A survey has found the Global Financial Crisis is a distant memory for most Australians, who now believe the housing market is set to take off - again.

“A surprising 73% of respondents expect house prices to rise, which is the highest proportion for more than three years,” said Phil Naylor, CEO, Mortgage and Finance Association of Australia (MFAA).

The MFAA/Bankwest Home Finance Index canvassed the opinion of 850 people on a range of issues relating to the economy and housing market.

“Confidence in the housing market is not only pre-GFC - it’s back where it was during the height of the housing boom,” Mr Naylor said.

“But there are still some clouds on the horizon, with recent interest rate increases negatively impacting households,” Mr Naylor said.
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Borrowers seeking to refinance their mortgage in light of recent interest rates increases have been urged to use Mortgage and Finance Association of Australia (MFAA) accredited mortgage brokers.

“Recent increases to interest rates may prompt consumers to shop around, but we’d encourage consumers to seek out MFAA accredited brokers,” said Phil Naylor, CEO, MFAA.

Mr Naylor said that mortgage brokers accredited through MFAA are best positioned to find the most competitive loan products for consumers from a range of lenders. They are also are held to high professional and ethical standards of conduct, experience and education which non-members are not.

“Our independent research shows that consumers are consistently more satisfied when using a broker than going directly to a lender, and borrowers with loans administered by a broker are less likely to struggle with repayments,” Mr Naylor said.
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The Board of the Mortgage and Finance Association of Australia (MFAA) today ceased the membership of around 1,500 brokers who failed to become adequately qualified.

MFAA Chief Executive Phil Naylor said the members failed to abide by the Board’s requirement to successfully complete the Certificate IV in Financial Services (Finance and Mortgage Broking) in time.

“This MFAA wishes to raise — and recognise — the level of professionalism among its members, who provide valuable advice and services to their clients,” Mr Naylor said.
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By Jill Fraser for Lending Central

Australian Institute of Professional Brokers’ co-founder Maria Rigoni claims an “agenda” is behind MFAA CEO Phil Naylor’s negotiations with lenders regarding volume-based accreditation.

(Refer Naylor’s interview with Lending Central 31 July - www.lendingcentral.com/2009/07/31/mfaa-goes-into-bat-for-brokers/)

Rigoni believes that Naylor’s suggestion that lenders adopt broker professionalism as criteria for quality is avoiding the real issues and capitalizing on the situation in order to push the barrow of higher education needs for brokers.

“I feel that he is gearing up the “industry” to accept that professional brokers will be required to have a Diploma in Finance/Mortgage Broking, which of course is a great revenue raising exercise for the MFAA, a Registered Training Organisation,” Rigoni told Lending Central.

“At the MFAA conference Phil stated that “down the track” a broker would be required to hold this qualification in order to retain MFAA membership.”
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By Jill Fraser for Lending Central

MFAA Chief Executive Officer Phil Naylor told Lending Central that he has instigated negotiation with aggregators and lenders regarding the contentious issue of volume-based accreditation.

“We think a far better measure of determining quality is not through volume as a surrogate,” he said.

“We think a better measure is some sort of a definition of professionalism as a criteria, which is what we’re currently working out with lenders.”

Naylor agrees that the accreditation criteria of some lenders, which limits supply, has the potential to “chop a lot of brokers out of the market” because it will impact on their ability to deliver a wide choice of products.
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After five years of intense consultation with State and Federal Governments, the Mortgage and Finance Association of Australia (MFAA) hailed today’s introduction of new national consumer credit laws into Federal Parliament.

MFAA CEO Phil Naylor said the new laws reflected the key issues the MFAA had raised on behalf of its members for efficient regulation and consumer protection.

“These laws demonstrate our commitment to MFAA members and borrowers; they ensure proper protection for consumers and the exclusion of rogue operators from the lending industry,” Mr Naylor said.
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Stamp duty on home loans is an inefficient and unproductive cost that must be abolished, the Mortgage and Finance Association of Australia (MFAA) said today.

The wide-ranging tax review by Treasury Secretary Ken Henry is reportedly considering proposals to remove the stamp duty charged by state governments on housing loans.

