Ben Anderson on balancing speed with risk at Avanti Finance

Avanti Finance operates almost entirely through brokers and dealers who connect customers with lending solutions across business, personal, auto, and property finance. In this model, being first matters.

“If you think about the relationships, their key is I’m going to go to you, and I’m probably going to go to one or two others,” Anderson explains. “Whoever comes back to me first is probably who I’m going to go with.”

The company serves gaps left by major banks, often providing bridging finance that helps customers build themselves up to return to mainstream lending. Delivering on that promise while managing risk in a tough economic environment requires a different approach.

Anderson doesn’t see his role as slowing things down. He sees it as helping the business navigate at speed.

“The real strength of a risk team, in my view, is that your superpower has to be collaboration, and it has to be communication,” he says. “If it isn’t that, then we’re never going to be the best.”

This means getting involved early, not waiting for sign-off at the end of a project. It means framing conversations around possibilities rather than prohibitions. “The answer from risk should always be yes or a path to yes. So how do we get from A to B?”

Anderson meets with all general managers fortnightly. Not to lecture about risk metrics, but to understand their priorities and share insights that might help them succeed. When he presents to leadership, he focuses on outcomes rather than compliance details.

“I always share with people, hey, this is how we’ve helped you. But I give them the credit for doing it. Risk is helping you be successful as opposed to risk being successful.”

How does Avanti achieve speed without compromising on risk? Anderson points to one factor: consistency.

“One of the things that I’ve noticed over time is the number of people whose risk appetite or credit appetite changes,” he observes. “How do you give consistency to your introducers if they don’t know what your appetite is?”

By maintaining a clear credit appetite with well-defined guardrails, introducers learn exactly what Avanti will and won’t approve. They can package applications appropriately from the start, reducing back-and-forth. The company’s systems allow introducers to use the same portal as Avanti staff, creating transparency and enabling faster decision-making.

Smart scorecards help, too. “Quick to no is just as important as quick to yes,” Anderson notes. “If someone’s a no, we should say no on the spot. That’s not a customer we’ll deal with.”

By operating within well-understood bands, staff can make decisions autonomously rather than escalating everything. But that requires significant investment in training.

Anderson is focused on three macro indicators: employment levels, the Official Cash Rate, and regulatory changes. These tell him when to adjust credit appetite and where risks might be emerging.

“As unemployment rises, that will naturally mean greater arrears rates,” he explains. “So how do we adjust our appetite at the right level? Is it certain industries, is it certain locations, or is it across the board?”

But fraud and AML keep him up at night. Having worked in the AML space since 2008, Anderson has watched the reputational risk grow. “You can effectively wipe out your business by being involved in AML,” he says.

He thinks about fraud losses in human terms. “I always think about fraud losses. I always go, how many people is that? Let’s say the average cost was $100,000 NZD. Based off median NZ salaries that equates to one and a half people. That’s one and half people’s jobs.”

With fraud typically rising during economic downturns, Avanti is investing in automated solutions to detect fraudulent documents, especially as AI makes deep fakes and synthetic identities more sophisticated.

Anderson is direct about the role of technology: “Finance companies are tech companies at our very core. If we don’t have great tech, then we’re last.”

Without strong systems, speed is impossible, and scale requires simply hiring more people. Avanti’s technology enables the introducer portal, powers auto-decision scorecards, and increasingly helps identify fraud.

On AI, Anderson is candid about the learning curve. “The use of AI, I have to admit, I’m an infant in my knowledge on that. But trying to constantly upskill, and leaning on other people as well.”

He sees AI as both an opportunity and a threat: a tool for better decision-making and fraud detection, but one that criminals will use for more sophisticated attacks. “Technology will just keep leapfrogging. It’s like an arms race in some ways.”

The regulatory uncertainty makes him cautious. With multiple regulators expanding their remits, Anderson believes now isn’t the time to push boundaries. “If you go outside their guidance, you just run the gauntlet.”

With a small risk team, Anderson focuses on making each person highly effective. He runs weekly sessions: Monday morning to set priorities and identify roadblocks, Friday afternoon to share wins and learnings.

“I’m a huge advocate of two things. One, on Fridays, we have to share our wins. What did we do well? How did we help the business? But also, we go, what did I learn this week?”

No one is allowed to finish Friday feeling unproductive. “No, you didn’t have a bad week. What did you learn that week?”

Anderson’s advice centres on four principles.

Be comfortable not knowing all the details. “If you’ve come from an area where you’re such a technical expert and you’re coming to a CRO role, that’s quite a transition. Your gut feeling’s never wrong. So go with your gut feeling.”

Invest heavily in your team. “The role of the CRO just continues to get wider. If you don’t have great people around you and within your team, then you’re struggling.”

Set clear goals and communicate progress transparently. This helps stakeholders see risk as a partner rather than a blocker.

And be okay with making mistakes. “You will make wrong decisions, and that’s brutal if you’re a perfectionist and a lot of risk people are Type A personalities, myself included. How do you fail fast? How do you learn to make mistakes fast and share the learning so that no one else will make the same mistake you did?”

ThirdEye partners with financial institutions across Australia, New Zealand, and the UK to fight financial crime. This interview is part of our CRO Series; conversations with risk leaders on the challenges and opportunities shaping the profession. Explore the series.