The panel debate at the inaugural Financial Services Expo in the AMI-IMLA seminar theatre, consisted of industry heavyweights John Cupis from Sesame PMS, Jeremy Duncombe from L&G, Mark Graves from Pink, Nigel Stockton from Countrywide and Gemma Harle from TenetLime.
When quizzed, all panel members outlined a number of emerging opportunities for intermediaries to significantly enhance their business in the year ahead as they all predicted a rise in the intermediary market share.
Commenting on potential gross lending figures for 2014, Stockton was especially bullish. He said: “I expect gross lending to be over £190bn which will bring with it opportunities for brokers to grow their business by anything up to 20%.”
Graves agreed, citing the rising split of intermediary business as a huge positive for the market, he said:: “If business is not up by 10% next year then it’s fair to say that opportunities are being wasted.”
Duncombe was a little more reserved in his estimations with a prediction of £180-£185bn gross lending for 2014 but agreed that opportunities for intermediaries were plentiful especially within the remortgage and protection sectors.
Cupis felt a £190bn gross lending figure was somewhat optimistic, commenting that £170bn-£175bn might be a more realistic achievement. Looking forward he did agree there was great potential for intermediaries to build their business and urged intermediary firms to stay close to their preferred distribution partners for support with the impact of MMR.
When asked what brokers should be focusing on in 2014, Harle said that quality of business was key and emphasised the importance of imparting a more holistic advice process to help future-proof their business.
