Steve Robertson
To more accurately reflect the broader range of gearing solutions and products it currently has on offer to investors, Macquarie Margin Lending has undergone a name change and will be known as Macquarie Investment Lending going forward.
According to Steve Robertson, head of Macquarie investment lending, his division realised the existing business name was outdated several months ago after seeking feedback from clients regarding the subject.
“We conducted research and surveys with a wide cross-section of our clients and we found that they did not relate to our full product offering,” he said.
“Our business pioneered capital protected lending in Australia and we are now in the process of developing a number of new and innovative investment lending solutions for the Australian market. The features of these exciting new products fall well outside the accepted ‘Margin Lending’ description,” Robertson added.
In addition to margin lending offerings, Macquarie has included other gearing facilities in its suite of products such as Geared Equities Investment plus, a capital protected loan to facilitate the purchase of shares with dividend returns, Hedging Power, a facility that allows the investor to enhance the yield of their margin loan shares, and Trading Power, which allows clients to add the ability to trade in options and short sell shares to their margin loan.
Robertson said his division’s loan book had increased by 40 per cent over the past year as people have become more willing to employ gearing to enhance their wealth creation strategies.
“More and more Australians are becoming educated in investment strategies and, as a result, there is more understanding of and more demand for investment gearing solutions,” he said.
Despite the name change, Robertson emphasised Macquarie remained committed to developing margin lending solutions for financial advisers and their clients.
“Margin lending remains an important aspect of our business and we will continue to evolve our margin lending offering, in line with the feedback that we regularly seek out from our clients,” he said.
