Australian Mortgage Brokers Can Now Earn CPD Points Researching Lender Policy on Cynario.

An industry first: Cynario becomes the first Agentic AI platform in Australia recognised by both the MFAA and FBAA for formal Continuing Professional Development.

What Has Changed

Mortgage brokers in Australia can now earn recognised CPD points by researching and comparing lender policy on Cynario, making Cynario the first Agentic AI platform in the Australian mortgage industry to receive this recognition from both the Mortgage & Finance Association of Australia (MFAA) and the Finance Brokers Association of Australia (FBAA).

Why This Matters for Brokers

Your CPD obligations just got easier to meet

Every licensed mortgage broker in Australia is required to maintain ongoing professional development. Under ASIC’s framework and the standards set by industry associations, that development must be genuine, structured and relevant to the work brokers perform.

Lender policy research has always been central to that work. Now it counts.

For brokers already using Cynario to research policy across 38+ lenders, this recognition means CPD points are accumulating in the background of their existing workflow, without any additional time commitment or study load.

It directly supports Best Interests Duty compliance

Australia’s Best Interests Duty (BID) obligations require brokers to act in the best interests of their clients when recommending credit products. Meeting that obligation requires current, accurate knowledge of what lenders will and won’t do – their eligibility criteria, serviceability treatment, LVR thresholds, and policy exceptions.

A broker who cannot accurately assess which lenders a client qualifies with, or who relies on outdated policy assumptions, is materially impaired in their ability to act in that client’s best interest. Cynario’s CPD recognition formally acknowledges what regulators and associations have long understood: maintaining live lender knowledge is not background administration. It is core professional competency.

The research you’re doing is more valuable than you realised

The most common activity pattern on Cynario is direct lender comparison – brokers querying how two or more lenders treat the same lending criteria side by side.

How does Lender A treat casual employment income versus Lender B? What is the policy difference between three lenders on trusts?  Which lenders will consider a client with a recent default?

This kind of structured comparative analysis builds a working mental model of the lending market that carries into every client conversation. It sharpens recommendation quality, reduces errors and builds the depth of knowledge that distinguishes experienced, high-performing brokers from those who rely on guesswork or habit.

That is not a lookup activity. That is active, applied professional learning – and the MFAA and FBAA have now formally said so.

Why Lender Policy Research Qualifies as CPD

The MFAA and FBAA reviewed the nature of policy research activity on Cynario before granting recognition. Their decision reflects a genuine assessment of what the work involves.

Every policy query on Cynario requires a broker to:

• Interpret lender criteria in the context of a specific client scenario
• Compare how different lenders approach the same lending situation
• Weigh policy nuance against client eligibility and suitability
• Build a working understanding of lender market behaviour over time

This is not passive reading. It is the same analytical process that underlies every quality credit recommendation, and it is precisely the competency that CPD frameworks across regulated professions are designed to develop and maintain.

A Broader Shift: From Static PDF to Knowledge Asset

For most of the history of mortgage broking in Australia, lender policy lived in a PDF.

Static. Difficult to search. Impossible to compare across lenders in real time. Brokers had to hold policy in their heads, hope their knowledge was current and navigate it manually for every new client scenario. The gap between what brokers knew and what lenders actually offered was a persistent source of errors, missed opportunities, and client outcomes that could have been better.

AI has changed what lender policy is.

On Cynario, policy is no longer a document. It is a live, searchable, interactive knowledge asset.  One that brokers can query, interrogate and compare across 38+ lenders in natural language. When a broker asks how three lenders treat a borrower with casual employment and a recent credit enquiry, they receive a structured, accurate, policy-grounded comparison in seconds.

That is a fundamentally different professional tool. And it produces a fundamentally different broker – one who engages with lender policy at a depth and frequency that simply was not possible before.

The MFAA and FBAA’s recognition of Cynario for CPD is, in part, an acknowledgement of this shift. AI is not replacing broker expertise. It is expanding the conditions under which that expertise can develop.

The MFAA and FBAA: Leading the Industry Forward

The decision by both the MFAA and FBAA to recognise Cynario reflects a considered and forward-thinking approach to the role of AI technology in the broker channel.

Rather than treating AI platforms as peripheral productivity tools, both associations assessed Cynario on the educational merit of the activity brokers perform within it. That assessment led to a conclusion that aligns with what progressive industry observers have long argued: that the broker who engages deeply with lender policy, is the broker best equipped to serve their clients.

Both associations are to be commended for approaching this question seriously, engaging in genuine dialogue with Cynario and reaching a recognition that benefits the entire broker channel. Their willingness to look at new forms of professional activity and ask whether they meet the standard, rather than defaulting to traditional formats, reflects the kind of leadership the industry needs as AI becomes more deeply embedded in professional practice.

This recognition does not lower the bar for CPD. It extends the definition of what earns it, to include activities that are already delivering genuine professional value.

How to Log Your CPD Points

Brokers using Cynario can log CPD points earned through policy research directly with the MFAA or FBAA as part of their annual professional development records.

The structure:

• 1 CPD point per block of 40 policy chats
• Recognised by the MFAA ✓
• Recognised by the FBAA ✓

If you are already an active Cynario user, review your platform activity and calculate how many points you may already have accumulated. Cynario’s CPD tracking is designed to make this straightforward.

If you are not yet using Cynario, this is a good moment to consider what your current lender policy research process looks like — and whether the time you spend on it is delivering the depth of knowledge your clients deserve, and now, the professional recognition you have earned.

Frequently Asked Questions

Can all brokers earn CPD points on Cynario, regardless of which association they belong to? Yes. The CPD recognition applies to members of both the MFAA and FBAA. If you are a member of either association, policy research completed on Cynario is eligible for CPD logging.

Do I need to complete a separate assessment or activity to earn points? No. CPD points are earned through your standard policy research activity on the platform. Every block 40 policy chats accumulates toward 1 CPD point.

What counts as a policy chat? Any query submitted to Charli, Cynario’s agentic AI policy engine, counts as a policy chat. This includes lender eligibility queries, policy comparisons, scenario assessments, and product suitability questions across any of Cynario’s 38+ lenders.

How does this relate to Best Interests Duty? BID requires brokers to act in the best interests of clients when recommending credit products. Maintaining current, accurate lender knowledge is foundational to meeting that obligation. Cynario’s CPD recognition formally connects the activity of building lender knowledge to the professional development frameworks that support BID compliance.

Is AI-assisted policy research considered genuine professional development? The MFAA and FBAA have confirmed that it is, based on an assessment of the analytical activity involved. Researching policy on Cynario requires active interpretation and application of lender criteria,  it is not passive consumption and it is not automated. The broker drives the inquiry; the platform provides the knowledge base.

Where can I find out more? Visit cynario.ai to learn more.