The New Zealand Finance Brokers’ Association (NZFBA) is the brainchild of Hamilton-based Brent Miles who operates as both a mortgage broker and a finance broker.
Miles, a member of the New Zealand Mortgage Brokers’ Association (NZMBA), says finance brokers act as originators for non-mortgage loans such as personal loans, vehicle finance and debt consolidation facilities.
While Miles originates mortgages, he also arranges finance for other purposes and says he wants to "apply a level of professional integrity" to the part of his business not covered by the NZMBA.
Often such loans are secured by real estate, but usually in the form of a caveat against the title rather than as a mortgage, Miles says.
He thinks it’s too easy for people to enter the finance broking part of his business.
While he has dealt with five different finance companies in arranging loans, not one of them has ever asked him whether he belongs to an accredited organisation or adheres to a recognised code of conduct.
Miles says he posted a letter proposing the NZFBA to about 140 finance brokers he had identified and has received responses from people outside that target market. He thinks there might be 200 or more finance brokers who might be interested in joining his organisation and there’s a definite desire to "clean up the broker industry."
"There are too many guys out there running around calling themselves brokers who are doing things they shouldn’t.
They’ve giving brokers a bad name," Miles says.
Miles says he did contact the NZMBA with his idea but gained the impression it wasn’t interested in expanding its membership.
He has since started talking to key NZMBA people but the idea of becoming a sub-group within the NZMBA doesn’t appeal to him. He would rather that organisation be expanded to become the "New Zealand Mortgage and Finance Brokers’ Association."
