FINSTREET has announced its new state manager for Queensland, Western Australia, and the Northern Territory as the Sydney-based broker fintech looks to expand its partner networks nationally.
The fintech platform, which equips brokers with non-bank options along with training and resources, has invested heavily in its sales distribution team in recent months to strengthen broker relations.
Adam Barker (pictured above left), who has experience working in managerial roles with AFG, Suncorp Bank, and CBA, will assume the newly created role across the three states, pledging to “help those who are left behind” by banks and other lenders.
“I’m passionate about helping our partners and finance specialists achieve real success and accelerated growth,” Barker said. “I’m thrilled to be joining a team with a great reputation in the industry.”
Going where others won’t
With many rolling off low fixed rates into a stricter lending environment amid an affordability crisis, Barker said brokers faced multiple challenges brokers when finding solutions for their clients.
One example Barker gave was when an older couple who owned a 100ha farm in North Queensland needed to move to Brisbane close to family for specialist health care.
“They’re not generating sufficient income from the farm to service the Brisbane purchase and therefore needed bridging finance with the clearance source being the sale of the farm,” Barker said.
Due to the nature of that security and its location, Barker said the broker was unable to find a lender who would assist until speaking to FINSTREET who were able to find a solution to assist the clients and give them up to 18 months to sell the farm.
“This is a great outcome for the broker and customer,” he said. “You also can’t underestimate the power of having a single contact who has access to six different lending options across residential, commercial, expat, non-resident, SMSF, construction and business lending.”
The announcement of Barker as FINSTREET’s QLD, NT and WA state manager rounds out multiple new key positions for the company, including fellow state managers Ron Galvan (NSW/ACT) and Kim Tran (VIC/TAS/SA), head of marketing Neville Anitelea, and Catherine McFarlane as the group’s inaugural chief operating officer.
Several senior BDMs have also joined the team.
In March, FINSTREET, was just one of 21 companies to be recognised as one of Australian Broker’s 5-Star Mortgage Innovators.
FINSTREET CEO Boban Jurisic (pictured above right), who joined in March following the company’s rebranding, said Barker is a respected member of the broking community with extensive experience in aggregation as well as guiding large, diverse sales distribution mortgage teams to achieve their full potential.
“We’re excited to have him working with us supporting the business, and our all our partners – brokers, introducers, referrers, borrowers and investors,” Jurisic said.
Upskilling brokers
Part of FINSTREET’s expansion involves helping brokers upskill across all stages of the lending journey and provide systems that help identify solutions.
Barker encouraged brokers to consider trying out FINSTREET’s multiple education options, including its new “broker bootcamp” program – a free bilingual coaching resource released in May.
“Education surrounding non-bank lending is one of our key pillars of the business,” he said.
“We are running lending roadshows, broker bootcamps and a broker education program which provides tiered support to all skill levels from new-to-industry to our highly experienced partners that still thrive on knowing what is available to them so that they can better support their clients.”
The lending roadshows, which starts in July across South-East Queensland, will be partnered by other industry specialists so that brokers who attend can be updated on not just non-bank solutions but also prime, unsecured and credit repair options.
Barker said he planned to expand this across regional Queensland and across the Northern Territory and Western Australia.
FINSTREET also plans is to unveil its new FINSERV Platform.
Barker said brokers would be able to input details of the client’s position and the “AI Credit Engine” would help to instantly identify solutions.
“This will also act as the gateway to our funders which will dramatically increase speed to decision which in turn will provide stronger conversion rates which is important for all parties involved in the transaction.”
Already available across its internal partners, FINSTREET plans to roll out the platform to its network by the end of August.
