News Review: Packaging


You have to pick a packager or two


by Ian Balfour, CEO, Solent Mortgage Services


many in our industry have


challenged the continuing role of the traditional packager and again it highlights the issue that many don’t understand what has changed or are still working on the old template. Here we are nearly three


years after the crash and packaging or more accurately its successor is alive and well and beginning to make its value felt for service and product providers as well as the intermediary market. the reality is that the


service has evolved and anyway packaging was always just one part of what we did. Packagers have always taken on the role of


marketing outsource for lenders and other service providers, giving them access to an intermediary outlet and also as an information hub. as a resource this is so much more cost effective for providers than having to field questions and queries from their own resources. in some cases lenders also find that being able to use a third party hub means they can also have all initial enquiries and applications pre-screened. if lenders or any product


providers are looking at the intermediary market they have to consider the cost of access, what experience they have of this market, what internal resource they have and whether they want to build in larger fixed costs. companies like ours offer


all or part of the process from controlled distribution to high application to completion ratios.


Jumping through hoops


Providers are always looking for ways to give service and product providers more reason to deal with the intermediary market and one of the main barriers to lenders becoming more proactive in the broker channel has much to do with effect of potential regulatory changes. Lenders will now have responsibility for the product chosen for the client whether the case comes direct or through an intermediary who has had to jump though all his own regulatory hoops to recommend a lender’s particular product.


One of the added value services that will become vital to the whole process of intermediary/lender relationships is the facility for file checking being pioneered by companies like Compliance Checking. Available to brokers, file checking will mean that all cases can be checked for product suitability before they reach lenders. This


technology is a key issue. the next level of support for lenders and brokers is just about to hit the market and we will support all with the regulatory challenges we face.


“Here we are nearly three years after the crash and packaging - or more accurate- ly its successor - is alive and well and beginning to make its value felt for service and product pro- viders as well as the intermediary market.”


will have the double advantage of ensuring peace of mind for brokers and help lenders to be more comfortable around the whole issue of introduced business. This service does not replace brokers’ own compliance regimes or challenge professional advice. It is here to support the external audit process and help build documentary evidence so that any retrospective regulation can be negated or minimised. In the specialist product area the regulator, lender, funder and anyone looking to buy these assets in the future will need confidence that these consumers have been given the best outcome.


When this is allied to another service to intermediaries at the start of the advisory process to enable the prequalification of important and relevant client information, intermediaries have a full set of tools to reduce time wasted on clients and cases that might otherwise risk being turned down.


THE PERSONAL TOUCH The logic being used by some ‘experts’ suggests that if advice becomes too expensive because of the need to charge fees then the only feasible place to go will be the internet for those who do not want to pay for or cannot afford the cost of face-to-face advice. Personally, I think that is too neat a package and just does not take into account the nature of human differences. Yes, anyone with half a


brain will make use of the web as a means of getting some idea of what is out there and make use of its capacity to provide information, but I am convinced that at heart, customers want the reassurance of having an expert tell them what is going to be best for them. I sometimes feel the regulator would prefer a simple online process of questioning which would lead to an unbiased recommendation free from any human intervention. Of course, that will not happen for two reasons. Firstly, human beings are all completely different and have individual requirements, which no amount of automated questions in a menu can provide for, and secondly the regulator would be out of a job if automation could cover every eventuality. I am therefore confident that for all its perceived faults, the need for people to deal with human expertise will still be the default preference for the majority as long as the price required is matched by the service provided. Long live the specialist adviser.


mortgage introducer MARCH 2011 15


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