SFG looks to expand, improve technology

In a 2023 mortgage market heavily affected by cash rate increases and a cost of living crisis, leading aggregator SFG adapted and continued to grow.

SFG managing director William Lockett has more than three decades of experience dealing with the highs and lows of the industry’s constantly evolving and complex financial landscape. He talks to MPA about how SFG achieved growth in 2023, the challenges the industry faces, and what’s on the horizon in terms of further innovations and development in 2024 for the aggregator’s broker members.

MPA: What were the main highlights for SFG, and you personally, in 2023?

William Lockett: There were a number of business and personal highlights during 2023, and from a personal point of view the highlight was enjoying my longest-ever holiday away from work – a six-week European holiday with my beautiful family.

It was great to detach from running SFG and spend quality time away with the family, enjoying travelling through four countries and sharing some wonderful experiences.

It also showed me that I can take extended breaks away from the SFG business as we are fortunate to have an amazing SFG team covering my absence.

From a business perspective, we enjoyed another year of business growth, which resulted in our membership base growing by 22%, as well as maintaining our great broker-focused relationships with all of our existing SFG members.

A key highlight was SFG now having 1,300 finance brokers Australiawide, which is a significant achievement for our group and one that we are very proud of.

We also rolled out our new commissions platform SFGassist. This business achievement was probably one of the biggest tasks that we have ever undertaken, given we had to migrate 33 years of data into a new commissions platform.

We also had to ensure that all of our commission payment obligations were met and there was no disruption for any of our SFG members.

Another key milestone was having our very first SFG National Conference & Awards outside of our home city of Perth. We hosted our marquee event in the beautiful location of Port Douglas, Queensland.

Not only were we blessed to have an amazing location for our national conference and awards, but we also enjoyed stunning weather and had 350 SFG members and business partners in attendance.

MPA: What is the biggest challenge facing the mortgage industry?

WL: Certainly a major issue that our industry is facing is the current payroll tax matter that is being initiated by the Office of State Revenue in New South Wales.

We acknowledge that this issue is also being dealt with by the courts. However, it’s disappointing that our industry has had to deal with this payroll tax matter given that it is our view, and the third party industry’s view, that finance brokers are essentially independent business owners exercising their own business rights in running their individual business models.

It’s a major disappointment for our industry considering that finance broking has been going for some 34 years in Australia and during this time it has operated in all states and territories under both sides of political persuasion.  

During this time, our industry has also worked with and engaged with not only state and federal governments but also other government departments such as ASIC and Treasury to make our industry better and stronger and deliver better outcomes for consumers wishing to not only utilise the services of a finance broker but also get the best possible finance option for their consideration.

To have this significant hurdle facing our industry after 34 years in operation is both unfair and, we say, has no relevance or substance in the way our industry and finance brokers operate.

MPA: What are SFG’s business goals for 2024?

WL: We’re excited this year to be opening our very first SFG Queensland office, which will provide greater support for our Queensland SFG team and our Queensland SFG members.

We have managed to secure a wonderful location in Woolloongabba, and we look forward to opening this SFG Queensland office in March 2024.

One of our key goals for this year – which was part of our SFG strategy meeting in Sydney in January – was to concentrate on our core focus, which is our aggregation services for our SFG members and the commitments that we also have to our SFG business partners.

We again reaffirmed our business mantra, which is: SFG is a private and family-owned business that is solely focused on being the best possible aggregating business partner. We have a relationship-based approach to doing business. Trust and communication are at the forefront of all of our dealings with both our members and business partners.

We are empowered and agile, and we make decisions efficiently, with all issues being resolved both quickly and fairly.

Deploying the next upgrade of SFGconnect 2.0 will bring even greater efficiencies and synergies to our SFG members.

We get a lot of compliments – from both our existing members and opposition brokers from other aggregators – that our software programs are among the best in the industry. The upgrade in SFGconnect 2.0 will be like going from driving a Ferrari to driving Formula One.

MPA: With the RBA likely to cut interest rates some time in 2024, how will this affect broker activity?

WL: Any reduction of interest rates makes it easier and more affordable for people to borrow funds; therefore it’s our belief that this will only increase broker activity. Lower interest rates make borrowing funds cheaper and more attractive, which will lead to increased demand for broker services.

This increased broker activity would also be across residential, commercial and personal finances both for owner-occupancy use and for investment.