Imagine getting that email in your inbox first thing this morning!
I tell you what: for the sake of another thought-provoking, rib-jabbing article, let’s pretend that you did.
What would you do? How would you react?
Most likely you would go through the usual rollercoaster of emotions – shock, anger, denial. But after a while you’d probably also see the sense in updating your Linkedin profile, maybe consider long and hard about pivoting your business model or, more drastically, give some serious thought to retraining as an electrician.
But that’s exactly what happened the other day – and we were given three years notice. You may have missed it while setting up the film studio in your car so here it is again.
It was such a good article and absolutely on point that I had to double check to make sure I hadn’t written it. But no, it was actually from a lender and that fact alone is what makes the whole thing very interesting.
Look, I hate to say I told you so, but I told you so. I told you in this article from November.
In the two months since I wrote that, the UK’s biggest buy-to-let lender has announced clients can now go direct to them while the country’s largest residential lender unveiled significant cuts to PT proc fees in a clear signal about what business they are prepared to pay for.
Then last week you had Mark Eaton, COO of April Mortgages, giving the biggest heads-up about our future that I’ve ever seen:
“For decades, high street lenders publicly praised the broker channel while privately wishing they owned the customer relationship themselves.” A direct quote from Mark’s article.
“…banks foolishly surrendered the middle ground in their dash for market share but I have sneaky feeling that those same lenders might want some of that ground back.” A direct quote from my article in November.
The fight back that you refused to believe could happen, is happening.
I spoke to someone senior at a large lender just before Christmas and I asked them a pointed question: “Have we reached peak intermediation?”
A smile slowly formed at the edges of their mouth before turning it into a very confident grin. “We think so,” they replied.
WE. THINK. SO.
That’s not someone who has gone rogue saying that on a whim, it’s arguably the collective voice of many lenders. Rest assured, if you’re in a Whatsapp group with other brokers, then you must accept that heads of lending have a group as well. What I wouldn’t give to have a scroll through that!
Seriously, read the room people.
The naivety of the broking community never ceases to disappoint. Not about the good the work that you do, or the advice that you give nor the help and support you offer the borrower. That is never in question. But we are naïve about who we are, what we believe about ourselves and our perception of our place in the food chain.
After The Great Surrender War 2006-2026, when we were gifted the keys to the tuck shop, we have not moved intermediation forward one iota. Don’t @ me with CRMs or any other form of ‘Emperor’s New Clothes’. The actual job – how we interact and how we get paid for doing it – has not moved an inch forward. We’ve been lazy, become bloated on proc fees, gorged on commission and with no natural predator to keep us alert we’ve fallen asleep at the wheel.
The lenders, however, feel to me like they’ve been prepping. They’re on the front foot, they don’t seem scared anymore about the Wizard of Procs – they’ve looked behind the curtain and can see that he’s not match fit, his legs have gone and he looks more like Henry VIII than he does Cristiano Ronaldo.
“They need us more than we need them!” Bore off. Tell that to the textile workers of the North, the door-to-door encyclopaedia salesmen, typewriter manufacturers, Blockbusters, Nokia and all those switchboard operators connecting you to your aged aunt.
Please read Mark’s article carefully. As he says himself, its not the end of advice. But it is probably the beginning of the end of easy to reach, low-hanging commission.
If, after reading both articles you are still looking around the room to find the idiot to blame for the mess, be very careful.
It might just be you.
