Speaking to brokers at the Pink Network conference, Sard said that the market must adapt. He said Abbey was not afraid to innovate with new products and technology, but admitted that such innovation carries a risk of failure.
“We are a big lender, we want to focus on quality and try and improve ourselves every day. Sometimes we do, sometimes we fail, we know that. But if you don’t recognise your failures you will never recover and never get better.
“We want to be the partner of choice for brokers, not just a lender. We cannot do that without innovation. We are trying, and sometimes it is difficult, to do new things. Some ideas we think are fantastic but then brokers say they don’t like them, while other ones they really get behind.
“We need to be doing things and innovating our products and technology to improve our service.”
Talking about Abbey’s moves to reward quality brokers with higher proc fees, Sard said that the policy would help drive up standards in the intermediary sector.
“For us, in terms of quality, we need to be sure we are protecting customers and thus protecting intermediaries. We need to be sure everyone is doing things right.
“We need to be a provider who gives the customer good value, and value isn’t just money. I’m delighted that brokers are giving customers good value, which means value for brokers too.”
