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The MFAA says total numbers have again broken through the 10,000 mark, with 117 new members signing on last month alone.
Similarly, the FBAA has announced a 35.5% growth in membership over the 2012-13 financial year and a ‘staggering’ 129 new members in the last 30 days.
MFAA CEO, Phil Naylor, says that around 400 members out of those terminated earlier this year have been re-admitted to the MFAA after meeting the diploma standard – meaning that more than 95% of the total membership prior to the cancellations have achieved diploma or equivalent status.
“We are delighted that there has been a strong influx of new members to the MFAA and the industry, which is experiencing exceptional growth,” says MFAA CEO, Phil Naylor.
FBAA national president, Peter White, attributes his organisation’s growth to being a group ‘run by finance brokers for finance brokers’.
“Our feedback tells us that brokers understand that the FBAA represents their interests first. We won’t be a mouthpiece for lenders,” he says. “Our new career-path initiative will bring huge benefits to our members and to the industry. Our members will reap those rewards”
White also says the new FBAA-led industry apprenticeship program is ‘just around the corner’ and that it will ‘revolutionise’ the industry.
“Over 50% of our new members are coming from industry referrals, with another 27% coming directly from aggregators. This is a huge vote of confidence in the FBAA and we thank our members for their support.”
However, Naylor says there continues to be a natural attrition of - predominantly older - members who are leaving the industry – but says the fact new MFAA members all hold the necessary education requirements is ‘exciting’.
Brokers lifted their provision of loans in the home loan market during the June quarter by 24% from $24.7 billion (June quarter 2012) to $30.6 billion, maintaining their share of the mortgage market at 45%.
“We expect that the mortgage broker share of the market should expand further this year,” says Naylor. “We are seeing quite a few of our corporate members looking to expand their mortgage broking operations and lift their standards to meet customer expectations.”
