Major broker loses third-party heavyweights

Mortgage Business understands former Choice state manager Jeannette Rowland, FAST head of operation Lorelle Green, PLAN state manager Alan Brown have all left the group.

Loan Market’s director of national growth Stephen Doyle exited in August.

In a written confirmation to Mortgage Business, PCF Group managing director Stephen Moore said Mr Kane, who came out of retirement last year to lead the integration of PLAN, Choice and FAST, had left the group in July.

“After 12 months working full time and another four months consulting with the Loan Market Group (LMG), helping steer the group’s transition and integration of PLAN Australia, Choice and FAST, Steve made the decision to resign from full-time work with the Group in July. This coincided with the completion of the MyCRM platform migration,” Mr Moore said.

The news comes after a number of PCF leaders have left the Loan Market Group since it acquired the three aggregation businesses from NAB in late 2020.

Brendan Wright, who spent almost 20 years at NAB and was approaching 10 years as chief executive of FAST, left Loan Market Group in November last year.

Third-party veteran Rob Ryan, who was head of NSW/ACT and Queensland at FAST, left Loan Market Group in August last year.

Steve Bourne, who had been head of strategic partnerships at PLAN, left the group in January. Both he and Mr Ryan now work at Lending Association.

Former PLAN Australia CEO Anja Pannek has left the group after being appointed MFAA CEO in August.

Tom Stanley, who was head of operations at Loan Market Group, left in October 2021. Prior to moving to Loan Market Group with the PCF acquisition, he was head of broker commission payments for PLAN, Choice and FAST. He now works at REA Group.

Shamal Dias, who was senior lead of commissions at Loan Market Group after serving over eight years at NAB, also left in October 2021. According to his LinkedIn profile, he “transitioned to Loan Market Group from NAB due to the sale of PLAN, Choice and FAST”.

He described his responsibilities as managing “a team of highly specialised associates across PCF to execute commission payment runs.” He now works at ANZ.

Mr Moore dismissed speculation that commissions staff were let go: “There were no commission officers let go, and in fact, we have now grown the commission’s team by 15 staff members with 29 subject matter experts now making up the LMG commissions team, one of the largest to service the industry.

“This investment in people has not just occurred in commissions, we’ve seen this right across the business, in all areas, with a specific focus on increasing support for brokers.

“When the acquisition happened there was 330 staff across PLAN Australia, Choice, FAST and Loan Market, today our business has 409 corporate staff in Australia.”

[Related: Loan Market exits advice amid trouble PCF integration]