The Intermediary – October 2026 - Flipbook - Page 41
I N T E RV I E W
We can do this now. Previously, you’d have to
listen to every call – take senior, experienced
people off their own desk to do so.
“Technology enables people to be better and
to serve customers better, and get training that
is very specific to them.”
While the AI tool is spotting gaps and
training opportunities, it can also be pre-filling
a preliminary fact-find with the information the
broker is eliciting from the client, identifying
gaps that might need a follow-up.
Richardson continues: “It’s assistive. It’s
about helping brokers based on what ‘great’
looks like for that organisation, not generically.”
For compliance purposes, this means
checking 100% of calls to the same high
standard, and using these analytics to inform
improvements and training.
Connecting the dots
Finova has a hand in CRMs, broker connectivity,
origination and mortgage service, giving it an
advantage. Richardson says that tech firms
have, traditionally, improved individual parts of
the market, without properly connecting them.
While technology is not solely responsible,
it has contributed to the fragmented property
purchase process that plagues UK buyers.
The story is an old one: borrowers submit
documents multiple times to different
organisations, undergo repeated requests for
proof of income and ID, and are left with their
heads spinning by disparate communications
across different parties seemingly incapable of
getting on the same page.
Richardson envisions a future where
information is verified once and reused
throughout, with shared certification and
agreed industry standards. He points to the
work of the Open Property Data Association
(OPDA) as part of the solution to this
admittedly thorny problem.
To really work, change must come from both
the industry and policymakers.
Richardson says: “The smart property data
initiative has a real chance of changing a huge
amount of how we look at this, because we’ll
have certified trusted property information.
“This is where there’s a role for Government.
If it wasn’t so politicised, digital identity would
be a key cornerstone, open finance would be
a key cornerstone – not open banking, where
people have to register and don’t know who
they’re giving their information over to.
“That must then be backed by property data
that runs through the whole piece, with digital
ID tied to a title on a property, we’d cut out a
lot of delays.”
Better sourcing and more comprehensive
financial and property data will smooth the
process for borrowers, improve the initial
quality of applications and reduce the need
for corrections and additional work, while
wider data analytics could help lenders refine
their propositions based on the realities of the
borrowers they are trying to reach.
Richardson says: “A better quality of
applications means lenders can give more
certainty to the answer earlier, which then puts
pressure on lenders to implement straightthrough processing, and compete in unique
spaces to carve out that makes them different.”
The idea of earlier criteria matching, straightthrough processing and one-time document
verification will be music to the ears of
anyone who has bought a house. But data-led
decisioning sounds, to many brokers, a lot like
a door being closed on them.
Richardson is clear, though, that their role
will not disappear.
“Financial education is very low across the
UK in general,” he explains. “It doesn’t matter
how old or how young you are, there’s a bunch
of different major financial periods in your life
that people just do not understand. They need
brokers’ help.
“We can do some of this with tech, but really
what we’re doing is enabling people to have
better conversations and help those customers
in a better way.”
There is a clear distinction to be made
between AI supporting professional advice and
customers relying on their own interactions
with AI to answer questions without
appropriate safeguards.
This is one of the future challenges
Richardson sees the industry tackling –
sooner rather than later, considering that AI is
becoming ubiquitous.
Ultimately, brokers are not paid for their
ability to navigate lender portals.
Richardson concludes: “We’ve got this
intersection of regulation and tech coming
together that will affect the market, but
[brokers have] a fundamental role to make sure
that no one’s given a bad product.
“When the broker isn’t having to key in a
case, chase a BDM and argue about whether
the lending policy is correct and see whether
they’ll underwrite it or not, they’re able to
make sure that it’s the right product.
“At the moment, they do a really tough job
of trying to determine what the lending policy
is, sometimes through divination. Let’s fix that
and leave them to do the really good stuff of
educating and supporting the borrower.”
October 2026 | The Intermediary
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