​Siobhan Hayden: Listening & Learning

After 12 years with Phil Naylor at the helm, it’s time for the MFAA to start a new chapter. New CEO Siobhan Hayden, previously of Finware, tells MPA how members will drive that change

MPA: What do you think the MFAA were looking for when they hired you?

Siobhan Hayden: I couldn’t say exactly what they were looking for; I only know what they chose. My career background is quite well rounded: I started in people management, in human resources; moved for a time to Ireland, working for Guinness in corporate governance; returned for a strategic role with Woolworths, in logistics and blue-collar environments, and then moved into a project management role, building a warehouse; then in Finware for the last eight years, designing software for the market and technical solutions.

Coupled with my educational background I’m probably a well-rounded candidate, aware of the industry, very involved in broker businesses, and I’m the successful candidate, so I could probably say they were looking for someone with my skills.

MPA: How will you get the views of MFAA members in a structured way?

SH: The first step would be to work with the team to put out an online survey, which will be distributed to all members, which would be giving us an aggregate view of general responses and the hot topics I’d like to focus on. I’m then looking at something around a two-hour session in all the different areas – all the different states and regional areas – with a goal, personally, of about 10% of our members attending.

The first part would obviously be [based] around what the survey initially showed us; what the hot topics were. And then I’d like to spend the next hour and a half working in teams or groups, workshopping what those challenges are, not only in their businesses today but over the next three to five years. Those findings will be put through into a consolidated report, to then be provided back to the members.

MPA: Is input from lenders and aggregators less important at this stage?

SH: No, not at all. The mission of the MFAA is to support, promote and represent professional credit advisers. We don’t operate in a vacuum: credit advisers or mortgage brokers are a microcosm of aggregators, lenders, or other key stakeholders, so their viewpoints are equally important. It’s like a 360-degree feedback when you do appraisals of people: you need to look at them from every angle. Talking to all people, all stakeholders, is equally important.

MPA: How are you going to go about talking to lenders and aggregators?

SH: I’ve already established, through my time at Finware, great relationships. We’re an independent provider of technology to the market, so I have a great relationship with many aggregator heads already. Lenders … we represent lenders on our software platform, so I’ve met lots of lenders … It’s about getting in front of people and having a chat with them. And again, this would be in a group environment, ideally four to five people in that session. But with the mortgage advisers I’d like to have about 40 people in that session.

MPA: Are there any specific groups within the broking community, for example commercial brokers, who perhaps deserve special attention or special sessions devoted to them?

SH: At this stage, I wouldn’t suggest anyone particularly needs special attention: everyone has a particular viewpoint on what they want to achieve from their industry body. We represent a diverse range of stakeholders … and I think a great thing about workshopping ideas and challenges for business is that it may seem like a commercial finance orientated issue, or equipment finance, but effectively the challenges are generally similar: diversification, technology, where the market is.

We’re in a mature market at the moment; we’ve gone through a growth phase, and a business in any environment that’s about maturity has different requirements.

MPA: Given that the MFAA’s board has recently changed to prioritise loan writers, how would you respond to criticism that you haven’t specifically been a mortgage broker yourself?

SH: In Finware, my most recent role, albeit as a business owner, has been out in the market with my clients; my customers. That involves all different aggregation models, all around Australia and New Zealand, where our business is. So in that capacity I’m involved in going into broker businesses, and that often is across a kitchen bench, in their own home, and identifying what their challenges are, and maybe how the technical solutions from our business can help benefit their business or solve that problem or make them more efficient. Equally, I sit in front of 15 brokers, or 30 brokers, in a boardroom, that have 70 financial planners attached to them. The challenges are somewhat similar. The businesses are very different, of course, but the best compliment I’ve ever received is ‘how long have you been a broker for?’, when I’ve never actually been a broker. So I feel criticism, if that exists, will probably dissipate; it’s based on performance, and my first goal is to get out there and talk to people, and deliver solutions that meet their needs.

MPA: What do you believe was Phil Naylor’s single greatest achievement in his time at the MFAA?

SH: I’d have to reference the National Consumer [Credit] Protection Act, and those changes at that time. Obviously there was a lobbying component to that piece of legislation, which he was heavily involved in, and also the bedding of educational requirements that advisers have to come up to standard with to continue operating.

MFAA continues to be the leading industry body, both from an adviser point of view but also from a legislative point of review: politicians, government still liaise directly with the MFAA in relation to changes and the impact of the industry, and I think that’s a great achievement. Also, from my experience travelling to broker businesses, they are [working] flat out every day, doing their job, so any deviation to have to come up with a certificate IV qualification, and do RPL training, was a huge deviation off their core business. So the fact that that was all bedded down fairly well, and I think we now have a higher standard and higher appreciation of our industry, I think that’s a great thing.

MPA: With regard to those MFAA educational standards, has that happened now? Do you think the standards are high enough now, and do you want to move the agenda on?

SH: It’s definitely too early to tell, and extrapolating from my own experiences is not really valid. What’s more important is asking the members what they think they need as they look to move forward into the industry, and I think it may come through training in relation to diversification and helping businesses diversify and grow. That would be how I feel coming from a Finware perspective at this point in time, but I could be completely wrong, so it’s up to members to inform me and the MFAA team.

MPA: Where is the next big challenge to the broker channel going to come from?

SH: It’s my opinion only at this point in time, and it’s my feelings from being around the market, and again it’s diversification. It’s been consistently talked about, how we best introduce that to businesses. Aggregators are trying to support their members in that way, and I think the body should be committed to supporting our customers in that way. I think technology will also be a challenge over the next three to five years, not only in relation to managing their own business and being more efficient, but, in the mature stage of a business, business owners need to achieve more with less output of money. And I think you’ll also probably see a growth in that really, really small sector at the moment: consumers going straight to a product via the internet. They’re the main things, in addition to consolidation.

MPA:Where would you like to be one year from now? Where would you like the MFAA to be one year from now?

SH: It’s very high level, and there’s no specifics, but for me it’s around having satisfactorily engaged a minimum of 10% of our members; for that to have fed into a strategic plan that then has initiatives and programs that underlie that; and that the MFAA team is resourced and well versed on what we need to achieve, and we’re well down the track of doing that.

For more from MPA's discussion with Siobhan Hayden, pick up Mortgage Professional Australia's December issue!