The margin lending industry looks set to rebound, with two thirds of brokers looking to increase their activity in the next 12 months, research shows.
Despite outstanding debt increasing for the first time in six years to $183 million, the ninth Investment Trends survey of brokers showed the tide is about to turn.
“Many barriers to increased usage of margin lending have softened among brokers, especially those relating to market volatility and interest rates,” Investment Trends analyst S M Shahed said.
“Based on their intentions, the broker channel is poised for growth over the next 12 months.”
While the direct channel continued to grow with a 12 per cent improvement to $4.8 billion in 2013, the planner channel shrunk 7 per cent to $3.9 billion, the Investment Trends margin lending report suggests.
Broker engagement has fallen slightly as well, dropping 2 per cent to $2.8 billion, but that was tipped to change, the research found.
Two thirds of the surveyed 466 brokers said they wanted to increase margin lending activity in the next 12 months.
