Lenders and brokers alike will need to adopt and embrace current technology to ensure they have a good foundation for adaptability and growth, experts have said.
Speaking at OMS Tech Talks, Nick Morrey, product owner at Aldermore, said that he thought technology in the mortgage sector would go into a “plateauing phase” in the near term.
He explained: “All the ideas are already out there, with lots of different providers offering various solutions. Everyone needs to start adopting them in one way, shape or form. You have to get to that stage before you then get interstellar travel, and the next big things start to happen.
“I can see some consolidation of providers. I can see some consolidation of lenders and brokerages. Those who’ve adopted things successfully and got them to work really efficiently to make profit will carry on. However, with actual technology, I think we’re at that point where nothing necessarily new is going to come over the next five or six years.”
Dale Jannels, OMS’ CEO, disagreed, noting that technology was changing every 18 months, and that timescale was expected to shorten.
“I think technology is growing so quickly that it’s going to be of real interest over the next two years, I reckon. But let’s just take one step back, we were talking about the one-minute mortgage back in the 1990s and early 2000s, we’re still talking about it today in 2024.
“Things now finally are starting to move ahead… There’s lots of things that are coming quite quickly. I think it’s a case of embracing change now, working out who your partner [is]… [who] you’re going to partner over the next 24 months, making sure they’re at the forefront of technology and they know what’s going on.
“They’ve got the funding and the backers to be there in two, three or four years’ time, because some of the people that are making a lot of noise in the market right now may not be there by the end of this year, maybe even by the end of next year.”
He said that choosing the right partners would be the “key thing for the next 24 months”.
Companies need to ‘wake up’ to technology-savvy modern consumers
Will Lloyd Hayward, group chief operating officer for Brightstar Financial and managing director for Sirus Group, said that one of the biggest trends for financial technology will be “out-of-date organisations and out-of-date systems and processes having to wake up to a modern consumer”.
He said that, for upcoming generations, “their life is done on their mobile phone”, and to cater for their needs, processes that are heavily paper-based would need to become digital and seamless, otherwise “businesses will fall over”.
“I think the trend is for people to actually realise that 2024 is going to become 2034 technology very quickly and it is the biggest opportunity for everyone,” he said.
Robert Oliver, distribution director for Dudley Building Society, noted that building societies of its size are “never going to be forging a path in the market” in terms of technology, but should be “fast followers”.
“I think a lot of building societies have got to understand robotic processes, and AI can help. We have to adapt to the marketplace, we’ve got to embrace technology and AI… We can’t keep doing the same thing over and over again,” he said.
Oliver said that building societies should evaluate their risk profiles and should be “taking more risks”.
“Let’s not keep doing the same thing as other building societies, we’ve got to do different things, but actually we’ve got to cater for those markets in a way that actually allows us to be a bit more sophisticated, but that’s where I think the big change will come,” he added.
Angela Hesketh, Pexa’s head of market development for the UK, said that, from here, perspective digitisation and having digital identity “across the piece” would be a big change for the mortgage market in the coming years, along with improvements in data, how it is shared and its reliability.
She mentioned having a payment scheme that is “fit for purpose” in the homemoving arena.
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.
