| SMS sees consolidation as the lifebelt to packagers |
| Solent Mortgage Services (SMS), has unveiled its proposition to fellow packagers which will enable them to provide ‘best of breed’ services to their intermediaries without the cost of the infrastructure. SMS is offering to provide all the facilities that packagers need including products, processing or systems, and access to SMS’s award winning technology platform, The Porthole.
SMS, which has one of the widest mortgage product ranges along with integrated services covering secured loans, commercial mortgages and debt solutions believes that the key to packager survival is to remove as much cost as possible while maintaining the integrity of the product and service offering. Ian Balfour, Sales & Marketing Director at SMS, said “The market has changed irrevocably. The traditional packager model which has been struggling for some years is well and truly dead and those companies who wish to prosper will have to bring control to the process, satisfy compliance regimes and provide audit trails along with quality of business that adds value to the lenders and distribution channels alike. They will also need to be able to get products to market in the most cost effective way.” He added “Companies face a future with fewer products to market and the pressure of ensuring that they can maintain relationships with lenders who are reviewing the number of packagers with whom they want to work. In my opinion with slimmer margins and reduced volumes, many packagers will not survive in their present form. However, the skills that they have developed in generating intermediary business are irreplaceable. Therefore we want to give packagers a chance to develop a new business model for themselves that enables them to plug into the best products and services and make use of the origination skills which have been so successful. It is a time for open and frank discussions on the future of our industry and where we fit in the value chain and SMS is happy to speak to our colleagues about the longer term.” |
