John Mohnacheff, group sales manager at Liberty, recently chatted about how Liberty has changed over time – and what has driven those changes.
Mohnacheff said that when he first joined Liberty, almost all lending was controlled by the banks.
“Back then, if banks didn’t do a home loan, no one else would,” he said. “Liberty was a pioneer in the specialty space – doing what had never been done in Australia before. It was an unproven product in a market with no knowledge of what a specialty home loan was.”
Much has changed at Liberty since those early days – and a big driver of those changes are brokers.
“The more brokers that support non-banks, the stronger the impetus is for product, service, and technology innovation,” Mohnacheff said. “Through innovation, more segments of the market can access the funding they need – such as small business owners and the self-employed.”
Read more: Unshackling finance for brokers
From “the place to go when the banks say no,” Liberty has grown and innovated to offer a broad range of solutions to help borrowers of all kinds with their home, car, business, commercial, personal, SMSF as well as insurance needs.
“Through various market challenges, we’ve worked hard to innovate for our industry while ensuring brokers and customers are aware of the genuine alternative solutions available to them,” Mohnacheff said. “We’ve grown from a home loan lender to now offering a broad range of asset class solutions across Australia and New Zealand. We’ve been going for over 25 years now, and we continue to grow because we’re focused on being there for the broker.
“Since day one, our broad offering has been built with the broker in mind. This includes our residential asset finance, business capital and commercial lending business, as well as MoneyPlace personal loans, Moula business loans, LFI general insurance and ALI life insurance. Plus, our flexibility and can-do risk appetite support brokers to find solutions for a diverse range of customers.”
Thriving in a constantly changing market required Liberty and other lenders to embrace technology, to deliver automation, transparency, and efficiency. This enables them to meet customer demand for fast, efficient turnaround times.
“At Liberty, we encourage brokers to lodge applications electronically because it speeds things up,” Mohnacheff said. “Once we receive the application, the broker is notified and can track the deal in real time using our loan-tracking web app Liberty IQ.
“We work closely with our business partners to ensure they have all the information needed to push through applications without encountering delays. And with digital identity verification across all asset classes, our brokers can focus on finding suitable solutions for their customers.”
Mohnacheff said he was expecting surprises and challenges moving forward.
“Regardless of what comes our way, Liberty will listen and continue its track record of industry innovation,” he said. “We will continue to deliver a range of solutions that will help a wide spectrum of customers with lending options. When economic challenges arise in our industry, Liberty has an unmatched stability to make ourselves even more available to brokers to help them navigate the situations they face.
“We take pride in being a business that’s willing to listen and look beneath the surface, while discovering innovative ways to improve financial inclusion for more borrowers. By adopting a free-thinking approach and providing out-of-the-box solutions, we can help find the right fit for more customers and support more brokers.”
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