LOAN INTRODUCER
SECOND CHARGE
Why apps will be the next big thing for second charges Matt Meecham Chief digital officer, Evolution Money
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f you are anything like me, the chances are you have downloaded an app – or several – over the past month or so. Whether it be to order your Saturday night takeaway, check the weather, or entertain the kids, there seems to be an app for almost any purpose. Astonishingly, figures from app data agency Sensor Tower show that worldwide, app users spent the equivalent of 53 million years using the top 500 apps during the third quarter of 2021 alone. Its research also shows that, since the start of 2019, no category has seen faster download growth than finance apps. This is perhaps not surprising given the rise in online banking in recent years. According to comparison site Finder.com, 93 per cent of the UK adult population will be using some form of online banking by the end of 2022. Furthermore, as of January 2022, over a quarter – 27 per cent – of British adults were customers of a digital-only bank, the equivalent of 14 million people. Finder expects this figure to climb to 19 million by the end of this year. Digital banking is no longer a niche – at least not to your clients, who are no doubt well informed and practised when it comes to online banking, downloading, and using apps. It’s time we saw this crossover into the mortgage and second-charge space also. We have seen some slightly chaotic scenes in the first-charge mortgage market over the last few months
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as some lenders have struggled to cope with the influx of enquiries and to maintain service levels. Numerous hours have been wasted by borrowers, advisers, and lenders manually inputting and chasing borrower details that could easily be collected digitally.
There is no doubt that lockdown accelerated the use of fintech in both the first- and second-charge mortgage sectors, but it’s important that now, as the pandemic recedes, we keep this moving at a fast pace and push the digital journey along. Figures from the Finance & Leasing www.mortgageintroducer.com
