The Intermediary – August 2026 - Flipbook - Page 92
T E C H N O L O GY
Opinion
Better broker support,
he mortgage market
has invested heavily
in technology for
years, not least because
progress has been so
elevated in this area.
Faster systems, automated decisionmaking, digital documentation and
more sophisticated data all have an
important role to play in creating a
smoother experience for advisers and
their clients.
The Government’s roadmap to
improve the homebuying and selling
process rightly acknowledges the
importance of digital transformation,
and there is no doubt technology will
continue to help remove friction from
the transaction journey.
However, one assumption oen
accompanies those advances – namely
that as technology improves, the need
for people somehow diminishes.
From where I sit, the opposite
is proving to be true. Technology
has become exceptionally good
at improving administration,
automating routine tasks and speeding
up processes. What it struggles with
is replacing experience, judgement
and the reassurance that comes from
speaking to someone who understands
both the case in front of them and the
wider context surrounding it.
That is why I believe the best
lenders of the future will not simply
invest in beer technology. They will
invest equally in the people who help
advisers make the most of it.
T
Questions answered
When advisers contact a lender, it
is rarely because they cannot find a
product or read a piece of criteria.
More oen than not, they want
to understand why something
has happened, whether a case is
progressing as expected or what
needs to happen next to keep it
moving. Sometimes it is simply about
having confidence that somebody is
taking ownership of an application
and helping to remove obstacles
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The Intermediary | August 2026
before they become delays. Those
conversations maer, because
advisers are managing far more than
a mortgage application. They are
managing expectations, timescales
and relationships with landlord
borrower clients who may have
complex needs and, quite rightly,
expect regular updates throughout the
process.
That means good adviser
support should never be viewed
simply as answering telephone
calls or responding to e-mails. It
is about becoming another pair of
experienced eyes on an application,
identifying issues early, maintaining
communication between everyone
involved and helping cases continue
to move towards completion. In many
respects, certainty has become just as
valuable as speed.
A role to play
While some homebuying and selling
process improvements will require
legislative reform, many do not.
The mortgage industry already has
opportunities to improve customer
journeys by looking closely at the
processes it controls.
Technology is one example,
whether through digital applications,
automated valuation models (AVMs)
or more sophisticated case tracking,
but communication is equally
Digital innovation
should absolutely remain
a priority [...] Equally,
advisers should continue
to expect lenders to
invest in knowledgeable
people who understand
specialist lending”
ROB STANTON
is sales and distribution
director at Landbay
important. Many avoidable delays
occur not because underwriting is
particularly complicated, but because
information has not reached the right
person quickly enough, a document
has been overlooked, or an issue has
not been identified until much later in
the application.
That is where experienced support
teams can make a genuine difference
by keeping everyone informed,
maintaining momentum and helping
advisers resolve issues before they
affect their clients.
Tech and personal
At Landbay, we recently launched a
dedicated Telephone Sales Team to
complement the work already carried
out by our BDMs and internal sales
teams.
The decision was not driven by a
belief that technology had reached its
limits. Quite the opposite. It reflected
our view that as digital capability
continues to improve, the value of
knowledgeable, proactive support
becomes even greater.
The team’s role is not simply to
answer questions. It is to support
advisers throughout the application
journey by maintaining regular
contact, helping manage lending
pipelines, identifying potential issues
early and ensuring applications
