In a statement released ahead of MAB’s annual general meeting today, non-executive chair Katherine Innes Ker, said: “In an ongoing challenging environment, we continue to demonstrate the strength of MAB’s model and resilience in adviser numbers and mortgage completions against a significantly weaker market backdrop. This positions the group well for subsequent market recovery.”
She said that adviser numbers had stabilized in Q2 at around 2,122. This compares to around 2,046 advisers in the same period last year and 2,129 advisers in its full-year results for 2022.
Innes Ker continued that it expected its existing Appointed Representative (AR) firms to grow their adviser numbers later in the year as “consumer confidence improves further” and there is more certainty on the outlook for mortgage interest rates.
She added that the pipeline of incoming ARs had “grown strongly this year”.
Innes Ker said that total mortgage completions for the firm in Q1 2023 were £5.8bn, which is “broadly stable” compared to last year’s figure of £5.9bn.
New mortgage completions came to £4.4bn, down from £4.9bn in the same period in 2022.
Around £1.4bn came from product transfers, up from £1bn in the previous year.
Innes Ker said that MAB had “continued to grow our market share, which has been achieved despite a reduction in the number of advisers since Q4 2022”.
She continued: “During the six months following the mini Budget, new mortgage approvals across the market were down by as much as 40 per cent versus the prior year.
“There are early signs of increasing activity and mortgage approval levels have now gradually started to improve, but remain significantly lower than for the equivalent period last year.”
Innes Ker said that MAB’s performance was “in line with the board’s expectations” and “further improvement was expected” in the second half of the year.
