by Paul Kane, corporate account manager, NatWest Intermediary Solutions
With increasing demands for information to be delivered quickly and accurately we have looked at how we can support our business partners in this area and our instant messaging service LiveTALK has proved a popular addition to our service. LiveTALK gives brokers immediate access to a knowledgeable member of our team who is able to answer
mix involves quite a bit of information going out to brokers to steer distribution in the right direction so you don’t get a lot of disappointed cases.” Gemma Harle, TenetLime’s managing
director, says relations have definitely improved but the power balance is far from equal.
“The pendulum still sits firmly with the lenders,” she says. “There are certain people within lenders who understand the brokers and are genuinely trying to bring them into the process but a lot of the big banks have direct channels to think about. I think some of what they say is lip service. “We are being brought in more and being asked more by lenders but I’d question whether anything in practice has really changed. We’re still waiting for the axe to drop in some ways.” Brokers on the front line too are tentative about lenders’ overtures. Andrew Montlake, communications director at London-based broker Coreco, says working together is the only way to start rebuilding the market. “Talk may well be cheap as far as this is concerned but perhaps we should all be doing that little bit more to understand the other’s situation,” he says. “On the whole communication is happening but the dynamics have changed. Few brokers and networks can now approach lenders with the ‘give
questions on a wide range of topics such as lending criteria, product availability, checking rates or LTVs and application packaging. We have seen a significant uplift in both the number of brokers using it and the number of occasions individual brokers log on to it in the last two years and it is now an established channel of communication between intermediaries and our support team. Brokers should be able to get an answer to a question quickly without having to pick up the phone. Links to documents or web pages such as rate guides can be sent in the body of the conversation and a transcript of the
us more money and exclusive low rates or we won’t use you’ line, which is actually refreshing.” Conversations are more realistic these days in Montlake’s view, but he recognises that lenders have to consider intermediary distribution versus branch distribution and sales versus risk, while funding costs, regulation, national and European governments all battle for attention against commercial objectives. “As brokers we are no different,” he says. “We passionately argue our case in order to get the best for our business so we can survive, grow and earn a profit – and that is the bottom line we all have in common. We just have to accept that in this environment, sometimes other factors take precedence to our needs and until this changes, which it will, the very worst thing we can do is not engage at all or to stop fighting our corner.” Fahim Antoniades, director at Mortgage Centre IFA, also takes a pragmatic view. “I think lenders’ loyalties lie with whomever they feel offers the best opportunity for doing business,” he says.
“Nevertheless, it is true that lenders have been working hard on feedback. I have been invited to numerous workshops, the purpose of which was to collect feedback from brokers. However, the recurring theme with these
text chat can be emailed at the end of the session meaning users don’t need to worry about making notes along the way. And, of course it’s free to use.
Whilst instant messaging is still finding its feet in business, we know from the intermediaries that have used our service that they value it highly and have integrated it into their normal business practices as a time-saving and convenient contact tool.
So much so, that the latest usage survey we conducted amongst brokers showed that in Q4 2010 we achieved a 90%-plus satisfaction rating from users of LiveTALK.
workshops has been disgruntled brokers voicing their displeasure over inconsistent credit and underwriting decisions and poor quality processing.”
From tHe devil you don’t to tHe devil you do The flipside of broader, deeper and more face to face relationships has been a reduction in the number of partners on lenders’ panels. Brokers, surveyors and conveyancers have all seen their relationships with lenders put under the microscope.
Cleary says a tighter market with lower volumes has given lenders the opportunity to crack down on quality in areas previously neglected. For example, when Precise launched it chose to restrict its solicitor panel to just Goldsmith Williams and Shoosmiths in an effort to clamp down on fraud. “All lenders are reviewing restricting their authorised conveyancers,” he says. “In a smaller market fraud is much more visible and the result is lenders tighten up, unfortunately to the detriment of smaller provincial solicitors.” TenetLime’s Harle is wary of the move. “It is double edged,” she says. “The one man band solicitor can give that personal touch which is what the customer wants but as an industry we can tend to take a broad brush approach to fixing problems.”
mortgage introducer FEBRUARY 2011 29
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