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Product withdrawals at short notice damaging broker-client relationships, says head “Fewer products mean less choice for consumers”
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udden product withdrawals in response to volatile economic conditions are causing major disruption for brokers as well as additional stress for clients, according to Jonathan Stinton, head of intermediary relationships at Coventry Building Society. Speaking to Mortgage Introducer, Stinton said products were being pulled at short notice and putting brokers in a difficult position with clients. “What brokers are facing on a day-to-day basis, not knowing from one day to the next if the product they’ve recommended 10 minutes ago was going to be there by 5 pm, is going to have a massive impact on their own personal work and professional lives,” he said. “If that product gets pulled at a very short notice, they have to go through that whole advice process again … [causing] massive stress for clients as well.” The comments come after the recent findings by property data provider Moneyfacts that show that there were 518 fewer products for borrowers to choose from in March compared to the start of February, representing the biggest monthly fall in choice since May 2020, during the onset of the COVID pandemic. Moneyfacts said the level of product choice had
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“[Lenders are] trying to hold on to the service standards and trying to hold on to an element of commerciality, and the two just aren’t working together because there’s too much demand for the availability of the processing capacity with some of them” taken “a nose-dive,” noting that some providers had pulled “whole LTV brackets,” with one of them temporarily withdrawing its entire range. Crucially, mortgage product shelf-life had plummeted by 14 days, from 42 to just 28, “giving prospective mortgage customers just a short period to secure their chosen deal.” It also suggested that providers could “tighten their lending belts” even further to mitigate the risk of default in the wake of the cost-of-living crisis and volatile economic conditions. But Stinton said fewer products meant less choice for consumers. He said, “It’s never a good thing. Unfortunately, you’re seeing some lenders www.mortgageintroducer.com
