IMLA’s change of direction – it spent the last two years focusing on funding – was decided at its first meeting of the year held in London yesterday where the executive committee agreed to put distribution at the top of its priority list.
John Heron, managing director of Paragon Mortgages and newly appointed chairman of IMLA, said the shift in focus came after members said they wanted to strengthen the relationship they had with brokers.
IMLA will now hold a series of member lunches with special guests from the major networks, clubs and directly authorised distributors.
Meetings are also planned with representatives from the Financial Services Authority, the Treasury and Bank of England.
“IMLA has felt it’s been fighting a war on many fronts since the credit crunch hit and we’ve been a bit on the back foot,” said Heron.
“But despite this, the feedback we had from members was surprisingly positive towards the end of last year. They value IMLA for its solid traditional strengths, networking opportunity, the fact that competitive lenders can sit round a table and thrash out market issues.
“The focus on intermediary distribution this year reflects those core strengths. We want to focus less on some of the specialist lender, non-bank and funding issues we have focused heavily on up to now, and more on rebuilding confidence in the intermediary sector and the relationships between lenders and intermediaries.”
IMLA also intends to meet regularly with the larger networks and key DA firms in the market to understand their priorities. While Heron also hopes to engage much more closely with the Association of Mortgage Intermediaries.
He said: “There have been times where lenders and intermediaries have been out of sync, picking out the worst in each other rather than building on the best. But the intermediary sector is fundamental to the UK mortgage market. Even at its lowest ebb it still accounts for more than 50% of the mortgage market.
“Advisers fulfil a vital function for the consumer. They do a job that lenders cannot do on their own: providing valuable information on all lenders and all products. We need to understand that value better and work on communicating that value within the industry and also externally.
“All too often mortgage intermediaries do get the rough end of the stick in policy discussions and occasionally in the national media. But they deliver great value to consumers and that is clearly to the benefit of everyone – lenders, brokers and consumers alike.”
