Press Release - NZHL appoints a new CEO

The board of New Zealand Home Loans (NZHL) is pleased to announce the appointment of Julian Travaglia as the new Chief Executive Officer of New Zealand Home Loans effective 12^th October. Julian replaces current CEO Mark Collins who for the past four years has led the company through a period of rapid growth.

Julian has a wealth of sales and third party distribution experience in the loan, insurance and financial services sectors and a proven track record in developing and leading high performing teams.

With AIG for the past eight years, Julian is currently the Head of Client and Broker Engagement.  In an earlier role at AIG he was Head of Consumer Lines. Prior to joining AIG, Julian held senior management positions at OPI NZ Ltd, Activa Health Ltd and AMP.

NZHL chairman, Neil Richardson says that the calibre of applicants for the CEO role was very high, but Julian’s breadth of experience and expertise was a perfect match for the role. “We were very pleased with the quality of applicants for the position of CEO and are delighted to have appointed Julian as we enter into a new phase of growth and development in our business.”

New Zealand Home Loans has achieved ongoing positive growth since its launch in 1996. This growth has continued throughout the chance of ownership from the three shareholders to Kiwibank. Two of the original shareholders remain involved with the business – Neil Richardson (Chairman) and Phil Harris (COO).

Over the past four years NZHL has grown from a loan book of $3.6B to $5.1B (42% increase), clients from 15,600 to 19,000 (22% increase) and outlet numbers from 57 to 81 (42% increase). Last year it grew its loan book at 2.4 times the market growth rate.

Neil says NZHL is entering into a new phase that will see the business not only grow, but transform its offering.

“We have developed a strategy to double our size over the next six years to achieve a loan book of $10B. Our strategy involves a number of innovative transformation projects that will be implemented over the next three years to the benefit of both clients and franchises. Our objective is to build clients financial wellbeing and in so doing to build our own financial success.“

How New Zealand Home Loans works

• New Zealand Home Loans operates a channelled mortgage model which helps its clients simplify their finances by operating them from one bank account, which consolidates and reduces interest costs and makes money management easier to track. All income and expenditure – including mortgage repayments – is channelled through this transactional account. The mortgage is arranged on a reducing principal and interest basis. There are no day-to-day transaction fees, and clients receive an EFTPOS/ATM card and have access to online banking and telephone banking.

• Interest payable is calculated daily on the net total home loan balance. This solves the problem of savings accounts earning a lower interest rate for households than that they’re paying to service debt, and the problem of a household’s income going straight into a transactional account that earns them no interest. Under the New Zealand Home Loan structure, savings and salaries have the effect of earning the household the same amount of interest as that they’re paying for the mortgage.

• Unlike a traditional revolving credit mortgage, the householder is not able to draw down the portion of the mortgage that has been paid off.

• New Zealand Home Loan clients receive one-on-one advice and support from a consultant during the process of setting up the mortgage, followed by on-going support and reviews throughout their relationship, to ensure they stay on track to meet their day-to-day commitments and their wider, longer term financial goals.

• A simple-to-use and easy to understand software package, called debtnav, helps clients manage their day-to-day finances and track their progress towards their goals.