2022 Awards Terms and Conditions
The promoter of the MFAA Excellence Awards (the Awards) is the Mortgage & Finance Association of Australia (MFAA) (ACN: 006 085 552).
The MFAA reserves the right to amend these Terms and Conditions as it sees fit, provided that any such amendment shall not in any way affect any Awards already made pursuant to these Terms and Conditions subject to clause 7(d).
The MFAA also reserves the right to remove any finalist from the judging process in accordance with clause 2(d) below.
1. Binding terms
By entering the 2022 MFAA Excellence Awards (the Awards), you are entering into an agreement with the Mortgage & Finance Association of Australia ('MFAA' or 'we') on the terms and conditions set out in this document.
2. Eligibility
(a) To enter the awards, you must meet the entry criteria listed in the entry kit for each of the award categories you wish to enter.
(b) The final decision as to eligibility of a submission for a particular category is to be solely at the discretion of the MFAA.
(c) Employees and Directors of the MFAA (or any other associated party where the MFAA deems that relationship to hold an inappropriate conflict of interest) are not eligible to enter or nominate for the Awards.
(d) The MFAA, at its sole discretion, may decline acceptance and/or require withdrawal of any Awards submission at any time if there are relevant circumstances that may lead it to the reasonable view that the Member, and/or one of the Member’s representatives, may have engaged in conduct that may be a breach of the MFAA’s governance rules including the MFAA Constitution, Code of Practice and Disciplinary Rules or that the MFAA believes may bring the Association into disrepute.
(e) Eligibility is subject to the satisfactory completion and supply of the relevant Personal Declaration required in the member’s submission that is deemed to be acceptable by the MFAA.
3. Entry submission
(a) All entries for consideration must be lodged online using the MFAA’s designated online submissions portal and must include all required information. The opening date for lodging submissions online can be found on the MFAA Awards website.
(b) Only information that pertains to the period from 1 January 2021 to 31 December 2021 can be included in the entry, unless otherwise requested. Entrants warrant that all information they supply is not false, misleading or deceptive and that where required, the MFAA may check or confirm an entrant's entry information with their aggregator, licensee and/or any other relevant third party. This may mean sharing an entrant's personal information collected for the purposes of the MFAA Awards with those parties. For more information, please see the MFAA's Privacy Policy which is found here.
4. Entry closing date
Submissions must be received by the closing date and time stated on the MFAA Awards website. The MFAA has the sole discretion to extend the entry closing date as it sees fit.
5. The judging process
(a) All commercially sensitive data will be held in strict confidence, unless otherwise provided for within these terms & conditions. All judges sign a confidentiality agreement prior to commencing adjudication.
(b) The MFAA will arrange for the external adjudication of entries for each category of the Awards in accordance with the rules developed by the MFAA.
(c) The MFAA reserves the right to authenticate loan volume details contained within any submission, with the entrant’s respective aggregator/s.
(d) As results are audited by an independent external auditor, award entrants agree that the judges’ decisions are final in all circumstances and are not open to debate or challenge.
(e) The MFAA may at its sole discretion choose to not select any finalist/s in a particular award category if that is deemed appropriate. The MFAA will notify all entrants as to whether they have been selected as a finalist and will announce the winner in each category at the awards presentation ceremony.
6. Promotion
Entrants consent that, through the act of submitting an entry in the MFAA Excellence Awards, they give their permission, without further written or verbal consent, for any images, video or speech taken of them at the state or national MFAA Excellence Awards events, or associated events, to be used in future MFAA Excellence Awards advertising and marketing material including, but not limited to, relevant printed or electronic promotional items, web ads, on websites and in news articles.
7. Presentation and Award
(a) The MFAA Excellence Awards trophy and the award remain the property of the MFAA, to which entrants agree unreservedly by entering these awards.
(b) The MFAA reserves the right to invite another person to accept the award on the winner’s behalf if the winner is not present at the relevant presentation.
(c) Award recipients may only promote their award win for a period of five years from the date of the presentation of the award, provided he, she or they remain a member of the MFAA for that entire period.
(d) In the event that the award recipient is expelled from the MFAA or has a relevant membership suspended or cancelled by the MFAA Tribunal, the award recipient must return the award trophy and certificate to the MFAA and the individual and/or business agrees to cease using the words 'MFAA award winner’, ‘MFAA Award finalist' or any similar words in any promotional literature or other promotional or other media and agrees to pay the MFAA’s costs, if any, incurred to enforce this requirement.
(e) Where an award winner or finalist is subject to an adverse finding in any investigation or disciplinary proceedings, or criticism by ASIC or by any other regulatory body or by a Court or relevant tribunal or a relevant person becomes a bankrupt or becomes subject to the Bankruptcy Act as amended as an individual or as an owner, director or partner in relation to any aspect of a business, the MFAA, at its sole discretion, may withdraw any Award made to the individual and require the return of the award trophy and certificate to the MFAA and the individual agrees to cease using the words 'MFAA award winner’, ‘MFAA Award finalist' or any similar words in any promotional literature or other promotional or other media and agrees to pay the MFAA’s costs, if any, incurred to enforce this requirement.