With more than 25 years’ experience in financial services – including the last decade in mortgages, Mark Evans believes he is well-placed to turn the newly-launched mortgage division of the Lighthouse Group into the leading light of the mortgage industry.
The group has always focused its attention on the regulated sectors of the market, which to date have covered financial products such as investments and pensions. But with Mortgage Day just around the corner, the company believes that now is the perfect opportunity to tap into this market. The new division – Lighthouse Loan – was launched at the beginning of the year and now has more than 200 brokers, while the group as a whole has a total of 600.
Evans, executive director of mortgage services at the Lighthouse Group, stepped into the role earlier this year, from Abbey for Intermediaries, where he worked as national mortgage manager. He is looking to build Lighthouse’s mortgage lending to £2.5bn within 12 months.
“We are starting from scratch,” he says. “The challenge is to build a good service from small beginnings to a large and profitable business.”
After leaving school, Evans headed to Potters Bar in London, where he secured his first job as an insurance broker. He says of the experience: “It got me into the industry, and taught me what it is like to deal with members of the public. And it was a good grounding for when I went on to work for a lender.” Evans’ career has also included a stint at Royal & SunAlliance, where he progressed to take on roles such as marketing services manager and mortgage market manager. He also worked at Scottish Mutual, where he helped the company break into the mortgage market.
At Abbey, Evans was responsible for the company’s intermediary mortgage club, which he played a key role in growing from scratch to £4.5bn, in less than three years.
He admits that since arriving at Lighthouse, he has experienced a significant cultural change. “Abbey is a huge organisation compared to Lighthouse, but this is one of the very positive aspects of the move,” he explains. “It means that I will be able to play a big part in moving the company forward. I would like to build the best mortgage service in the marketplace for IFAs. This does not mean the biggest as there are companies that write more business than us, but it means a quality service for IFAs which offers a full range of lending products, protection, general insurance, and any other auxiliary services or products that we can provide.”
Other parts of the Lighthouse Group – which has three main operational centres, in London, Brighton, and Exeter – include Lighthouse Practices, the network Berkley Wodehouse Associates (BWA), and Temple Financial Planning.
The group was established in October 2000 as a national independent wealth management group listed on the Alternative Investment Market (AIM), with 100 independent financial advisers, most of whom are now appointed representatives of BWA, but some are authorised with Lighthouse Independent Financial Advisers.
In March 2002, it acquired BWA Holdings, an established national network trading as Berkeley Wodehouse Assocations.
Lighthouse prides itself on always looking for opportunities to expand and enhance its services and is in the process of introducing a new computer system for brokers, worth several million pounds.
Evans says: “Technology is the way ahead, but it is going to be a gradual process. During the next couple of years, the industry will move towards a fully electronic business system and paper will disappear.”
However, he adds: “While we want to have the right technology and make it very easy for IFAs to do business with us, we still need the right people and will not take technology so far that clients are left feeling remote.”
One of the most rewarding aspects of the mortgage sector is that it is a people-based industry, says Evans. “One of the reasons I joined Lighthouse was because I was impressed with the people. It is an organisation that looks as though it really wants to go places.”
He confesses that leaving Abbey was taking a risk, but adds: “I was happy at Abbey and enjoyed working there, but this opportunity came along and it was too good to miss.
“It was not a decision I took lightly, because when you leave a company like Abbey, you give up a lot of security and benefits. I am not saying the rewards here are not that good as they will probably be better, but I did give up a lot of security.”
But he says: “When the opportunity came along, I was ripe for the challenge. I wanted to play a part in driving a company forward, rather than focusing on one particular area of a business.”
The people at Lighthouse played a major role in Evan’s final decision. “No matter how much technology or changes come in to the industry, it is essentially a people’s business and the people who do really well are those that build personal relationships alongside technology and everything else,” he says.
Evans considers many of the people that he initially met through his business dealings as close friends and he now plays rugby against some of them – Evans is chairman of the Hoylake Rugby club, where he coaches the team he was once captain of.
So where does Evans think the property market is heading? In spite of all the predictions about the market dropping during the past 18 months, he points out that house prices have continued to rise. But he admits that a slowdown has begun, particularly at the top end of the market – although he agrees with many other commentators that there will be lower, but nevertheless respectable growth, rather than a market crash.
“This is not just wishful thinking. The economic environment is very different to the last market crash and we are able to cope much better with rising house prices. Interest rate rises are now beginning to take effect and there may be price drops in some sectors of the market and in some geographical areas, but there is not going to be a major housing crash.”
Evans also believes that equity release and flexible mortgages will remain popular trends in the marketplace. “Equity release is ideal for networks like ourselves who will be looking to offer as many services as we can,” he says. “And flexible features will continue to be in demand – even on non-flexible products where more flexible options will be introduced.”
Concerning regulation, Evans believes this will not be a problem for companies who already have the correct infrastructure in place. He explains: “Many brokers have essentially been operating as if regulated while operating under MCCB rules and so will not experience a major shock when regulation comes in.”
But he adds: “There are many mortgage brokers who have not decided what they are going to do with regard to regulation. They are leaving it a bit late and are tending to put their head in the sand. There is a huge opportunity for people with the right offerings, and we are a network that is expecting a last minute rush and so we have put extra procedures in place, such as extra staff to cope with this.”
Lighthouse Loan is not just about providing standard mortgages and protection services, but wants to be seen as having a much wider offering. For example, the company is already putting in links with commercial brokers and is investigating other areas such as services for equity release. “We want to forge good working relationships with providers in each of these areas that will provide good business and revenue for our members and the network,” concludes Evans.
