Brokers the power is your hands to shape your market – Maeve Ward

by: Maeve Ward, managing director, residential mortgages, Shawbrook Bank
  • 15/12/2016
  • 0
Brokers the power is your hands to shape your market – Maeve Ward
First and second charge mortgage brokers are best positioned to see what products the market needs so it is time lenders started listening, writes Shawbrook Bank's Maeve Ward.

Lenders need to stop believing that cheapest rate equates to the best advice for the customer, because customers consider numerous life style factors when deciding on a product.

It is time for brokers to ask more from their lenders because nobody knows the market better than you do. You’re best placed to advise lenders of what the market needs, and in turn drive the much needed product innovation.

Those lenders willing to listen will be the ones best positioned to offer customers the best possible outcomes and will have earned their place on your panel as they bring something different to the table. This allows your customers to be more effectively serviced, and delivers greater flexibility in the products available to ensure they are more aligned to their needs.

Lenders and advisers alike, need to educate customers on how second charge mortgages can be a viable option. Perhaps rather than dropping the rates lenders could do more to serve the market by investing in awareness and education to assist with market growth.

Customers look at various aspects of a financial product, not just rate. The cost of monthly repayments, whether they can overpay, if early repayment charges apply and whether it can be ported at a later date, are some examples.

So why is it that lenders are choosing to focus on one of these deciding factors, the rate? Is cheapest rate, best advice? Only when everything else is equal. On top of this, continually changing rates also pose an operational nightmare for those of you with in-house systems; adjusting prices daily, updating paperwork, testing outputs and training staff to ensure that they are competent at all times.

This also potentially poses a poor outcome for customers, especially if you have recommended a second charge mortgage based upon the cheapest rate, only to find out down the line that it’s failed the lender’s criteria. Surely it’s worth considering whether minor rate changes are worthy of all this investment in resource, when it could be better spent creating awareness and education.

 

We all have an obligation to do more for the customer to ensure that they are protected, so let’s think beyond pure rate, deploy innovation and take meaningful steps to grow and educate the market.

If you are interested in finding out more and want to have your say on what the market really needs to best serve the customer, then register to speak to a lender looking to evolve the market, but also one who understands that there is nobody better placed than the specialists such as yourselves in terms of understanding what the market needs.

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