Currently just two in five (43%) lenders provide the service despite the Mortgage Market Review seeing a 39% increase in the amount of documentary evidence required from lenders.
Henry Woodcock, principal mortgage consultant at IRESS, said: “Lenders clearly recognise the importance of the intermediary market, and have taken significant strides to improve their systems to make them more intuitive and efficient for intermediaries to use.
“However, there is more that can be done to make the application process as seamless, cost efficient and quick as possible.
“Further steps towards a fully paperless process, along with increased transparency will be crucial to enabling the intermediary channel to maximise business opportunities.”
Intermediaries also favour up to date and detailed case tracking, however just a third of lenders provide milestone updates via email and two thirds (67%) support real time tracking.
Currently just two in five (43%) lenders support the online production of mortgage offers, while even fewer (38%) provide online reasons for case referral.
Only a quarter (24%) accept online fee payments by card, while just two in five (43%) provide online offer production.
Peter Williams, executive director of the Intermediary Mortgage Lenders Association, said: “Technology is developing all the time, and as lenders work to adapt their legacy systems, we can expect to see more integration of scan and attach facilities into online application process to give one example.
“However, the challenge is not just the technology itself but how it can be integrated into credit and fraud avoidance processes, which means it may not always be possible to meet intermediaries’ every need.
“Lenders vary considerably in terms of their IT legacy systems and that in itself can be a constraint on the speed of progress alongside the fact this is a competitive issue with firms making choices as to what they prioritise."
He added: “We welcome an open dialogue and the industry has much to gain by continuing the discussion between intermediaries and lenders – both individually and collectively – to improve the application process.
“We will continue to work with our partners at AMI and IRESS to take this learning on board and to encourage further improvement and best practice across the lending community.”
