Specialist Finance Group continues to be a dominant force in mortgage aggregation
Lockett spent the better part of January diligently updating his thousands of LinkedIn followers on his various Melbourne adventures, from early-morning jogs along the Yarra to taking in the Australian Open buzz. If you don’t follow Lockett on the socials, do yourself a favour!
But there was more than tennis and flat whites on Lockett’s agenda at the Open – he was there to meet as many SFG team members, broker members and business partners as he could cram into a few short weeks.
This speaks to his hands-on leadership style: he’s always on the move, actively engaging with the industry rather than staying behind a desk.
In Lockett’s words, his leadership style is, “Be present, engaged and constantly driving growth and innovation”.
Lockett is a people person who believes strong relationships are the foundation of building a successful business. It’s no surprise that he secured his fourth appearance on MPA’s Mortgage Global 100 list in 2024.
Love what you do
The key to recognition, says Lockett, is loving what you do. “And I’ve been loving what I do for over 34 years. Over that period of time, I’d like to think that I and our business model have gained business credibility and trust.”
It certainly helps that Lockett and SFG are heavily involved in advocacy matters in the mortgage industry, which has naturally led to high visibility and respect among their peers.
Lockett came out swinging against the hugely controversial payroll tax matter that has emerged from Revenue NSW in recent years. The issue, which relates to state levies applied to commissions paid by aggregators to brokers, “is very concerning for our industry”, he says, “given the fact that we’ve been operating for 34 years, and it’s now just become an issue”.
It’s been “probably the most challenging thing in the last 12 months”, says Lockett, although with a parliamentary review of the Payroll Tax Act 2007 underway, there is a glimmer of hope on the horizon.
A matter of pride
“I have a saying that ‘good compliance is good business’,” says Lockett. “The reality is, we operate in the financial services sector, so the more compliant we can be, the better off we are.”
He maintains that the Royal Commission into Misconduct in the Banking, Superannuation and Financial Services Industry was “a big wake-up moment for our industry”, and while it may have resulted in a degree of regulatory overreach, in some respects “it probably needed to”.
Lockett highlights that complaints against mortgage brokers have hit record lows since the royal commission. “It should be something that we are very, very proud of. The compliance is certainly working, and we’re heading in the right direction, and we should all be very proud.”
He emphasises that true success in challenging times is impossible to achieve in isolation. “You need to listen, and you need to collaborate with people, because it’s a team thing … Having that maturity in dealing with people teaches you to deal with things better.
“You’re always evolving. One of the great things that we do is we maintain very, very clear and precise communications with people. You treat people with good respect and dignity, and you create empathy. So I suppose
if you combine all of those things, it doesn’t always work, but it gives you a great opportunity to be able to lead in the best way possible.”
Through thick and thin
Lockett’s people-first approach to business has been an invaluable tool in the aggregation space, where fostering relationships with finance brokers on one side and lenders on the other is critical.
“We don’t try to be too big. We have very much a relationship-based approach with all our SFG members, and we have great engagement,” he says.
Lockett explains that engagement with SFG’s members can be both micro and macro in nature, from large-scale, national conferences to more intimate, one-on-one business strategy sessions.
“Because our engagement with our members is a high-touch model, we get a lot of feedback from them about what they need to grow their business model.
No two business models for SFG members are the same, Lockett adds, “and we accom- modate our service model with that”.
“We think the engagement side keeps us on track not only with our growth but also, more importantly, our members’ growth.”
While every relationship, business or personal, has its highs and lows, Lockett believes it’s the tough moments that truly test the strength of the bonds we build.
“Not every day is a sunny day – there are often cloudy days, and there are often stormy days. Keeping your true north on those cloudy days and stormy days is vital. If anything, that is the glue that sticks relation- ships together.”
“We’re always looking for rooms to improve, but we’re looking for ways to improve that we know that we’re capable of doing, and we’re not trying to be something we are not or going outside our realistic zone. It’s knowing where our strengths are and knowing where we can go by underpromising and overdelivering. “So it’s quite simple – we just want to be the best aggregator possible. We strive for that on a daily basis.”
The twists and turns that the industry takes you on are all part of the journey, says Lockett. And for the industry as a whole? “If we all stick together, and if we all make our industry great – which it is – then we should all be proud of what we do.”
