With over 60% of mortgage loans being sold via intermediaries, quick decisions and efficient and effective information and document transfer between lenders and intermediairies are of vital importance both to the mortgage industry and to borrowers.
IMLA’s latest survey of technology use by intermediariesrevealed a number of clear pointers as to trends within the sector. While many applications were already widely used, there was scope to harness technology to help in a number of areas: case tracking; provision of a full online application system; and use of simpliflied registration techniques such as provided by Unipass.
As expected, computers were an essential part of the intermediary’s office equipment, with 85% using an office PC and 54% a laptop computer, but take-up of other technology solutions among intermediaries was proving less rapid. For example, just 8% of them used a pocket computer or other handheld device (Blackberry, Palm, etc). .
Peter Williams, executive director of IMLA, said: “Intermediaries are investing in the right equipment for the type of work they do. For example, appointed representatives (ARs) are more likely to be on the go and the survey shows that more ARs use portables than directly authorised firms.”
However, when asked about their use of customer relationship management systems, 55% of respondents indicated that they did not use such a system even though the survey reveals they see case tracking as of key importance. Of those who did use a system, Office Web was the most popular, mentioned by 11%, followed by 1st Software at 7% and Dashboard at 5%.
With the steady growth in the use of technology within the financial services sector, digital certification techniques are increasingly being used by advisers as a ‘skeleton key’ to access mortgage providers’ websites. 55% of advisers were familiar with the single Unipass digital certificate from ORIGO giving them access to a range of sites, although a larger proportion of directly authorised respondents are conversant with Unipass than of appointed representatives (60%, compared with 51%).
Peter Williams continued: “While this appears to show a reasonable degree of awareness on the part of intermediaries, not all of them are actively using Unipass. Our research also highlights the fact that more than a fifth of intermediaries do not even know what Unipass is. Technology is the way of the future for the mortgage market and it’s vital that intermediaries keep ahead of the game in terms of using technology solutions. At IMLA, we’re committed to working with the intermediary and lender sector to encourage take-up of solutions such as this that can make everyone’s life easier. In 2007, IMLA will be working with AMI to secure greater take up of Unipass by both lenders and intermediaries.”
The survey showed that intermediaries’ use of technology continued to grow. 55% of them reported that they submitted more than half their mortgage applications online. There has been significant growth in the proportion of online applications since last summer, up from 46% in June 2006 to 53% now, an increase that is largely due to strong growth in online applications from respondents from directly authorised firms. Only 5.5% of intermediaries said that they don’t use online decisioning systems at all. 55% of them use five or more different lenders’ systems, and 27% use three or four of them.
Many intermediaries provided their clients the option of arranging their mortgages outside ‘normal’ working hours, with a small but significant percentage of business being conducted either before 9 am (3.6%), between 5 and 7 pm (6.5%), or after 7 pm (5.8%).
Peter Williams commented: “A key differentiator for many intermediaries is their willingness to be flexible in order to meet their clients’ needs – and that includes making themselves available before or after the normal working day. Thus we see that many of them use online decisioning systems extensively before 9 am or after 5 pm.”
Finally, intermediaries were asked what future enhancements from lenders would assist the future growth of their business. Top of the list came improved case tracking, mentioned by 28.2% of respondents.
A full online application system was favoured by almost a quarter of respondents (24%). Easier sign-on using systems such as Unipass attracted 14% of responses, and point of sale offers 9%.
Peter Williams concluded: “Technology plays an increasingly important role in the mortgage industry and intermediaries and lenders are increasingly embracing technology to streamline the process, control costs and improve service. At IMLA we are keen to support initiatives to raise the use of technology in the sector, which will benefit intermediaries and their customers, as well as lenders. One of our key plans for 2007 is to work with AMI and with intermediaries in general to achieve these goals. We want to drive forward the efficiency agenda in the industry. ”
