Managing director of the Finance Brokers Association of Australia (FBAA) Peter White AM says positive changes to clawbacks are happening across the industry following sustained lobbying by the FBAA over the last few years.

Welcoming the move by AMP Bank to change its clawback structures, which comes after several other lenders have also revised their clawback structures, Mr White said he always stated that the journey was a marathon, not a sprint.

“The FBAA, representing all finance and mortgage brokers, has for years been leading this fight, meeting with all stakeholders including lenders, regulators, and senior government ministers across various governments, and we have openly and loudly challenged the current systems and structures.”

“While I don’t want to overstate these advances, and acknowledge there are still mountains to climb, neither should we as an industry take these gains for granted,” he said.

“Every small change is a change for fairness and common sense, and has come about through a lot of work in the background, not by accident.”

He pointed out that earlier this year Federal assistant treasurer and minister for financial services Stephen Jones joined representatives from the FBAA, aggregators and finance brokers from across Australia at the FBAA national office to honour his promise made to Mr White before he was elected.

At the time he said it was the first time the industry at-large had ever met with a relevant federal minister to specifically discuss clawbacks and other important issues at such depth.

Mr White said lenders are starting to realise that the clawback system is flawed and unfair.

“While I welcome recent moves by AMP and a host of other lenders including some of the major banks, be assured that we will continue to fight for fairness and bring more change.”

He said as well as clawbacks, other issues the FBAA will continue to fight for include net of offset commission payments, APRA buffer rates, and bank practices that disadvantage brokers.