Technology from outside the market is one of the biggest challenges to established firms, Duncombe today told delegates at the Mortgage Solutions Mortgage and Protection Event in London.
It means that brokers can not rest on their laurels, despite the current good business conditions. He added that firms should now work to bust myths among consumers to ensure borrowers know brokers give the best advice.
He told The Mortgage and Protection Event: “We are trying to adapt and stand out from the rest.
“And our rest is not just other mortgage brokers, it’s not just lenders, it’s the people we probably haven’t even heard of coming into the market place.
“It’s robo-advice… there’s lots of people challenging us. Ultimately, we as a community, we as a broker market, we need to adapt, we need to stand out from the rest.”
Value of a broker
It comes as L&G’s Value of a Broker research found that 90% of people said in the future they may trust a robot to give mortgage advice.
And fewer than half of people correctly knew that a broker worked primarily for the borrowers – with more than a quarter of people believing brokers worked for a lender.
Furthermore, one in seven thought going to the lender direct gave them access to the same impartial advice they would get from a broker.
Duncome said the findings showed that not enough people understood the value of a broker and that the market must not be complacent.
He said: “A robot cannot generate a personal long-term relationship. We need to advise that, we need to shout that out a lot more to our customers.”
Join us for the next Mortgage and Protection Events in Manchester, Birmingham and Southampton over the next two weeks.
Find all our Mortgage and Protection Events coverage at #TMPE17.
