She told delegates at the Royal Armouries for Mortgage Business Expo Leeds 2016 that technology is both an advancement and a threat for mortgage brokers because they could be cut out of the equation altogether if they don’t contact their customers before the lender.
Brokers must fight off competition from lenders’ ever-improving execution-only systems to get remortgage business, Leeds Building Society’s head of intermediary distribution Louisa Sedgwick warned this morning.
She told delegates at the Royal Armouries for Mortgage Business Expo Leeds 2016 that technology is both an advancement and a threat for mortgage brokers because they could be cut out of the equation altogether if they don’t contact their customers before the lender.
Sedgwick said: “My concern is you are going to have lenders with fantastic retention strategies and the question is then do we need brokers?"
She added: “The risks of not remortgaging customers are the smarter execution-only tools that lenders are bringing to the market.
“If you don’t get to them they will. Some lenders will write to your customers three or four months in advance to deal with them directly.”
She told the audience that buyers are currently overly cautious about getting a mortgage because of scare stories in the press so brokers need to make sure they get the message out that now is the best time to remortgage.
Indeed, with the uncertainty of the EU referendum on the horizon she expectedrates to rise in the next few months.
Sedgwick said: “Rates are probably at rock bottom. Looking at the wider world and funding markets they are cut as low as they can get now and as soon as things like swap rates start to change and funding starts to become a little bit more complex interest rates will start to rise.
“As lenders squeeze their margins they will start to rise, I can guarantee that, so there has never been a better time for your customers to remortgage.
"They just need educating."
