The unresolved threat of the loss of its core business model by regulatory fiat is little barrier to the tale of growth and warm financial metrics that underpins the 2017 full year profit for Mortgage Choice.
"The continued growth of our network" is boilerplate in the presentation material from the mortgage aggregator yesterday, yet the underpinning of the year gone and the year ahead.
Net profit lifted 14 per cent to A$22.2 million at the mortgage aggregator.
Mortgage Choice's core broking business "recorded its best ever settlement result," chief executive officer John Flavell said, "with settlements totalling $12.3 billion."
Churn held back growth in Mortgage Choice's loan book to a rise of three per cent, with this fee-yielding portfolio standing at $53.4 billion.
Flavell said the mortgage aggregator "added 46 new franchises to the network, the highest number recruited in one year."
Dozens more franchises need to be recruited, with "distribution growth" one of four pillars for business and profit growth.
The business, one of the pioneers of mortgage broking in Australia is for now revelling in the fuss faced by so many local banks, most of whom count Mortgage Choice as a longstanding originator.
Flavell said that "the volume and velocity of policy and pricing changes for lending products, as well as wealth and insurance solutions, was unprecedented," over the year passed.
"This complexity drove more consumers to Mortgage Choice than ever before," he said.
This factor is stirring up demand for financial planning, still an emerging product line for the group.
Referrals from the core broking business increased by 13 per cent, Flavell said. This lifted the share of revenue from what the company labels as its diversified offering to 11.5 per cent from 10.5 per cent.
Thus its financial planning division "delivered its first full year profit."
Asset finance is the next new product, one that has attracted little demand so far.
ASIC and the federal government may be nearing final policy decisions on a delicate and drawn out debate over the future of mortgage broker commissions.
The standard commission model of upfront and trail commissions - which is the cornerstone of the Mortgage Choice model - "creates conflicts of interest," the Australian Securities and Investments Commission concluded in a review published early this year (being a review requested back in 2015.)
The broking industry must contend with sentiment and argument hostile to its interests, such as that voiced recently by consumer group CHOICE.
CHOICE is looking for a blanket ban on all trail and bonus commissions, a measure it argued addressed concerns raised by the Australian Securities and Investments Commission in this year's review, in that these payments create conflicts of interest for brokers.
Commissions made up $177 million of Mortgage Choice's revenue this year, a number unchanged from 2016.
Up-front commission lifted four per cent while trailing commission dipped by two per cent, reflecting changes in business mix and commission structures.
The enthusiasm of ASIC reformers and the ultimate views of (conservative) policy makers in Canberra will set the outlines of the value story of all listed aggregators: AFG, and Yellow Brick Road as well as Mortgage Choice.
The high growth story seems to be the Mortgage Choice story, regardless.
"We have capacity to increase our franchise footprint from 449 to 587," Flavell's investor presentation shows.
"In 131 marketing areas, 97 greenfield sites are available," enough to keep his subordinates busy for only two more years given the growth in 2017.