FMO have seen a significant increase in the receipt of electronic mortgage application forms via their links with Trigold, Dashboard and its web site, but they are not prepared to turn their back on the mortgage brokers who have supported them by giving an ultimatum that they will not accept hard copy mortgage applications. FMO will still accept paper applications for the foreseeable future, probably for at least two years.
David Espin, compliance and training director at FMO, said: “Over the past year or so we have invested heavily in the technology to accommodate electronic mortgage application forms, and whilst we have seen considerable increases in business we still account for over 60 per cent by hard copy application forms. Of course we welcome electronic applications, however, we are completely focussed on providing a high level of service to all brokers and we understand that some brokers still prefer paper-based systems and we are happy to accommodate them, certainly for the next 18 months to 2 years.
"Clearly there are significant economies by accepting mortgage applications by electronic data transfer, and this method of processing mortgage applications is significantly more profitable than receiving paper applications where we have to input the application onto our system. However, there are still very many mortgage brokers in our market, the sub-prime market, still transacting business using the postal service, and are not yet tooled up to transact this type of business electronically and we will not simply force them down a route that presently they are not prepared for."
Having said this, our commitment to technology solutions is second to none and any mortgage broker visiting the FMO web site will see that with over 200 strategic partners, 350 products and services and almost 10,000 pages we have the most comprehensive and technologically advanced electronic business transaction platforms available to mortgage brokers."
