Mortgage Express, Q Advisor Group signal closer ties

Geoff Bawden, of Q, said he and Sarah Johnston, of Mortgage Express, had agreed there was work to do if they were serious about being “compliant ready” and getting a licence under the new regime.

“Much of the work required is a duplication of each other’s and it makes absolute sense when you have parties that trust each other, as we do, that they be able to work together to a common end.

“We formalised an agreement to create a joint platform which ultimately will look and feel the same apart from the branding and we have been sharing the cost of that development. We are well advanced in development and we believe we will be ready to go to market in June. The platform will rival anything else available currently for our Industry in New Zealand.”

The platform will include a CRM, stepped processes for advisers and templated forms.

The rollout is expected in June.

Bawden said there had been a verbal agreement that there was a significant number of things that the two groups could do on a shared basis.

“We have a completely open mind about what that might look like. Having essentially the same processes and systems paves the way for us to be able to share things like the cost of compliance and audit and it could even extend as far as a shared commission payment platform. All of these things, and others, are on the table.”

He said the group would have to grow so that the cost of compliance remained sustainable.

“I am reviewing several options to establish the best way we can do that."