Move comes amid rise of suspected home loan fraud in mortgage industry
Mortgage aggregator Yellow Brick Road Group has moved to tighten its grip on risk and compliance, appointing veteran financial services executive David Flynn (pictured) as chief risk and compliance officer.
Executive chairman Mark Bouris framed the decision as a direct response to the rising regulatory pressure facing home loan providers.
Peak broking body the Mortgage and Finance Association of Australia (MFAA) called for an industry-wide approach to tackling home loan fraud as the scale of suspected fraudulent activity continues to escalate.
Commonwealth Bank, Westpac, ANZ and NAB are all reportedly working with authorities to determine the extent of fraudulent home loans on their books. CBA was the first to contact authorities in late February due to suspected illicit behaviour “being attempted through mortgage broking and referral channels”.
“At Yellow Brick Road, we’ve always believed that Australians deserve better when it comes to home lending – better advice, better service, and better outcomes. Achieving that means holding ourselves to the highest standards of compliance and governance, not just because regulators expect it, but because our borrowers deserve it,” said Bouris.
Flynn joins from financial services provider Insignia Financial, where he served as interim chief risk officer and then general manager of compliance, overseeing enterprise risk and compliance frameworks across APRA-regulated entities, advice AFSLs and managed investment schemes.
His track record spans senior roles at BT Financial Group, ANZ, ING Australia, Rubik Financial and VanEck.
In the newly defined role, Flynn will head YBR Group’s enterprise risk and compliance function, charged with developing and embedding frameworks that ensure the business meets its regulatory obligations.
“Securing the right home loan is one of the most consequential financial decisions most Australians will ever make, and they deserve to know the people helping them are operating to the highest possible standards,” said Flynn.
Explaining why he chose to come aboard YBR Group, he pointed to a “genuine ambition here to do things better – to build a compliance culture that isn’t just about avoiding breaches, but about making sure every borrower interaction leads to a genuinely good outcome”.
