At the recent British Mortgage Senate, there was a real focus on future world technology, and how this will change the way we work and how fast that change will come.
I was impressed at the amount of advanced technology already in existence, and it was thought-provoking to consider the absolute speed that this whirlwind of technology is developing, and how we will need to adapt to a new way of looking after clients.
Even though the process can be automated, to offer a seamless house buying process there is still the need to bring together all the relevant parties linked to that process.
Wake-up call
A demonstration showing the ability of a robo-adviser talking to a customer and asking relevant questions on credit card choice, concluded with a recommendation of the most suitable deal.
It was a fascinating wake-up call.
Obviously the simplicity of credit card choice is vastly different to a mortgage transaction, but eventually that complex process could be broken down by technology. As always when our world changes gear, we need to adapt our models to work with new technology and use it to our advantage.
It may well be possible for a reasonable percentage of transactions to go straight through with new technology, but we also know not every case is straightforward and human intervention will still be needed for the wide variety of complicated scenarios. For these cases a speeding up of the actual process will be a great thing for everyone.
Testing times
I put this theory to the test. I thought upgrading my mobile phone in a well-known phone retailer would now be a very slick process, and it was.
Finger signatures on several screens, no paper required, and then just as I thought this could easily be adapted to a mortgage transaction, the transaction could not be verified. The human then made numerous phone calls to various verification teams and after three hours managed to solve the problem.
Apparently it often happens, which was strangely reassuring.
