A change in direction saw this broker hit the Top 100
After leaving a long career in banking six years ago, Mathew Crossley has excelled as a broker, making last year’s Top 100 for the third time in four years running.
MPA spoke with the senior finance specialist for Coronis about the challenge of generating leads as well as the strangest lending scenario he has ever come across.
A change in direction brought an influx of leads
Crossley began his broking career in 2014 after working at Westpac in various lending roles for 14 years. He was approached by one of the financial planning firms he looked after and decided to make the switch.
“I made the jump from a big corporate to a little planning firm and that was the beginning of me being a broker.”
He was surprised to find a significant lack of leads at the company – a challenge that saw him take a turn in direction.
“I assumed that being in an office of financial planners there’d be all these leads and opportunities and everything else – and it really wasn’t the case at all.”
“That was effectively what led me to coming over to Coronis.”
“I was sitting there one day and thinking, where do you get business from? And I thought, people going out and looking at buying properties has got to be the best source of business.”
The directors of Coronis, a real estate company with 20 offices in south-east Queensland, were looking to set up an in-house brokerage, and Crossley decided to come on board.
The move paid off; Crossley making into the Top 100 for 2016, 2017 and 2019.
No Saturday afternoon punter
Having started in the industry before the Royal Commission, Crossley recalls a lending scenario from about six years ago that he says would never get over the line in today’s environment.
“I had a professional gambler who was looking at buying an $8M house down on Sydney’s North Shore.”
Since the ATO don’t view gambling as a taxable activity, the individual didn’t have a record of this income on his tax return.
“Trying to verify this guy’s income for a $6M loan based on effectively no tax returns, self-employed, proved a challenge.”
Crossley used the transaction history of the client’s gambling accounts to show he had made more than $1M in profit during the year and had his accountant confirm that it wasn’t taxable income and therefore couldn’t be showed on his tax return.
The client had also previously paid off a $5M loan in three years’ time.
“This was completely outside the box for any normal sort of credit team so we actually took it to one of the big four private bankers and we managed to get it approved based on those transaction histories on his gambling accounts.”
“To be fair, I was certainly amazed we managed to get it approved back then and this was probably six years ago.”
“I don’t even think I’d entertain that kind of scenario beyond a phone call now. It’s just far too outside the box.”
“He was a very good client. He’s paid the loan off since and he had a very sophisticated gambling model.”
“He was no Saturday afternoon punter, that was for sure.”
When Crossley isn’t helping clients with their financing needs, you can find him playing soccer in his local under 35s or perfecting the art of pizza making at the helm of a bespoke wood-fired oven.
