The fight to promote diversity in commercial broking

The Commercial & Asset Finance Brokers Association (CAFBA) recently hosted its July Commercial Lending Young Professionals (CLYP) events across NSW, Victoria, and Queensland.

Bringing young commercial and asset finance brokers together is an important step in diversifying the industry, that can often fly under the radar as a career option.

As described by Max McFarlane, board director at CAFBA and director of Skyward Financial, the industry has often been portrayed as “white, male, pale, and stale”.

“I’d say the financial services industry, historically, has always been fairly non-diverse compared to others, but that’s slowly changing. I think, over time, CAFBA has been very good at trying to make the industry more diverse. [We don’t] want it to be white, male, pale, and stale,” McFarlane said.

“Consciously, we set up CLYP to introduce it to people who are younger in the industry and the women of CAFBA to broaden that out and it’s a very welcoming place for people to come through.”

The issue with commercial broking is it often flies under the radar as a career option, noted McFarlane. This is why events that can promote the industry and bring likeminded professional together is important for raising awareness.

“Commercial broking is one of the best careers that uni students wouldn’t even know existed. So, things like CLYP helps to promote industry as a whole.”

Networking events are effective in bringing people from different backgrounds together: “It is a really good mix of people that come and it’s diverse by age, by gender, by ethnicity, but also the diversity of where people are coming from whether they’re mortgage brokers, BDMs, banks, non-bank lenders, so it’s also a diverse mix of people that are broadly in industry,” McFarlane said.

“But again, a lot of university people and people leaving university wouldn’t know commercial broking as a career option. And often, people sort of discover it from working in a bank and they realise that broking is a potential career. And so, it’s something we’re conscious of just to probably try and make people more aware of that.”

He continued: “It’s a great industry. It’s rich in things that you can learn, skills that you can develop, people you can meet. You can really genuinely make a difference, particularly in commercial broking with people running their own business and SMEs, which is very rewarding.”

Despite the opportunities, it may not be for everyone. There is challenge involved in being a successful commercial broker. This may deter some people.

“When you look at commercial broking compared to mortgage broking, you have seven or eight home loans being done per year by a mortgage broker. Commercial is probably between two and four, depending on what kind of product and loan it is. So, there’s a lot of growth to come in the future. And I think part of that is the longer the industry is here, the better and more professional it is, the more naturally people will be drawn to it to come into that,” McFarlane said.

“Commercial is inherently more complex, which also makes it more interesting, in my view. I think commercial broking is a craft and young brokers should approach it like that and try and develop the skills, acquire the knowledge, and act as a trusted advisor. So, it takes longer to be able to refine that process and experience to be able to go through.”

For those wanting to join CAFBA and get among the CLYP events, there is a process involved.

“To join CAFBA, it’s not for everyone. And there is a fairly high bar that you need to pass to become a CAFBA member. But it’s a bar worth trying to pass and worth going through that process. We have a membership team who can answer all those questions. And there’s different membership categories from people who are just starting out to people who are really experienced. So, I’d say just go to the CAFBA website and reach out to do that. But it’s certainly worthwhile,” he said.

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Jack Campbell is the editor of Broker Daily. After graduating from the University of Wollongong in 2022, Jack began his journalistic career working on Broker Daily’s sister brand, HR Leader. In August 2023 he was made the news editor and worked alongside some talented journalists writing articles and recording podcasts.

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