The firm canvassed individuals from 17 lenders and 79 per cent believed paying a retention fee would become the norm over the next few years, while just 3 per cent believed the opposite.
68 per cent also believed lenders should offer the same deals to both new and existing customers, which Troika claimed would require a major change in stance from the industry.
Simon Kent, head of retail banking at Troika, said: “The introduction of retention fees across the board would represent a major step-change for the mortgage industry.
“While the respondents expressed a view that the common treatment of customers is ideal, it may not be possible to achieve this while new business has such thin margins and the industry continues to use market share as a measure of success.”
Linda Will, managing director at Accord, said: “Retention fees will become standard practice, but there’s no point in offering them if you are not going to give the broker a product as good as what a new customer would get.”
However, Paul Howard, director of intermediary sales at The Mortgage Works, argued: “To offer retention fees would require a complete re-think of pricing, especially in the prime market. The margins are very thin so you would have to make the product more expensive.”
