According to a survey conducted by West Brom for Intermediaries, 71 per cent said a good site would sway their decision-making and 40 per cent admitted they would like to see lenders’ websites integrated with sourcing systems.
However, only 19 per cent said they would be happy to deal with a lender completely electronically, with the rest wanting some sort of human support.
Mark Lowndes, e-commerce manager at West Brom for Intermediaries, commented: “Without doubt, technology now sits at the very heart of every broker’s business. Brokers have fully embraced new technology and now use it as their primary business tool. 93 per cent either agree or strongly agree that technology makes life easier for them. However, brokers are not willing to give up personal support altogether.”
Electronic submissions were also becoming more popular, with 87 per cent of brokers conducting over half of their business electronically.
Also, 23 per cent said they used the Unipass system when processing business, which Bill Safran, CEO of Trigold, admitted was a surprise.
“I didn’t know so many brokers used Unipass. I knew it was popular on the insurance side but I didn’t know it was being used to that extent in the mortgage market.”
Bob Sturges, director of communications at Money Partners, said: “We think Unipass is an incredibly broker-friendly tool and we found it very easy to implement with our systems.”
