Each month, Mortgage Solutions and Specialist Lending Solutions sit down with a key intermediary industry figure to discuss strategy, opportunity for brokers and the mortgage marketplace.
This month, we are talking to Emma Roberts (pictured), head of intermediary relationships at Connect for Intermediaries.
Roberts has been with Connect for around four years, initially joining as a relationship manager and then becoming head of intermediary relationships in 2020.
Before that, she was at Positive Lending as a regional account manager for around four years, and prior to that, she was a national business development manager (BDM) for around three years.
How did you get into the mortgage industry?
Completely by chance, actually. I had worked in financial services previously at Santander and was, at the time, not in finance at all. I was speaking to a headhunter about a different type of industry altogether when a BDM role came up at Fluent Money, which is a large packager in the North West.
From my first interview, I loved that company and was thrilled to accept the position. It was the best decision I have ever made, because working at Fluent was the start of an incredible journey for me in the specialist finance industry, ultimately leading me to the fantastic role that I have at Connect today.
I actually met and got to know Liz Syms, the CEO of Connect, whilst I was in my first role at Fluent, back then. And it wasn’t actually that long ago there were few women at these events compared to men, so I think women sort of gravitated towards each other.
We kept in touch over the years, and when this opportunity came up at Connect, I was delighted to accept and have flourished under the leadership of Liz and our sales director Kevin Thomson. I am ever the optimist and believe everything happens for a reason. I have been fortunate that my journey in this industry has been a very positive one.
Connect covers a wide range of lending, including bridging, buy-to-let (BTL), commercial finance, later life lending, second charge and more. Are there any particular hotspots of activity, and where do you think the most innovation in the market is needed?
Yes we do, on top of the usual mainstream business coming in, we have seen a lot of bridging this year for various reasons. There are many brokers in the network who do lots of bridging finance and it has been positive when speaking to them to see that they are getting busier.
We have also seen a spike in second charge cases, which is no surprise really with the flexibility that second charge lenders offer, especially when coming out of a cost-of-living crisis. As a result, we recently took on a new head of second charges, Daniel Burdett, to lead our seconds team and further support our network members with this kind of business.
Due to stress testing and higher rates, we can see that affordability on BTLs is a challenge, particularly in the South East, meaning rental yields are being tightly squeezed. Some innovation around this would go down well, particularly around remortgaging for landlords that can find themselves mortgage prisoners due to the affordability challenges.
Connect offers support for mainstream and specialist advisers. Are you noticing more mainstream advisers wanting to upskill in specialist lending, and what are the best ways they can do that?
Yes, absolutely. We see this a lot. We are one of very few networks that give our members such a wide range of options when it comes to the advice that they can give. Our director of training, Jim Selley, has put together a fantastic training programme that runs monthly and has training days covering bridging and development and commercial finance. Our members have access to this training programme whenever they want it, whether that be to learn something new or as a refresher to sharpen up their knowledge.
Whilst our appointed representatives (AR) can write all types of business, we do have ARs within our network where they had a mainstream business with another network and, instead of moving everything, they have set up a “dual entity” business for their more specialist client cases under Connect. We are happy to support any broker that wishes to explore this as an option.
Connect currently has over 170 lenders on its panel. Are there other lenders or areas of the market that Connect wants to expand its coverage in?
Development finance is a focus for us as a network at the moment. We have for our members a bridging expert and commercial expert league, whereby brokers who are very competent and busy in these areas benefit from certain perks from the lenders and financially from the network.
This has worked so well that we are now looking to introduce a development expert league. The new government is talking about changes to planning laws, so if anything comes of that, it would hopefully lead to an increase in development finance cases, which would tie in well with our plans. We will have to wait and see about that, but our plans will go ahead regardless.
Proc fees have come under scrutiny in recent months due to the higher proportion product transfers (PTs) are taking up and the increased work that they require. Where does Connect stand on this?
Connect’s view is that lenders should recognise that a PT is not an execution-only transaction. A fact-find still needs to be gathered, full market research completed and advice still given on all the options. While the application process is simpler, the advisers generally pass some savings to the customer with a lower client fee. Overall, it is in the best interests of the customer to take advice from an adviser, but the fee and commission model doesn’t support this.
What are the main challenges and opportunities in the mortgage network space at the moment? How does Connect set itself apart from other networks?
