didn't mind. “These people are borrowing a lot of money. So it's more comfortable for them to speak with someone from the same background. It gives them an understanding of what they're entering into.”
How valuable is it for brokerages to employ brokers who are multilingual? Share your thoughts in the comments below.