Tax experts are reported to have told the Henry review that home loan stamp duty acts a barrier to moving house and creates inefficiencies in the wider economy by — for example — discouraging labour mobility.
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MFAA CEO, Phil Naylor told Lending Central that following requests by consumer groups to include in the new legislation a ban on the use of caveats by brokers to secure fees it is now part of the proposal.

The MFAA strongly supports the ban. In a submission made yesterday to the government the MFAA stated that it supports the consumer groups’ lobby to include the ban in the bill.

Affordable Home Loans is not a member of the MFAA. Naylor says that MFAA membership is close to 13,300, 12,500 of which are brokers or broking groups. He calculates that this equals around 75% of all brokers and broking groups in Australia.

22 representatives of broker groups, mortgage managers and lenders (bank and non bank) met on April 28, 2009, under the auspices of the MFAA, to discuss industry issues, including lender service levels, broker submission quality and competition.  The robust discussion was professionally moderated by Peter Switzer.

This meeting was the first of its type and the MFAA is proud to use its leadership role to bring the industry together and facilitate this unique event in which all who participated represented the vast majority of MFAA’s 13200 membership.

The meeting acknowledged that many of the current concerns of the mortgage and finance industry had resulted from the unique coincidence of the following circumstances:
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By Jill Fraser for Lending Central

The MFAA’s upcoming round table discussion between aggregators and lenders, which has been called to address industry issues, has been declared a charade.

Citing a lack of broker representation at the meeting Australian Institute of Professional Brokers (AIPB) co-founder, Maria Rigoni maintains that aggregators are not independent enough to represent brokers.

Referring to next Tuesday’s summit as a “get together that makes it look like we’re doing something for brokers” Rigoni says yet again brokers are being excluded from a significant industry decision-making process.

The crisis in service to brokers and the subsequent departure of growing numbers of brokers from the industry will be one of the main items on the agenda but Rigoni’s request to be included was declined.
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In recent months the lender service levels for broker introduced customers have become untenable and more importantly unsustainable for our sector.  One of the core service propositions for the broking industry has been ensuring that customers receive a high level of service throughout the application process and this is now under serious threat.
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The Mortgage and Finance Association of Australia (MFAA) today highlighted the need for mortgage brokers to provide disclosure to customers, saying it will not only increase business now, but that it will benefit brokers when new national credit legislation comes into place later this year.

“There are other major advantages to this approach. Our latest Mystery Shopper report carried out towards the end of last year clearly explains that brokers who made disclosures about supervision, complaints, procedure and commission were much more likely to get the sale,” Mr Naylor said.
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The peak body for the mortgage and finance industry has urged the Government to extend the First Home Owners Boost beyond June, saying that the added incentive was attracting additional first time buyers to the market, buoying the housing sector.

Phil Naylor, CEO of the Mortgage and Finance Association of Australia (MFAA) said: “First time buyers are an incredibly important element of the housing industry and any comeback in the housing industry is reliant on new entrants and people purchasing their first home.
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The Mortgage and Finance Association of Australia (MFAA) has today announced the release of the MFAA Business HealthCheck - a unique diagnostic tool, developed in conjunction with one of Australia’s leading business consultancy groups, Business Health

“The MFAA HealthCheck will provide MFAA members with the opportunity to gain an objective assessment of the operating ‘health’ of their business,” Phil Naylor, CEO of the MFAA, said.

“The HealthCheck is an industry first and available exclusively to MFAA members. It will bring great benefit to our members as they strive to successfully manage their businesses in today’s challenging economic environment.”
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The latest rate cut announced by the Reserve Bank of Australia today, coupled with the falls in property prices experienced in most states across Australia will further attract first home buyers into the market, according to the Mortgage and Finance Association of Australia (MFAA).

The RBA today lowered the official cash rate by 100 basis points. The official cash rate has now been slashed from a high of 7.25 per cent in early September to 3.25 per cent. The rate cut follows figures released by the ABS earlier in the week showing the average established house price in the eight state and territory capitals was 3.3 per cent lower in the December quarter, than in the same quarter in 2007.
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