Covid-19 has driven the industry to re-imagine what can be achieved, enabling great technological advances to cope with surging demand and streamline the process.
Collaborative innovation
None of these advances would have been possible without collaboration, it has facilitated tech developments within months which could have taken years independently.
We’ve seen organisations across the industry pooling their collective knowledge and existing tools together to develop better products and services.
Promisingly, this collaboration is happening in all four corners of the industry. The HM Land Registry (HMLR) recently sought advice for the development of their charge registration products; and the Solicitor’s Regulation Authority (SRA) are leading industry groups which are working to bring technology solutions to small businesses.
Automation
One of the tanglible developments fuelled by collaboration is the widespread adoption of automation. This automation has facilitated change, helping the industry process high levels of purchase cases while managing a disparate workforce.
On the remortgage side of the market, automation has also progressed greatly. At LMS, we are in the final stages of developing the first, fully automated remortgage from offer to completion, which will create assurances, increase capacity, and allow for the early identification of complex cases.
Alongside automation, there have been additional developments and innovations to alleviate some of the pressure on the industry during one of the busiest times in the market’s history.
Developments have been made to facilitate the clickless transfer of Certificate of Title, HM Land Registry and mortgage offer data, as well as to automate individual processes improving speed, service and capacity whilst reducing risk. This offers both quick wins of immediate support, and longer-term products and partnerships to support long-term strategy.
Fraud prevention
As well as working to improve efficiencies and reduce pressure across the mortgage process, an area the industry continues to collaborate on is fraud prevention.
When business processes moved online, the way fraud could be committed broadened and the industry was forced to respond. Tools to mitigate these risks like identity and bank account checks have been improved, as well as updates to internal processes and systems to better safeguard transactions.
With hybrid working set to stay, there is a collective responsibility to work together and utilise existing technologies to manage this threat.
Overall, what began as a challenging start for the mortgage industry in terms of surging activity levels and the sudden move to hybrid work, followed with a wider adoption of technology which has created significant results to improve the efficiency and safety of the industry.
As we move into 2022, the future looks bright. The industry will continue to collaborate and be proactive, making sure they take advantage of the wide range of technologies available to continue to adapt to the ever-changing market.
