The intermediary community has been challenged to embrace a wider range of technological enhancements to help better understand customer behaviour and further client engagement, the Financial Services Expo London heard on Wednesday (16 September).

Speaking in a seminar entitled, ‘The future of mortgage transactions through the lens of emerging technology’ at this year’s Financial Service Expo (FSE) London, Mark Lofthouse, CEO at Mortgage Brain, said that despite many technological improvements already being utilised within the mortgage market, from point of sale through to back office support, more integration should be considered.

He said: “Can we, the industry, make another step change to take us forward with further system integration? The answer is always and we must continue to embrace change. Technology offers the biggest source of efficiency, and I don’t know exactly what types of technology individual brokers are using, but I can hazard a guess that many brokers are only using 20% to 30% of what’s in front of them. So I urge brokers to find out more about what’s already out there and best utilise it where possible.”

When questioned if property portals such as Rightmove or Zoopla could be a threat to intermediary business, Oliver Kenton, director of creative and experience at Ernst Young moved to quickly dismiss this notion.

“I don’t see them as being a direct threat to the broker industry but I think the advantage they do have is being the first port of call for potential buyers on the home-buying journey,” he said.

“In addition to helping people find houses they can also provide valuable insight and education but as a complex transaction which happens only a handful of times over a lifetime people still require a strong level of help and expertise that only brokers can provide.”