It seems as if events in the mortgage marketplace are gathering pace following the traditional summer lull.
It began with the publication of CP146 in August, which was closely followed by the link-up between the Association of Independent Financial Advisers (AIFA) and The National Association of Mortgage Brokers and Advisers (NAMBA). And then last week, a deal was announced by Mortgage Brain Limited (MBL) and Mortgage 2000 which means they are to jointly develop a common mortgage trading platform for advisers.
The announcement means that MBL and Mortgage 2000 now have a fairly dominant position in this market as they both have serious financial backing and plenty of experience of technology with their respective sourcing systems. However, one of the other key players, Trigold, is remaining bullish about its own prospects and claims it is ahead of the game with its common trading platform. This is good news for mortgage advisers, as it means that their business is a highly prized commodity. It also suggests there will be a number of common trading platforms in the future, which can only be good for competition.
The deal was announced at The Mortgage Event, a series of national roadshows for mortgage brokers, co-hosted by Mortgage Solutions in association with the three biggest mortgage clubs in the UK. The events are promising to be the largest ever nationwide conferences of their kind and will be running through September and October.
It seems that rarely, if ever, has the focus of the industry been kept firmly on the future of mortgage advisers for so long. But this can only be good news for brokers as it goes some way to dispel fears that they are to be marginalised and pushed out of the market in the future.
It should also help to focus the minds of those advisers who have registered but are yet to pass their accredited professional qualifications, and according to the latest report from the Mortgage Code Compliance Board (MCCB), there are still a lot of brokers in this position. The MCCB has claimed that over 80,000 advisers have registered for the exams, of which only 33,000 have now passed.
The industry can only do so much to help.
