At various times, particularly over the last couple of years, we have seen a very frantic mortgage market.
Fast-paced doesn’t do it justice, with pricing moving very quickly, and some lenders looking underprepared for this, effectively chasing their own tails in order to get ahead of the prevailing winds that have blown through.
As advisers we understand that outlier events can happen, and sometimes there is very little that can be done.
However, what happens when these events become much more part of the norm? If lenders are having to deal with more of these market shifts, isn’t there a strong argument to suggest they become more adept at reacting to them?
That they see in advance the potential for these shifts, and they plan accordingly, in order to ease the burden not just on their staff and systems, but also advisers who provide the bulk of their business?
As the saying goes, planning and preparation prevent poor performance.
And yet, certainly for a number of lenders, this appears not to be happening. They are still seemingly incapable of looking ahead, and end up making a call at the final hour when presumably they could have worked this out days in advance.
Having to make seemingly knee-jerk product pulls with very little notice when they have previously committed to giving 48 hours, for example.
And yet, there are those that are capable of such adviser-friendly actions.
Coventry for Intermediaries who provide that much-needed and welcome 48 hour-product pull notice that can make all the difference when it comes to client servicing, and that all-important Consumer Duty-focused positive consumer outcome.
The fact we are able to highlight out the specific lenders, amongst hundreds, that are committed to this type of broker-friendly process, is indicative of the market in itself.
In other words, this is not the norm. Despite a lot of lip service being paid to this very issue – particularly back at the start of 2024 when the markets moved quickly and lenders followed suit – with a lot of communication suggesting pulling products with mere hours’ notice, or late on Fridays, or on the weekend, was truly the exception, we continue to see this all the time.
And the question must be asked, what confidence does this provide to the advisers that use these lenders?
Does the pulling of products, with effectively hours’ notice, suggest a lender that is on top of things?
One that has got its strategy and process right? That is able to look at what is happening in the round, and specifically, what business it is securing on a daily basis and plan accordingly?
Of course it doesn’t. And there is also a level of either arrogance or perhaps a simple dismissal of what advisers are being expected to do in such situations.
Feeling justified in pulling products on a Friday, and ‘providing’ the weekend for advisers to work on those applications, is not the benefit lenders might like to think it is.
Even if, as an adviser, you choose to work on a Saturday, it’s unlikely you’re doing so in order to drop everything and work on that lender’s applications.
You might have other priorities, such as perhaps seeing the clients you’d booked in to see, or working on other cases?
Advisers have come to expect this level of consideration from certain lender players, but it doesn’t stop this from being poor in the extreme, and showing a huge lack of understanding, or indeed, ignorance, or ‘couldn’t care less’ on what advisers have to do once such decisions are made.
We are not expecting lenders to move heaven and earth for us or our clients, but we are expecting them to keep to the commitments they were jumping over themselves to make, the last time this became a real problem.
The fact some have been so quick to forget or ignore this, doesn’t suggest they are running an efficient ship, fully conversant with their business levels and how they cope with them. Quite the opposite.
Advisers deserve better and so do our clients. If you’ve committed to giving us plenty of notice when you decide to pull products, the least you can do is stick to that.
Sebastian Murphy is group director at JLM Mortgage Services, the mortgage and protection network
