Mortgage Soup fires the questions at Liz Syms, CEO of Connect for Intermediaries.
Mortgage Soup (MS): Can you tell us a little bit about Connect and yourself?
Liz Syms (LS): Connect is a leading specialist mortgage network with over 300 network members who provide advice to customers for both mainstream mortgages and protection, but also specialist lending such as complex buy-to-let, commercial, bridge loans and second charges.
I founded Connect in 1998, starting as an adviser and growing the business over the last 26 years to where it is today. I have always had an interest in tech and how it can support the mortgage process.
MS: How important is technology to help you run your network, and how specifically does OMS support Connect?
LS: We use a range of tools at Connect that assist in all different ways. These include standard adviser tools such as sourcing for research and a range of due diligence tools to help us meet the regulators requirements as a network.
What has been key about OMS is that it has become the hub of all our data, both the client application data and also our work and communications with the adviser. Most of the tools we use are integrated in OMS helping the advisers to be more efficient, such as minimising re-keying and access to information such as the credit reports and verifying information in a way that does not rely on clients having to take action.
“I have always had an interest in tech and how it can support the mortgage process”
MS: How has OMS supported you with regulatory changes like Consumer Duty?
LS: Each company’s processes and needs are different, so the ability to customise OMS to meet our network’s needs and processes is essential. OMS created a new Consumer Duty area that we were able to fully customise to gather the data we need to gather.
We are also able to report on any area of the data in OMS allowing us to meet the FCA evidence requirements.
MS: Connect also specialises in providing specialist finance solutions such as bridging, second charges and equity release – how does OMS help your business to offer these product types to your customers?
LS: OMS recognises the different fact-finding needs for these specialist products. This allows the adviser to select the appropriate fact-finding framework and see the fields that are appropriate for that product, which is valuable to ensure the right information is being gathered and the correct advice given.
MS: As we approach 2025, what do you foresee in terms of how technology can support businesses like yours even more?
LS: I love the fact that OMS are forward thinking with their integrations and are always willing to look at partnering in ways that improve the system to the benefit of the adviser, for example, its recent integration with AI tech from Sikoia.
I decided a while back it was prohibitive to develop our own software from scratch. So I chose OMS as so much of the system can be fully customised to our needs and their continued investment in developing the product and keeping up with the latest technology available helps us to help our clients and advisers in the best way possible.
