They say that as you get older, the years appear to pass more quickly. If that is true, then I must be older than I think because 2007 seemed to fly by. It doesn’t seem like two minutes ago that I was contemplating what would happen in 2007, and now here I am thinking, ‘wow, what a year that was – I wonder what will happen in 2008’.
2007
It’s fair to say that the start of this year was no different than any other. During the first half of the year the networks were out in force pledging to ‘improve this’ and ‘enhance that’ as a way of trying to out-muscle and out-manoeuvre their competitors. Some networks even went as far to suggest that they would double their size by the end of the year. While such lofty ambitions are admirable, I did wonder how realistic these claims were.
In such a competitive market, this may have been achievable for the smaller networks with only a handful of appointed representatives (ARs), but for the larger networks this would only have been achievable with significant investment in marketing or via acquisition. Personally, I think that the time and the money used to chase such fanciful ambitions would have been better spent on improving products and services to better support their existing ARs.
Q3 of the year saw some interesting developments as far as the networks were concerned. Manchester bought the Professional Mortgage Packagers Network and integrated it into the Mortgage Broking Services brand. In so doing, it more than doubled the size of its network, while the GHL Group’s acquisition of Classic Network Solutions also saw it move up the table.
We also saw the growth of AR firms increase to 3.4 per cent. This was from a disappointing 3 per cent in Q2 which was the lowest since regulation was introduced.
The latter part of the year was obviously dominated by the credit crunch in America which, as is so often the case, then filtered across ‘the pond’ to impact the British market. Lenders tightened their criteria, rates across non-conforming ranges were increased and in the most dramatic cases, whole product ranges were pulled and notification of redundancies was commonplace.
With hundreds of articles published and increased television coverage describing the problems as the ‘American nightmare’ and the ‘mortgage meltdown’, it has been hard to miss what has been the most challenging period since regulation. Sensibly, many networks turned their attentions to helping their AR firms through this period and rightly so. It’s vital this continues into the first part of 2008 after which hopefully we will see some positive developments.
I can’t conclude my review of the year without applauding Mortgage Times who made it to the number one slot. Reaching this position is an achievement but staying there is even more difficult. I should know, Network Data has been the number one network for over three years and second place is not a position we will want to be in for very long.
The future is bright
Our industry presents us with challenges on a regular basis, and as in life it’s important that brokers pick the right partners. The support networks offer now will be key to their success and will ensure retention.
Finally, I am sure I am not alone when I say that I am looking forward to seeing a successful recovery of the market and look forward to supporting brokers through these interesting times.
