MFAA must reinvent itself

Speaking to Mortgage Business, Bernie Lewis executive chairman Mark Lewis said that before the NCCP, the MFAA considered itself the “de facto regulator” in the absence of regulation.

“Of course there is now regulation which has settled down and is chugging along okay, and the association did a great job there,” Mr Lewis said.

“But it needs to reinvent itself and ask ‘what is our purpose moving forward?’” he said.

Mr Lewis believes the MFAA’s significance will be defined by the strength of the board and the capabilities of the next chief executive, adding that MFAA president Tim Brown has an important task ahead of him.

“What Tim has got ahead of him is a decision – and he won’t make the decision alone, obviously – the decision to define how the association moves forward,” he said.

On May 14, MFAA chief executive Phil Naylor announced that he will step down from the leadership on 24 December 2014.

“It is not only about a new CEO, it is about the structure of the board, the horsepower that will exist on the board moving forward and the talent that exists there to not only show leadership and come up with a strategy but then having a CEO that can execute it,” Mr Lewis said. 

He singled out the challenge of attracting new brokers as a significant issue facing the future of the mortgage industry.

“I know the MFAA are making noise about it, but at the same time, we were talking about it around the board table back when I was president,” Mr Lewis said.

Young people are not attracted to the idea of joining a commission-based industry, he said.

“The industry itself is not doing a lot to try and change that environment - how do you get young people in on commission only?” he said.

“It’s just too difficult.”