"One of the things the last couple of years have taught us is it's very difficult to predict what's going to happen next"
More than two years into the global health emergency that uprooted and invalidated many tried-and-tested approaches to conducting business, Grant Armstrong of Community Trust said that the lender demonstrated the core of what it takes to thrive despite all odds.
"We looked at across the processes that we have, and we captured areas that we could see as a bottleneck, or it could be an area where they are partners or maybe not enjoying the experience," Armstrong said during a recent episode of CMP Talk.
Armstrong said that maintaining the thread of continuous evolution was no easy undertaking, which is why the support of a thoroughly trained, highly capable team cannot be overstated.
"One of the things the last couple of years have taught us is it's very difficult to predict what's going to happen next. And you can't focus on one, two or even three very specific," Armstrong said.
"We've got a fantastic team around us, a community trust, to make sure that we bring a lot of the relevant information. We want to make sure that we keep our fingers on all the necessary parts."
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This involved not only monitoring and responding to interest rate markets, both alternative and prime, but also looking at unemployment rates, municipal and provincial bylaws, business closures, social restrictions, and many others.
"All of these have an effect, especially with our ability to support so many entrepreneurs. They're the ones that can be affected by some of these municipal or provincial changes. So not one specific thing, but we've done a great job of keeping a really good finger on the pulse of all the areas that we lend in to understand what's going on in that specific community, both on a micro and macro scale."
At the same time, Armstrong stressed that at the moment, "there wouldn't be anything specific that I'd be looking for the regulators to introduce or change."
"I think the regulators do a fantastic job of providing feedback and guidance to lenders. And again, I think the best thing I can ask for is to continue that consistent message and share with all the lenders that they work with, the expectations that they have of everybody, and to keep supporting the mortgage industry like they do," he said.
Listen to more of Armstrong’s exclusive interview with CMP here.
