During a fiery question and answer session following the Premier Mortgage Solutions (PMS) seminar, brokers questioned how they fitted into lenders’ business, with one intermediary claiming that lenders saw advisers as an ‘evil’. The delegates also accused lenders of not keeping them informed.
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PMS managing director, John Malone, admitted he agreed with the criticism, but the future would see business leads and contact become stronger due to the availability of technology.
Stephen Best, key relationships manager at Abbey, admitted the broker was right, but that the lender was taking action to improve its service.
Best said: “There has been some problems in the past 12 months as we don’t have the systems to be able to cope with the demand, but we do have further advances for intermediaries including a new infrastructure coming in and some other things on the back burner. This is an intermediary friendly format put in with the systems.”
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The question of product range was also asked, as the major lenders featured had extensive ranges, but Malone claimed the number of products was justified, as borrowers reviewed their mortgages, on average, three times in seven years.
Paul Suchet, managing director of Money Plus, said: “Brokers are the lifeblood of the mortgage community. We find the client through sweat, advertising, recommendation and luck. This is a relationship that the broker hopes will last for many years. But now the lender will not even discuss the case without a post-completion form of authority. This is a client that the broker spent time and money finding and the lender has cut him out of the equation.”
