It’s a testing time for anyone involved in mortgages.
Borrowers, especially first time buyers, reluctantly have their social spending habits and future financial prospects scrutinized as house prices fluctuate while they wait for a decision on their mortgage application.
Lenders face yet more stringent FCA scrutiny following the MMR (Mortgage Market Review) that determines additional mortgage application checks.
All this while the UK government pitches in with help to buy schemes and pledging faster approvals for mortgage applications.
It’s a far cry from the 100%+, long term and interest only mortgages offered only a few years ago.
Whether or not you believe the financial crises was caused by irresponsible lending fueled by escalating bonuses, or simply due to lack of controls, or even a combination of both, housing, and therefore mortgages are back in the headlines.
Economists, financiers and industry analysts continually revise their economic forecasts as one part of the mortgage / housing affordability equation changes or shows signs of jittering. Hardly surprising as that is how they earn their living
As you read this blog, I’m sure, many lenders spreadsheets will be stressed testing ‘what if’ calculations to determine the effect the latest round of regulations will have on their mortgage application process and, as importantly, the staff costs associated with it .
The uncomfortable truth is no one can predict with any certainty whether we are about to witness another housing bubble, or another credit boom, based on house values, although the latter does look rather unlikely.
It’s a dilemma for politicians: they know only too well that a strong housing market can be a vote winner, while higher, some say more realistic, interest rates, might depress the green shoots of a ‘feel good’ economy that every investor is waiting for.
For those with, or needing, a mortgage, evaluating the risk, making a decision and hoping that in 20 years or so it turned out to be the right choice. The concern for the mortgage lending industry is much the same but obviously from a risk perspective.
In other words there are no guarantees. Or are there?
The software industry is adept at promoting efficiency improvements, ‘return on investment’ and rapid user adoption. Yet, however convincing the marketing, case studies or sales efforts are, many vendors almost always teeter on the edge of formally guaranteeing the benefits.
However, good the workflow, BPM or document management systems are trumpeted few, if any, vendors guarantee results or are capable of measuring in real-time the workforce activity, availability, capacity, skills and capability in to help balance the work load between individuals, teams and locations.
At a time when efficiency in providing a service, especially mortgage processing, – in house or outsourced – needs a guaranteed improvement it is something the software industry should be willing and able to provide.
eg does just that. Guaranteed operating efficiency improvements of up to 40% is something eg has offered and delivered for many years.
Learn more in our free PDF download
By the way how is that Excel macro coming on?
