Profile
“Every day we’re making progress to deliver a top-quality training experience, invaluable mentorship and support”
Darren Liu,
FINNStreet
There are a lot of high achievers among Mortgage Professional Australia’s Top 100 Brokers, but Darren Liu is one of the few people driving change in the industry through knowledge-sharing and technology.
Since the beginning of his journey, Darren’s commitment to serving everyone, from industry peers to individual customers hasn’t changed. He is eager to communicate, suggest and provide feedback to brokers that seek to grow and is widely seen as a leading mentor and adviser within the broker community.
He has grown the My Home Loan brokerage from a one-person business to a team of advisors, providing real financial solutions to a loyal customer base from all over the country.
With My Home Loan humming along nicely as an established business model that runs on its own, Darren turned to focus on the challenges encountered as the market changed in 2022. These challenges then served as necessary building blocks for his new endeavour: the Finnstreet non-bank lending fintech platform.
“Broker businesses had to adapt and find new ways to demonstrate their value to customers,” he says.
“We realised the importance of having the knowledge and technology to help customers navigate the changing market with confidence.”
“We thought about what our customers were needing in this very particular time and how to better serve them.”
To provide customers with timely advice and accelerate action to help them better position themselves in the new environment, a key focus was on providing brokers with alternative lending options, seamless technology, and education.
“The past year provided brokers with an opportunity to become fully digital and strongly leverage technology to better customer experiences,” he says.
“We streamlined the broker workflow, making the process better, faster and more efficient.”
Through Finnstreet network of products, underlying technology and community, brokers can explore new market opportunities and grow together.
“We connected with our industry peers in more meaningful ways. It was a massive gathering of minds, exchanging ideas and sharing knowledge to grow together during tough times,” says Darren.
He sees the difficulties of 2022 – the COVID rollercoaster and now the downturn in the property market – as necessitating even faster change for brokers and the lending industry.
“We need to have a better understanding of the market to give the right advice and deliver better results for our customers.”
Concrete ways that Darren does this is through the Better Advisor Program on the Finnstreet platform, tech-focused webinars, or a library of resources called Broker Academy to help brokers grow.
“Brokers who come to us will learn and excel in their roles every single day.”
Darren adds that in 2022, Finnstreet perfected its Broker Bootcamp Recruitment Program.
“We want to make it easier for new brokers to get set up and grow on their own terms.”
As an example, one of the candidates participating in the Bootcamp course settled a few deals within the first two months.
Level 7/121 Walker St, North Sydney, NSW 2060
1300 669 007
support@loanstreet.com.au
linkedin.com/company/loanstreet-com-au
loanstreet.com.au
Darren Liu
Co-Founder
Finnstreet
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Bio
Milestones
Profile
Milestones
2020–present
Insurance Business Magazine | Key Media
Deputy Principal at Australian Christian College - Southlands
Doctor of Education
2020–present
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2021
Ted Talk in collaboration with key media
Year 7 Community Leader and Leader for Learning Technologies and Platforms at Northern Beaches Christian School
Master of Business Administration, 2017–2019
2021
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2012
2014
2017
2018
2019
Read on
Special Report
Home
Bio
Milestones
Profile
Milestones
Insurance Business Magazine | Key Media
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. A volutpat laoreet suscipit duis. Diam aliquam sed ut massa viverra a, eget libero.
Ted Talk in collaboration with key media
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. A volutpat laoreet suscipit duis. Diam aliquam sed ut massa viverra a, eget libero.
Ted Talk in collaboration with key media
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. A volutpat laoreet suscipit duis. Diam aliquam sed ut massa viverra a, eget libero.
Ted Talk in collaboration with key media
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. A volutpat laoreet suscipit duis. Diam aliquam sed ut massa viverra a, eget libero.
Ted Talk in collaboration with key media
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. A volutpat laoreet suscipit duis. Diam aliquam sed ut massa viverra a, eget libero.
2012
2014
2017
2018
2019
Read on
Special Report
Home
Bio
Milestones
2022
2018
2017
2014
2012
2019
Insurance Business Magazine | Key Media
Ranked No. 1 Broker of the Year
2019
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2018
Human Resources Magazine | key media
Ranked 4th among Australia’s Top 100 Brokers
2018
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2017
Human Resources Magazine | key media
Ranked 28th among Australia’s Top 100 Brokers
2017
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2014
Human Resources Magazine | key media
Ranked 21st in the Young Broker of the Year Top 30 Under 30 list
2014
1997
2012
human resources | key media
Became a broker in Australia
2012
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Milestones
2019
Insurance Business Magazine | Key Media
2022
Excellence awardee – Independent Mortgage Adviser of the Year category at the New Zealand Mortgage Awards
2022
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2022
2020–present
Insurance Business Magazine | Key Media
Deputy Principal at Australian Christian College - Southlands
Doctor of Education
2020–present
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2021
Launched his own business,
Ascend Financial Services
2022
2022
Insurance Business Magazine | Key Media
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2021
Launched his own business,
Ascend Financial Services
2022
Co-Founder
Finnstreet
Darren Liu
“Every day we’re making progress to deliver a top-quality training experience, invaluable mentorship and support. The aim is to have an even broader impact on the industry,” says Darren.
