Eddie Smith, operations director for the Alliance of Mortgage Packagers and Distributors (AMPD), said that lenders clearly found the easiest way to secure distribution was to sign a deal with a packager and he had seen a lot of activity that lead him to believe this relationship would evolve into lenders buying into that side of the market.
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He said: “It’s an interesting scenario to consider and I can see people not in the mortgage market and who are commercially minded becoming interested in this area and getting involved. AMPD will do £4 billion of business this year, which is a big slice of the market and a lot bigger than the lenders that court us. Obviously, if it happened, packager independence would have to be maintained, as they wouldn’t want to be forced down the route of having to sell the lenders products.”
However, Smith stated no lender had approached AMPD with such a proposition, though it would always be open to talks on possible avenues of development.
Vic Jannels, chairman for the Professional Mortgage Packagers Association (PMPA), commented: “From our point of view, it’s not just lenders; other sources will want to get access to distribution. I have been saying for some time that packaging is the new distribution and we expect people to want to buy into and secure distribution. Both small and large lenders, and potentially people we don’t see in the mortgage market right now, will come in sooner rather than later.”
