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Smartline launches commercial broking service

4 April 2006

National mortgage broking franchise group Smartline has launched a new commercial loan service – reflecting the diversification of Australian borrowers’ financial needs.

The launch formalises Smartline’s capacity to write commercial and business loans and reflects the growing number of clients looking for financial support beyond their home loans.

“There was a need to ensure that we grow our service offering to accommodate our customers’ full financial requirements – not just home loans,” said Executive Director of Smartline Mr Joe Sirianni.

“We found that more and more of our customers were asking us questions about their commercial needs and this, coupled with the fact that a number of our brokers have many years of banking and commercial lending experience, created an obvious opportunity for us.”

Smartline’s commercial broking service will be offered through its existing national network and will accommodate a wide variety of commercial needs from commercial property loans to Chattel Mortgages, a particular type of finance used to purchase vehicles and other business equipment.

Existing Smartline brokers will be required to undergo training to be accredited to write commercial loans.

“Commercial lending is far more complex than home lending and we are keen to ensure that our brokers have solid experience in structuring commercial transactions,” said Mr Sirianni.

“To that end, only brokers with two years commercial lending experience will be accredited. They also need to clearly demonstrate their skills in commercial lending and sit a test that requires a 75 per cent pass rate.”

There are currently 35 Smartline brokers accredited to write commercial loans. Smartline expect this will grow to around 60 in 12 months and 100 in three years.

“As well as training our existing brokers, we’ll be looking to recruit more ex-bankers with experience in commercial banking and the desire to widen their lending capacity by tapping into some 16 commercial lenders associated with Smartline,” said Mr Sirianni.

Smartline will offer commercial loan broking services throughout Australia.

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