The Mortgage and Finance Association has appointed Anja Pannek as its new chief executive. Pannek has spent the past 20 years working in mortgage distribution, with leadership roles at Loan Market Group, PLAN Australia, Advantedge and Challenger. She replaces Mike Felton, who served five-and-a-half years in the role. Felton departs after securing commitments from both sides of politics not to review broker remuneration. He also leaves at a time when mortgage broker share of home loan originations has never been higher. Latitude Group has announced that it will sell its life insurance business, Hallmark, to St Andrew’s Insurance Group for A$20.3 million. The company said the sale will release around $90 million of capital into its core business, simplify its business model and reduce costs. Hallmark made an “immaterial” contribution to Latitude’s earnings in the June half. Latitude will report an after-tax loss of around $30 million on the sale, including goodwill and other intangible asset write-downs. Australian Finance Group non-executive director Melanie Kiely will step down from the board after the company’s annual general meeting in November. She has served two three-year terms. She chaired the remuneration and nomination committee, and was a member of the audit committee and the risk and compliance committee.