L&G recently updated and rebranded its Smartrfit mortgage criteria sourcing platform to become Ignite, with added features including a product comparison function, affordability calculator and a property checking tool.
When asked by Mortgage Solutions why L&G had not developed its technology in this way sooner, Jodie White, head of product and transformation, said the firm initially launched Smartrfit for “operational efficiency”.
She said its mortgage support services team had nine people taking more than 100,000 calls a year from brokers who did not know where to place a case.
White said: “We were maintaining it manually in the background and it was growing arms and legs. So, we built it online to self-serve internally and figured out that it was really helpful externally. That’s why we did that.
“The feedback from brokers was that affordability was another area, as they were checking five or six different affordability calculators and going to the same lenders which takes too much time.”
She said L&G then built an affordability tool and realised products were the missing part, which is why it came last.
White added: “I can see that some people are wondering ‘why did you do it that way?’ But it’s done us quite a few favours because we were experts in the other things which gave us a more rounded view of how sourcing should look.
“We’ve tried not to stick to the parameters of what today’s sourcing is. We’ve looked at where the pain points are for brokers, what they can’t see now and questioned all of that.”
A new direction
White has worked for L&G for nearly 18 years, first joining in a telephone support role for brokers.
She said she had “incrementally grown” with the company and found herself in the tech team four years ago.
White said: “It was a real directional change for L&G, we’ve never sort of built, owned, maintained and gone out to market with tech, so it was massive for us and we kind of fell into that. Now we’ve absolutely got a path for where we want to be and why we want to do it.”
Last year, L&G underwent a restructuring which saw its mortgage club, tech and surveying divisions grouped under L&G Mortgage Services.
White said: “All three of them have got a really strong look at the housing market. Each department has good relationships with both broker partners, surveying partners and also lenders.
“Between us, we’ve got a really good chance to look at the market and how we can help. That’s where we’re coming from in terms of what we can do to save time and make the process a bit slicker.”
Not held back by legacy
White said it was beneficial that L&G did not have a legacy system it needed to build around and add functions to.
She said systems which had been built during a certain period could be “of their time” although the advice journey and customer behaviours have changed since.
White added: “To build a tech platform that’s constantly having to be maintained and change is difficult.
“Brokers are having conversations with customers who want their advice and guidance but they haven’t got one cohesive system they can give that advice from.”
White continued: “An example of that is we’ve got brokers who might have an older customer in their 60s, who unfortunately still has a mortgage. The broker has to think about whether a longer term with a local building society might be more beneficial, a retirement interest-only product or equity release.
“There’s not one system that can tell them [the broker] all of that at the moment.”
White said there was nothing which allowed a broker to compare all the aspects of a client’s circumstances equally and that was an area L&G was working towards next.
She said the Ignite platform had some of that functionality as users could look at remortgages, product transfers and second charges all at the same time to see which would be more suited to clients.
White said the tool also allowed brokers to give compliance teams an end-to-end view of the advice process and how a decision was reached.
She said L&G was also working on integrating the platform and giving a retrospective view of historic products so it can be shown that it was the best option at the time.
Changing the culture
White said the way the system populated its sourcing was slightly different too, as most lenders sent details to be uploaded which could lead to a delay, while Ignite worked on a “self-serve model”.
She added: “What they do is go into our system through a portal then upload their current products which go live within seconds.
“It’s just as easy as attaching something to an email. That comes with its challenges, if I’m being honest, we’re trying to be really brave and change a culture but obviously the lenders need to come on board and be engaged.”
She said this process was “working really well” so far as lenders understood the need for up-to-date information in the current fast-moving market.
White said L&G’s advisers would still be able to use the sourcing systems they preferred as there was “no global domination plan”, but said with the cost of living in mind, it was “refreshing” that Ignite could be provided for free.
She added: “We’re wanting to do it for the right reasons, so our commercial model is slightly different. We don’t charge brokers for it and we sell advertising to lenders to fund what we’re doing.
“So again, it’s changing that culture and the opinion that you have to pay for quality. I can attest that we are doing the best we can in terms of quality, development and maintenance but we’re still free. We’re doing it because we want to free up brokers’ time and allow them to advise on other things like protection.”
White said Ignite stood out as it was product-led and focused on the circumstances of clients.
“It allows advisers to have a more holistic view over circumstances and not just be product driven,” she added.
White said this was the direction the market was moving in and in the background, it was being noted by L&G that lenders were also looking at other ways to serve borrowers.
She said: “They’re looking at affordability and how to help customers in certain circumstances. They’re also looking at whether they can push their risk boundaries a little more in areas where they feel comfortable.
“We are helping them to see where they can service more customers depending on their risk portfolio, like changing their stress rate.”
Ignite is integrated into One Mortgage System and plans to join other CRM systems in the future.
L&G also wants to make the data it has more useful to brokers and their customers.
White said anecdotally, around 11 per cent of cases were not placed with the right lender the first time, so the firm wanted to help reduce that happening.
She said L&G was leveraging its relationships with lenders to aid with this.
