In an exclusive One to One interview with Mortgage Solutions, the broker product boss, said: “True product innovation is always difficult, especially in a market as mature as ours.
“A lender’s main way of communicating their products is through sourcing systems and unfortunately, these tend to be a bit limited in the dimensions they can use to show a product to a broker.”
McAvan uses the example of Accord’s latest online tracker fixed rate, launched this week, which tracks base rate for two years, then switches to a three-year fixed rate for the rest of the term.
“On sourcing systems, we have to list these as five year Bank of England trackers, not an area of the market where customers are particularly looking. As lenders will only look to create new products that sell in the market, then effectively we are somewhat bound by what will source well and what won’t,” he said.
He added: “I believe an improved relationship between lenders, brokers, and the sourcing system providers will lead to an increase in the amount of product innovation in the market.”
Mortgage Brain and TrigoldCrystal were unavailable for comment.
Richard Hurst, newly-appointed marketing manager for mortgage sourcing system, The Core from Client Data Systems Group, said: “I think that it’s fair to say that the traditional sourcing engines have struggled to cope with products that fall outside of the norm. It’s a great shame for innovation to be stifled,” he said.
He added: “But I’m confident that the next generation of sourcing systems like The Core are far more flexible and should encourage innovation,” he said.
Where some systems have to list the product as either a tracker or a fixed rate, The Core has a hybrid product option, it confirmed.
“In our results screen this would be shown within the “Possible” screen,” added a CDS Group spokesman.
