Graves argued shorter, slicker underwriting and pay-out processes deliver lenders greater profit margins which they could pass on to brokers in the form of higher proc fees.
He said: “At the moment the only activity undertaken to assess quality is lenders benchmarking advisers. We have no system with a common rule to benchmark lenders’ quality and how long it takes to process a loan.”
Metrics which are used to assess the quality of brokers’ applications include; application to completion, decision-in-principle to application and arrears performance – measures designed to make sure brokers are thoroughly assessing borrowers’ circumstances and providing the most suitable solution.
Graves said that as lenders are happy to tell networks how much of a broker’s business has been rejected they should be prepared to publish their own rejection rates and how long it takes to process a case from receipt to pay out, so lenders can be compared against each other to see which ones perform the best.
He added: “It would be interesting to see if lenders would be prepared to share that information so their quality is as visible as brokers.”
