The survey showed an average of just over 12% of mortgage business is submitted to packagers by intermediaries.
More than 60% of intermediaries said that they submit between 10% and 25% of their business via packagers, and 6% reported that they submit more than 50% of their business through this route. A small minority (2%) indicated that all their business goes through packagers.
Peter Williams, executive director of IMLA, said: “Packagers clearly provide a valuable service for most intermediaries. The vast majority of them – almost three-quarters – use packagers for a small, but significant, portion of their business. While four out of ten of them only use packagers for up to 10% of their business, there are some who make use of packagers much more extensively.”
Asked about their expectations as to how the level of business directed via packagers is likely to change over the next two years, almost a quarter of intermediaries said it would increase, while two-thirds expected it to remain stable. Only a small minority of around 10% expected business submitted via packagers to decline.
Williams explained: “The majority of intermediaries expect to continue submitting a steady stream of business via packagers, as they do at present, and a further 23% plan to increase the volumes they submit. This provides tangible proof that intermediaries value the service provided by packagers. Those who expect to use packagers less are outnumbered by those who expect to use them more by a factor of two to one.”
Overall, business submitted via packagers is expected to only increase slightly over the next two years.
Intermediaries typically submit business through a small number of packagers, with almost a third (30%) making use of just one, and 56% using two or three. Only a small minority (less than 5%) use five or more.
Williams said: “Those who predicted the demise of the packager should think again – packagers are handling, on average, one in eight mortgage applications and intermediaries expect to continue sending them business in the future. The industry does not expect massive growth in this channel, but they expect it to more than hold its own.”
