The adviser firm also highlighted that it was already introducing technology to smooth its processes and that it was using Open Banking to get customers “mortgage ready”.
Speaking at the Building Societies Association annual conference, Mojo Mortgages co-founder and CEO Richard Hayes said the firm was “immensely focused” on customer experience.
“As a business I think a lot of intermediaries have been guilty in the past of saying ‘We need your APIs (application programming interfaces) before we can evolve our business,” he said.
“We’ve taken things into our own hands, so if you’ve not got an API then we’ll look at things like robotic automation.
“We’re trying to evolve our business as quick as we possibly can for the benefit of customers, and if you guys get around to building APIs then great, there’s maybe an efficiency gain for us, but let’s try and deliver that customer experience as quickly as we possibly can.”
Make customers mortgage ready
Hayes added that if the mortgage experience was not better in five years then Mojo had failed in its goal.
And on the subject of Open Banking he noted that while lenders and the wider banking industry had been slow to embrace it, Mojo was taking advantage of it to help customers.
“We’re focusing heavily on utilising Open Banking, not as part of the application process but as part of getting customers mortgage ready,” Hayes continued.
“If you’re spending £250 per month at the bookies then that’s not going to help you with your mortgage application, if you’re going to within £1 of your balance every single month that’s not going to help with your mortgage application.
“It’s that inciteful information that creates future mortgage customers.”
He added that this was a simple and important proposition to explain to customers and that utilising Open Banking in this way would make it much more appealing and likely to take off.
Resistance from big banks
Hayes also suggested that banks were unwilling to promote Open Banking as they feared it would reduce their ability to monetise their current account customers.
This was echoed by FirstHomeCoach CEO and co-founder Ben Leonard, who said banks were a “really good example of how we shouldn’t do things”.
He highlighted that it had taken eight years to work through the resistance to Open Banking from the sector.
“Having been part of the Open Banking working group at HSBC and sat through the resistance, it’s been interesting to watch it coming into the market as a banking tool,” he said.
“It’s not a banking tool, we mis-labelled it, only now are we starting to think propositionally.
“We should have started thinking: at what point in your life is there value in sharing banking and transaction data with a third party, and then working around that.
“You don’t need to tell them it’s Open Banking, you just contextualise how it’s being used in a way that helps them,” he added.
