The broker trade body noted that firms using such a restricted range of lenders may well come under scrutiny from the regulator.
Speaking at the Financial Services Expo, AMI chief executive Robert Sinclair said he had met firms which had used more than 100 lenders in the last year – “a phenomenal number”.
“I was with the FCA last week, where it cited a range of firms who’d used three lenders in the previous 12 months,” he said.
“Somewhere between the two is probably right.
“But the firm that only uses three is clearly on the FCA’s radar and at some point, when it does look into this market, those firms may well have their heads above the parapet.
“That’s where it becomes quite interesting because the data the regulator now has is so rich and so broad it can define all this quite easily,” he added.
Borrowers defaulting onto SVR
The subject was part of the lender panel debate which also discussed how brokers could improve customer support and retention when clients were approaching deal end.
Sinclair noted that two pieces of market research will be published relatively shortly which would shed some light on the subject.
“One of my biggest disappointments is people who have defaulted onto standard variable rates (SVR) who were introduced by intermediaries and have had no contact from that intermediary whatsoever,” he continued.
“We have to think carefully as a sector about how much we take ownership of that ourselves and how we get better at it. That’s a challenge that sits there.”
When an adviser leaves
Lenders explained their retention contact strategies and agreed that there were still too many brokers who did not maintain contact with clients after completing a deal.
“There is a lot that lenders are doing to support brokers, but, ultimately the broker has got to support what they do on a day-to-day basis,” said Accord mortgages director of intermediaries Jeremy Duncombe.
“We still see far too many cases which are coming direct and that’s not how we want it to be.”
Esther Dijkstra, director of strategic partnerships at Lloyds Bank, echoed this point, adding: “We see a lot of cases where advisers have left firms and then customers don’t know where to go or that relationship has not been maintained.
“So it’s a good thing, at firm level, to decide what do you do when your adviser leaves, where does that customer go?” she added.
