Henry Woodcock retires after more than a decade at IRESS

Henry Woodcock (pictured) has retired from full-time work after leaving IRESS, where he was principal mortgage consultant for just shy of 11 years.

Before that he was project manager for The Mortgage Agency, subsidiary of the now defunct Mornington Building Society, and IT/project manager for Bradford & Bingley/Mortgage Express.

He summed up the main change he’s noticed while working at IRESS.

He said: “Technology has moved from single systems to systems that can link together, with the ability to plug new systems in.

“The biggest change at IRESS was the update of MSO [the Mortgage Sales & Originations platform].

“It moved from a large system to a componentised system where you could have a complete digital journey from start to finish.”

While Woodcock won’t seek a full-time role he has one foot in the mortgage industry as an adviser for fintech startup Eligible. The startup works by extracting data from a broker’s CRM system and matching it with IRESS product information.

On leaving Woodcock was vocal about the role technology can have in future.

He's adamant that artificial intelligence and automation are being held back from having a bigger impact on the mortgage market by regulation.

He added: “There’s a tension between the current regulation in mortgages and the way technology wants to go.

“It would want to automate a lot of things and provide guided advice with consumers – but they are hamstrung by regulatory barriers.

“Regulation means you can’t give a helping hand without suddenly straying into advice.

“There is room between advice and execution-only. There should be a middle ground which gives some guidance to prospective borrowers.”

After retiring Woodcock will do more travelling, while he keeps a blog of his experiences. He is heading to Paris just after Christmas and next year will visit Lebanon and Georgia.

You can access his blog here.