Hero
In darkened basement offices across the UK, hidden away from the limelight for fear of recognition sits some of the mortgage industries most influential people. They toil away regardless of weather, temperature or illness. While the more glamorous side of the industry is out wining and dining and demolishing the pretty little canapés, our guys and gals are soldiering on with just an egg mayonnaise sandwich and a plastic cup of machine-chilled water. Who are they? They are the data table compilers, the people who make sure all of our mortgage products get onto the right sections of the various sourcing systems. Without them we would all be lost, some of us cannot even remember a time when they were not around, we salute you and suggest you carry your job title such as ‘senior mortgage database analyst’ and ‘rates researcher’ with pride. You are the unsung warriors of the mortgage industry, the Jamie Carragher’s (I am a Liverpool fan) of the lending world, so lets all stand up and applaud them for they are the true heroes.
Zero
I am not the type to look for losers within our industry, in fact, I question if there are any? Looking to the wider world on the day that I write this the introduction of the Kyoto Treaty has hit the headlines. The Treaty commits industrialised nations to reducing emissions of greenhouse gases, principally carbon dioxide, by around 5.2 per cent below their 1990 levels over the next decade. It was always on a sticky wicket with the major so-called civilised nations finding it difficult to commit. It was dealt a major blow in 2001when good old George W ‘I love oil’ Bush went back on US’s previous commitment and said that the USA (who are responsible for 25 per cent of the total emissions) was unable to sign up. Things then went from bad to worse as Australian prime minister Paul Howard then said it couldn’t sign up for the good of its economy. So, when we in Britain are all wearing Hawaiian shirts and having a BBQ for Christmas dinner we can thank these pair.
