Letter to the editor
Personally I cannot understand why the dual pricing war of words is continuing. Christopher Woolard, director of policy, risk and research, the FCA is on record as saying ‘We want firms to do the right thing for their customers, while keeping them and the integrity of the markets they operate in at the heart of everything they do’.
Where does the practice of dual pricing fit in with this? Customers should be free to choose a lender’s products fairly and transparently. What does it mean to them when a lender’s, otherwise exactly similar, products are priced differently through different channels? Most likely it demoralises and confuses them.
A far cry from the notion of customer engagement that the industry is expected to encourage nowadays. The way that dual pricing is being debated in the press would suggest that the whole thing is the product of a stand-off between lenders and distributors. A couple of years ago lenders were in the ascendant and dual pricing was prevalent in their own favour. Now we are being told that a quarter of brokers are expecting a ‘positive’ dual pricing swing ‘in favour of the intermediary channel’ while 18% think lenders will continue to price in their own favour. Such, it appears, is the culture of our market today and it’s not pretty. Some estimates suggest that lenders total annual capacity for origination and processing is in the region of £80bn.
If that is the case, it is glaringly obvious that with £200bn forecasted for 2014, intermediaries are essential to a healthy and orderly market. After all, price is not the only lever that lenders have to control distribution and there is much more to mortgage loan profitability than the channels through which cases are sourced. So why tinker with pricing to score short-term wins at the expense of healthy markets and engaged consumers?
Mortgage distribution needs a level playing field. I have said before that lenders and intermediaries should agree a protocol to ensure customers sit at the centre of their combined strategies and collaborate to ensure they get the very best that the mortgage industry has to offer. This continued bickering discredits all involved and looks far removed from FCA objectives.
Francis Mogg, director, Promoco
Microbusinesses turn to payday loans for funding as faith in banks declines
So there we have it… the government slams pay day loan lenders in the media… but do they mean it?
The government supposedly tells the banks they have to lend all that money they got on the cheap from the Bank of England… but do they mean it again?
And we have a crazy situation where SMEs have to go down possibly the worst route of all, ruining their credit history for future mortgages and other borrowing purposes whilst the banks recover their capital positions from all the cheap money that was intended for lending.
Just when will the government get a grip on what is REALLY happening out there for small businesses in a great many cases, rather than turning a blind eye and kneeling (at lunch, no doubt) to bank bosses who evidently keep the government and Treasury under wraps… quelle surprise!
Now who runs the country, eh?
Paul Fielding
Aviva pulls life broker hospitality fearful of FCA rules
So, no more hospitality then – not sure I’m gonna miss it much, as never received any in 20 years!!
The Rocket
Lloyds boss defends £1.7m bonus
Hmmm, interesting that the boss of non-part state owned Barclays declined to take his bonus but this is in the interests of us tax payers?
Good Mortgage Man