He also positioned Finnstreet more towards the alternative lending market as the economy cooled off from the excesses of the pandemic years and inflation took hold.
“We saw a growing demand for alternative financing solutions in the market which was not yet explored and decided to introduce our range of non-bank lending products.”
“Our focus is on providing more options,” he explains.
“We will bring in more options [that] our customers would understand and appreciate as a better fit for their circumstances.”
He has several new projects in the works too, designed to build further efficiencies into the lending ecosystem.
“We are developing a credit engine system to ensure all customer transactions are processed quickly and efficiently. Aside from that, we are also building a distribution channel with our internal team, to allow for a smooth delivery of our products and services to customers,” he says.
“By bringing these integrations to our system, brokers and customers will be able to fully benefit from our entire borrowing experience, without experiencing any bottlenecks.”
“We are creating the technology that will allow us to achieve substantial growth in volume.”
If you want to know what the future of lending might look like, you would be wise to pay close attention to any project that Darren is involved in.
“Technology is a necessary ingredient in our industry. There needs to be a better system and process, constructed as soon as possible.”
“We are developing a credit engine system to ensure all customer transactions are processed quickly and efficiently”
Darren Liu,
FINNStreet
It is not often that growth is a problem for a business.
But the enormous volume of applications handled by boutique brokerage Ortus Financial in Sydney’s eastern suburbs last fiscal year risked throwing the firm’s private banking ethos off balance.
In the year to June, Ortus settled 50% more loans than the year prior with principal Adam Rakowski writing over $160m worth.
“Having worked in the broader finance industry since 2001, it was certainly a year of unprecedented growth,” he says.
“The sheer volume of applications is likely something we won’t see again for some time.”
This gangbuster 12-month period resulted in a total loan book of over $400m in just three years since launching the business.
To be sure, the achievement is part of a wider story as the value of home loans settled by mortgage brokers collectively rose to new records nationally.
But Rakowski doesn’t want the business to be just about money or to treat customers like a number, which is a real danger when a brokerage is doing all it can to funnel applications to lenders as fast as humanly possible.
“We didn’t want to fall into the trap that many businesses do when growth becomes a singular focus,” says Rakowski.
“We don’t have a ‘grow at all costs’ mentality – it is sustainable growth that we’re striving for.”
Remarkably, Ortus lost no customers with zero refinances over the period other than existing clients selling property to re-purchase again with the firm. With zero defections, it’s hard to argue that customers had reason to be dissatisfied with the service.
The strong growth was powered partly by the property boom brought about by ultra-low interest rates. Ortus focuses primarily on residential lending with around 90% of loans placed at major banks. Rakowski also has a background in commercial lending and the firm has the potential to ramp up this line further in future.
“Every day we’re making progress to deliver a top-quality training experience, invaluable mentorship
and support”
Darren Liu,
FINNStreet
“We are developing a credit engine system to ensure all customer transactions are processed
quickly and efficiently”
Darren Liu,
FINNStreet
It is not often that growth is a problem for a business.
But the enormous volume of applications handled by boutique brokerage Ortus Financial in Sydney’s eastern suburbs last fiscal year risked throwing the firm’s private banking ethos off balance.
In the year to June, Ortus settled 50% more loans than the year prior with principal Adam Rakowski writing over $160m worth.
“Having worked in the broader finance industry since 2001, it was certainly a year of unprecedented growth,” he says.
“The sheer volume of applications is likely something we won’t see again for some time.”
This gangbuster 12-month period resulted in a total loan book of over $400m in just three years since launching the business.
To be sure, the achievement is part of a wider story as the value of home loans settled by mortgage brokers collectively rose to new records nationally.
But Rakowski doesn’t want the business to be just about money or to treat customers like a number, which is a real danger when a brokerage is doing all it can to funnel applications to lenders as fast as humanly possible.
“We didn’t want to fall into the trap that many businesses do when growth becomes a singular focus,” says Rakowski.
“We don’t have a ‘grow at all costs’ mentality – it is sustainable growth that we’re striving for.”
Remarkably, Ortus lost no customers with zero refinances over the period other than existing clients selling property to re-purchase again with the firm. With zero defections, it’s hard to argue that customers had reason to be dissatisfied with the service.
The strong growth was powered partly by the property boom brought about by ultra-low interest rates. Ortus focuses primarily on residential lending with around 90% of loans placed at major banks. Rakowski also has a background in commercial lending and the firm has the potential to ramp up this line further in future.
“Every day we’re making progress to deliver a top-quality training experience, invaluable mentorship
and support”
Darren Liu,
FINNStreet
“We are developing a credit engine system to ensure all customer transactions are processed quickly and efficiently”
Darren Liu,
FINNStreet