Ray Boulger

John Charcol

Technology will continue to develop rapidly. Many lenders will be playing catch-up, but with the benefit of being able to learn from the successes and failures of the early pioneers. By the end of the year, ongoing enhancements from the latter could well mean that for lower-risk borrowers where no non-electronic references are required, virtually instant electronic mortgage offers will be available from one or two lenders. This will be possible by the increasing adoption of electronic ID verification and increased reliability of automated valuations.

In terms of regulation, the FSA and DTI may at last agree a single regime for the sale of non-regulated products by regulated firms such as buy to let and second-charge loans.

The HIP trials could easily be a disaster, although the Government has probably already written the press release claiming a success. If the trial is large enough scale, it could prove very helpful in demonstrating the lack of sufficiently qualified home inspectors and highlighting to the Chancellor the loss of revenue from Stamp Duty Land Tax as a result of a significant fall in the number of housing transactions.

Stephen Smith,

Legal & General

In 2006, I hope to see rapid progress with the development of common standards for e-trading in the mortgage industry through a partnership of the lender and broker communities.

Such an approach has brought benefits in the insurance industries to product providers, to intermediaries and to their customers. The wholehearted support of the lender community would be helpful at this point, as we know the intermediary community is raring to go.

Beyond mortgage e-trading, I expect progress towards the Home Information Pack world to gather pace as the year goes on, with many propositions live and in the market from the middle of the year onwards. I hope that mortgage intermediaries are readying themselves for this fundamental change, and will continue to demonstrate they can add considerable value to consumers in the home-buying transaction by finding and advising on the most appropriate deal.

David Hollingworth

L&C

The new year looks set to start off at a sprint following a strong finish to 2005, which should spell good news for lenders, brokers and consumers alike. I expect remortgaging to stand up strongly once again with lenders already baring their teeth in this market. And with lenders eager to make a good start to the year, extremely competitive pricing looks likely to remain.

On a regulatory note, the follow-up FSA mystery shopping should show the industry if it is learning from any initial misunderstandings. On a wider scale, while the regulator has taken a realistic approach to the first 12 months or so of regulation, it could well start to make an example of those flagrantly failing to meet regulatory requirements. Notably, this will likely focus on financial promotions and the accuracy and timing of firm and product disclosures to customers.

Paul Holden

MortgageStream

The FSA has been at the helm now for more than a year and has taken pains to inspect, question, mystery shop and consult with the great and the good of the mortgage industry. I believe that over the next 12 months, mortgage brokers will see the FSA take steps to enforce refined rules and regulations fully.

Crucial areas are business systems and controls, and mortgage brokers must ensure that any advice given is documented and recorded in comprehensive, clear and unambiguous detail.

I believe 2006 is the year when the wheat will be sorted from the chaff and the FSA will impose immediate penalties on firms not toeing the regulatory line. Any businesses that still view the FSA as an irritation that will go away if they ignore it will be mightily surprised when they have their next FSA inspection.

Roger Hillier

Mortgage Express

I expect to see steady growth in the lifetime market over the 12 months. I anticipate business volumes will increase by around 15% on 2005 figures to approximately £130bn. Three or four new product providers may well enter the market and such increased competition improves customer choice.

On a more technical note, I expect the average loan size to remain similar to last year, around £50,000, as HPI will not change significantly. Reversions should build on their small increase of total sales in 2006, and their 6% Q3 2005 market share should edge nearer 8%.

There are fantastic lifetime mortgage fixed rates on offer now, and it would be helpful if money market rates remained low or even fell over the next 12 months to allow offerings even closer to 5.5%.

Bill Safran

Trigold

Last year saw a growing focus from sourcing systems to provide more accurate information and more powerful tools to the mortgage intermediary. This will continue in 2006 with new tools and services provided to advisers, further strengthening the role of sourcing systems at the heart of intermediaries’ sales processes. These advances are not in isolation, and rely on cooperation with other parties in the market.

This process will continue in 2006 with Trigold already launching the first of many developments for the year with its integration with Equifax in January. This development will deliver customer credit reports to advisers’ desktops to ensure accurate customer credit information for sourcing.

Other developments will build on these themes and will happen through the cooperation of lenders, advisers and technology providers, all working for a better, more accurate process.

Mark Lofthouse

Mortgage Brain

The adoption of electronic trading platforms will continue to rise rapidly. With the ability to complete an application form and receive an AIP decision in under a minute, this fast and efficient ‘right first time’ process is best for all concerned. Furthermore, I believe lenders will differentiate substantially between the fees they pay for electronic and paper-based applications, which will fast drive electronic as being the norm.

Many lenders and introducers are only just starting to ‘realise the reality’ since compliance was introduced. Introducers have technology-based compliance point-of-sale systems, but many do not use them fully, which must change. The main change, however, is that lender-produced key facts illustrations (KFIs) will be integrated with sourcing and point-of-sale systems through common trading platforms, and this will be the main way to provide KFIs. This will be particularly true for larger lenders and those providing more complex products such as adverse and buy to let.