Julie Gaskin, corporate relations manager for GMAC-RFC, said brokers had no option but to change their working behaviour, otherwise they would be setting up their clients for disappointment when rates were no longer available.
She added that currently rates should be seen from the point of view that they might not be available the next day.
Lenders have faced widespread criticism from brokers for pulling products at short notice, but Gaskin said that this was an inevitable and necessary result of the constrictions of funding and lenders sometimes had no choice.
She said: “It is not the responsibility for lenders alone. If we can educate brokers about funding, then brokers can educate clients.
“The current market is an adjustment for everyone. Those that bury their heads will upset their clients. It’s a collective responsibility of everyone in the industry to educate. Brokers that are successful are educating themselves.”
She said that giving brokers 24 hours’ notice should be sufficient time and added: “We try to be honest. This is the time that we need to keep the trust going and advise brokers about rates and that this is the market going forward.”
However, Thomas Reeh, chief executive of blackandwhite.co.uk, branded Gaskin’s comments as ‘laughable’.
He said: “The fact of the matter is that lenders have significantly increased rates, while LIBOR has come down 100 basis points and that has not been passed on to the consumer. Post-August, lenders have taken the opportunity to up fees and they can’t say the margin hasn’t come back in – it has.
"There is a big disconnect between how lenders and brokers work. What they are doing is putting shareholders’ interests above all else. I think if the regulator is serious about ‘Treating Customers Fairly’, it should step in and say there should be minimum time lines.”
