The survey revealed a shift in change in intermediaries’ views on the business outlook for the coming 12 months. The survey, a follow-up to a similar one conducted in April this year, has revealed that 47% of intermediaries believe that business levels in 2006 will increase, compared to 35% who said the same nine months ago. A mere 10% of those surveyed this month said that business for 2006 will decline, compared to 30% who thought the same in April 2005.
One year on from the introduction of regulation, intermediary’s views on whether it’s proved to be a positive move have also declined. When asked in April, 75% of intermediaries said that the introduction of regulation would be a good thing for the mortgage advice industry. When asked again this month, intermediaries seemed less encouraged with 70% saying regulation was a good thing.
Mark Lofthouse, CEO of Mortgage Brain, comments, “Although the introduction of regulation has put more pressure on intermediaries, and initially, increased their workload, the results of our follow-up survey show encouraging signs that confidence is much higher and that business levels will be on the rise in 2006. The fact that fewer intermediaries believe the introduction of regulation was good for the industry might be down to the fact that the jury is still out on whether the increased cost of regulation has been matched by the anticipated benefits.”
The survey has also revealed an increase in the use of technology and mortgage sourcing systems. Eighty per cent of those surveyed this month said that compliance has increased their use of software within their everyday working environment, compared to 74% when asked in April. And sourcing systems remain firm favourites for intermediaries when generating KFIs, with more relying on them now (70%) than they did in April (67%). In comparison, the use of lender websites for KFI generation is declining with only 27% of those surveyed using them, down from 30% in April.