One of the main challenges in the network space I think is that it can be very hard for brokers to move networks. You hear stories of networks making things very difficult for brokers when they want to leave, not paying them money owed and even charging hefty exit fees.
When a broker wants to move across to Connect, we work hard at our end to make the transition as smooth as possible. Our business recruitment manager, Tracy Robinson, will guide the broker through the process of onboarding and coordinate things at our end with other internal teams. We work very hard and constantly look at our proposition and innovate where needed to attract new brokers to the network, but also to make sure that the brokers with Connect feel well looked after, valued and have no desire to leave us.
With this in mind, we are one of few networks that runs an academy programme for new brokers entering the field of mortgage advice. This means that a newly qualified adviser with no experience can join Connect’s Academy and we will train and develop them to achieve CAS status.
It also has the advantage of allowing our existing firms to expand their recruitment offering to attract new brokers to the industry, which is something we all know is needed. Giving them the support with the early training means they can continue to run their day-to-day operations.
This programme works really well and it is a joy to see advisers starting their business from scratch and building it up with our support.
What is Connect’s strategy around distribution? Are you targeting new brokers/building on established relationships or a mixture of both?
Definitely a mixture of both. We have a fairly unique set-up, as within the network we have a specialist placement team that assists our network members with difficult to place cases, but we are also able to assist the wider broker market, and work as a packager for many other mortgage businesses outside of Connect.
We are growing as a network and are attracting some fantastic and well-established businesses as ARs, as well as always being happy to speak to other brokers looking for a packager or referral partner for cases that they can’t or don’t want to do.
What is the headcount for Connect at the moment and what are recruitment plans for the business? Are there any teams you would like to grow?
There are a few roles that we are recruiting for right now, including a specialist placement team manager to drive the business coming through our placement team and leads.
We are always open to talking to talented and passionate individuals for all teams, whether that be case managers, compliance professionals or mortgage advisers.
Like most businesses, we grow in line with the business needs, and since we have exciting growth plans for the network, we will inevitably need to grow our teams accordingly to service and support our brokers.
In the near term and long term, where do you see the biggest opportunities and challenges?
As mentioned earlier, there are big challenges around affordability and access to higher loan to values (LTVs) for clients, as well as the challenges around brokers’ flexibility to move networks.
There are so many opportunities, in terms of growth, for us – we will keep doing what we are doing; it works and is attracting the right people to work with us.
It is worth mentioning the opportunities around protection business going forward – as a network, we have a huge focus on this. Consumer Duty has rightly put a focus on protection, and as a network we work closely with our advisers to ensure they have the support they need to upskill them to write their own protection business, or if this is not an option for them, we have a proven and trusted referral partner.
What would you want brokers to know about Connect?
At Connect, we pride ourselves on giving our network members freedom of choice; they can take whatever permissions they choose and can write most types of business that they wish to.
We set ourselves apart with education as a core focus. This includes our revolving training programme, which is always being adapted to move with the times. We also work closely with lenders and providers to deliver relevant workshops and training sessions to give our brokers all the tools they need to succeed and grow their business.
The guidance, support and flexibility we offer also makes us a great network for any experienced broker looking to make that move from being an employed broker to going self-employed and setting up on their own.
Connect is here to help any broker in the market whether looking for a new network or for a packaging or referral partner. We are passionate about what we do and welcome conversations with any broker who wants to talk to us.
Anna is currently the deputy editor for Mortgage Solutions and editor for Specialist Lending Solutions. She has worked as a journalist since 2019, having secured her Gold Standard NCTJ diploma from News Associates in a fast-track six-month course.
She started her career as a report at specialist publication The Insurance Insider covering a wide range of areas before joining Mortgage Solutions and Specialist Lending Solutions in 2021.
In her role, she helps put together and structure the news agenda for the day and writes up press releases, reports, interviews, analyses and exclusives across both titles. She also commissions blogs for Specialist Lending Solutions and hosts online masterclasses and in-person events across the business.
She has been shortlisted for three journalism awards, which include BIBA Journalist and Media Awards Scoop of Year Award in 2020, Headline Money Mortgage Journalist of the Year Award (B2B) in 2022 and 2023.
Prior to being a journalist, Anna worked in ecommerce across Snow + Rock, Cycle Surgery and Runners Need websites, and before that worked at specialist financial PR firm Rostrum.
In her spare time, Anna enjoys reading, seeing live music, and cooking for friends and family. When she gets a chance, she also enjoys hiking, skiing and indoor rock climbing.
