The role Intermediaries play in product transfers

February 2024

Intermediaries play a key role, including with product transfers

The intermediary mortgage sector is starting 2024 in better health and with more confidence than 12 months ago. While there may well be further, unexpected challenges to overcome, (such as the surprise rise in inflation in January) the consensus is that the worst is over for both the economy and the mortgage market.

It’s heartening to see that our market recovery has been underpinned by intermediaries. The most recent data from the Intermediary Mortgage Lenders Association (IMLA) has predicted that mortgage intermediaries’ share of lending will keep rising this year from 84% to 89% and expects it to top 90% in 2025.

Drilling down into the data further we find that residential lending accounted for around two-thirds of intermediaries’ business, with Buy to Let about a quarter and specialist lending  around 8%. Within residential lending there was a slight increase in the proportion of product transfers.

What does this tell us? Quite simply that intermediary advice is fundamental in the UK mortgage market. Over the past few years, when mortgage applicants have faced challenges which they may not have ever come across before, intermediaries have been vital in guiding them to the most suitable mortgage solutions available.

However, this doesn’t mean that any recovery will be at the expense of intermediaries; the data indicates that even in times of economic improvement, borrowers still recognise the importance of independent advice.

Acknowledgement

The product transfer market  continues to grow with brokers on average advising and arranging many more product transfers than they did three years ago. Intermediaries will be at the front of the queue to correct any misapprehension that product transfers don’t require any work or time on their part; the reality is that advising on a product transfer (or a further advance, for that matter) requires largely the same process as a standard case. While they may not take as long as a remortgage to another lender, they still take time and effort, and it’s only fair that this should be acknowledged.

That’s why at Bank of Ireland, we’ve made changes in order to fully recognise the hard work and important role that intermediaries undertake in supporting their clients with product transfer and further advance applications. We’ve increased our proc fee for product transfers and further advances from 0.25% to 0.30% and also recently released new product transfer rates.

Of course, while a fair proc fee is important, intermediaries also want and deserve to deal with an efficient process for product transfers and further advances. That’s why we’ve recently made a significant investment in our online platform to improve the servicing capabilities for intermediaries and their clients. 

Improvements include the new ‘Working With Us’ hub which delivers access to all the resources required for every stage of the application process. Plus we’ve launched Intermediary Live Chat, to give brokers support with queries at the pre-application stage.

In addition to this we also now allow customers to book product transfer rates up to six months before the end of their current deal, so brokers’ clients can be reassured that they’ll seamlessly transfer to a new product well before their existing deal ends.

We all hope and expect 2024 to be a better year for intermediaries in terms of business volumes – and income. At Bank of Ireland we acknowledge brokers are a fundamental part of the recovery and ongoing support to customers. We’re here to help them navigate the coming year.  Check out our new working with us hub and click here to find out more about our product transfers and further advances. 

Alan Longhorn

Head of Sales, Distribution & Marketing, Bank of Ireland for Intermediaries