The team behind MB Private

MB Private has assembled a leadership and governance team with experience across corporate lending, property finance, banking and investment.

Founder Marcus Morrison (pictured) co-founded Zagga — New Zealand's first peer-to-peer lender specialising in secured loans — in 2014, and remains its executive director across both its New Zealand and Australian operations. Morrison has significant direct property investment and lending experience in both countries, and recently co-founded a non-bank lender that originated more than $3 billion in loans.

CEO John Cummins is a former global senior banking executive who joined MB Private in 2025 from MoneyMe, where he was Chief Investment Officer and Head of Treasury, with earlier senior roles at SocietyOne, Westpac and RBS. Cummins says the combination of disciplined loan origination and institutional-standard underwriting will underpin MB Private's investment proposition.

"Our objective is to give wholesale and institutional investors confidence that they are accessing assets originated through the same rigorous underwriting framework MB Private applies to loans entering its own securitised trusts. Demonstrating the quality and consistency of our credit processes will be fundamental to building long-term investor confidence."

The MB Private board includes Peter Clare as non-executive director — a former Chief Executive of Westpac New Zealand with senior leadership experience across Westpac, Commonwealth Bank and St. George, who also chairs Zagga Australia.

Fellow non-executive director Mike Skilling is a former member of BNZ's executive team leading its business banking division, and co-founder of The Icehouse.

Director Frank Cui is an experienced large-scale property developer, former BNZ head of Asian Banking, EMA board member, and owner of Harcourt franchise and Everbright Finance.