Leo Gagic explains why trust, not tech, will keep mortgage brokers in business as AI reshapes lending
Leo Gagic can’t picture a delighted borrower sending a thank you bottle of wine to a chatbot, even if that chatbot played a key role in getting that borrower’s home loan over the line.
That simple fact pretty much sums up the Finance Brokers Association of Australia (FBAA) chief executive’s approach to using artificial intelligence in mortgage broking.
He doesn’t believe the technology will make brokers obsolete, but AI will certainly “be an enabler” in getting the best out of the FBAA’s 14,000-plus registered brokers.
“Everyone is talking about AI, and so they should be,” Gagic said. “There’s great capability in AI, particularly for transactional-type of work. But at the end of the day, all consumers, I honestly believe, are still going to need a real broker.”
If anything, broking could be one of the most AI-proof professions out there, because the parts of broking that matter most are the parts a machine can never do. Sitting across from a client, hearing them out, being a trusted adviser and a friendly face in securing the largest financial obligation of a client’s entire life.
“There’s still trust, there’s relationships, there’s empathy, there’s complex deals, and a chatbot or an AI capability is not going to do that.”
Sure, AI will leave borrowers better informed, but that only raises the value of good advice. Someone still has to help navigate the increasingly knotty world of mortgage finance, holding their hand and saying, “right, this is going to be the better choice for you”.
Gagic was named FBAA chief executive alongside new chair Nick Sherry in June 2026, succeeding long-time leader Peter White. He has a storied career spanning debt collection firm Access Mercantile, roles at Liberty Financial, Westpac and NAB, and a long stint as executive director at Telstra.
Gagic, three months and counting into the job, sat down with MPA ahead of the FBAA National Industry Conference in Sydney on Thursday to unpack the leading broker association’s ‘Real Broker 27’ strategy.
He spent his first months in the FBAA’s top job on a listening tour of members, staff and stakeholders. Then he became his own mystery shopper – calling the FBAA, combing social media and websites, and sitting in on industry events as if he were a new broker starting out.
Gagic quickly determined that brokers are lacking one thing they crucially need: simplicity.
“My observation was too much of everything,” Gagic said. “Too many events, too many awards, too many people selling stuff. It’s great to have choice and options, but my observation, and certainly the feedback I got from our members … was ‘I’m time poor’.”
One event summed it up. A presenter flashed a QR code offering a discount on an AI tool, with a continuing professional development (CPD) point thrown in. Gagic sat in the audience wondering what a small broking business actually needed.
“Do I need the light version of that? Do I need the fully loaded version of that? The choice is great, but it’s choice overload at the moment. And we’ve got to help simplify and cut through that.”
What he really wanted was a word with the broker in the next seat. “Is there someone in the room that’s a new broker too, starting out? What are they using?”
Too often, the content didn’t help either. “There was just way too much information, a lot of theoretical information,” he said. Many of the events he attended also felt interchangeable.
He now sees the association’s core job as cutting through the noise for brokers, “because they are time poor, and to get them to where they need to be”.
What's Real Broker 27 all about?
Real Broker 27 swaps the one-size-fits-all model for support matched to where a broker sits in their career. The program covers four stages:
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New Broker – building strong foundations
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Grow Broker – developing capability, a client base and momentum
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Scale Broker – strengthening systems, teams and leadership
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Legacy Broker – building long-term value, planning succession and sharing knowledge
Each stage needs a very different conversation, Gagic concluded following his covert mystery shopper operation.
“A legacy broker should be going to an education seminar on people telling you how to grow your business value, not your book value,” he said. “Because you’ve got to sell it. You want to get the biggest possible return.”
A new broker, by contrast, wants a room full of peers wrestling with the same problems. “I want to be talking to people who are going through similar challenges,” he said. “What software did you buy? What are you doing around your processes?”
Gagic calls it “sharing and stealing”. He’s happy to admit he’s done a bit of sharing and stealing of his own throughout his professional career. “I’m not afraid to say… that’s how you learn and you learn fast!”
FBAA members will get shorter learning sessions built around real business challenges, targeted events, weekly webinars, guidance on responsible AI use and tools to strengthen client relationships. Brokers will also be invited to make and share their own Real Broker 27 commitment.
“It’s not a campaign,” Gagic said. “I’m creating a movement because the Real Broker aspect is the human advantage.”
The program sits alongside a broader connected support model the FBAA announced at the conference, built on three pillars: growth; risk and compliance; and governance and culture.
“A five-broker business needs a different approach from a 200-large broker group,” Gagic said. “The goal is to help each grow responsibly without unnecessary cost or complexity.”
The importance of brand protection
For all the talk of growth, Gagic believes the next test for brokers is how well they protect their own brand – and the brands of the lenders and aggregators they work with.
He pointed to sharper scrutiny from the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC), the Australian Transaction Reports and Analysis Centre (AUSTRAC) and the Australian Financial Complaints Authority (AFCA).
“I really think the banks, lenders, aggregators are going to narrow down,” Gagic predicted. “They’re great at bringing the business in, but they’re great at also protecting the aggregator or the lender’s brand.”
He also sees the FBAA’s job as shielding the many from the few. Like every industry, “we’ve got a handful of bad actors, (so) how do we protect the good guys? How do we protect the great actors?”
Asked what broker associations are fundamentally for, Gagic went back to the FBAA’s roots as a body built by brokers for brokers in 1993.
“It’s really about being there to be that strong voice for the brokers as the landscape continues to change, whether it’s legal, regulatory compliance, fraud, AI,” he said.
That includes education standards, where the FBAA and the Mortgage & Finance Association of Australia (MFAA) are both actively involved. “I think you should never set and forget,” he said.
The FBAA is also looking inward. A new CRM system is arriving in March, alongside an optimised AI bot, new telephony and a new leadership structure, which follows the four senior executive appointments the FBAA announced in September.
That team includes Mary-Helen Lockton on membership and experience, Nancy Sundar on quality assurance and compliance, Kirrily Jones on digital transformation and innovation, Joanna James on commercial strategy and partnerships, and Cara Hayward on financial strategy.
“The test is whether brokers find the support they need more easily and use it to build stronger businesses,” Gagic said. “FBAA will help you make the most of technology, build on what makes you stand out, and prepare your business for what’s ahead."
