February 2019
By Adam Tyler, executive chairman - FIBA
This month we have returned to one of the subjects that really sits behind the FIBA brand and that is for us to continue to raise the standards and professionalism within our industry. I want to pose some questions and highlight a number of areas, which I think are going to be important in the coming year and have already featured strongly in some of the events we have run in 2019.
We have now hosted four joint trade body meetings with ASTL, which also brought together our members, lender partners, professional partners and other industry service providers. This is far from a talking shop and practical outcomes have already been seen post theses focussed industry forums. This is not an area of finance that can seek standardisation, whether that is in terms of the information that lenders require from introducing brokers, through to the difficulties arising in the discussion of placement of bridging and development lenders onto the most simple of sourcing tools. However, we can help make it simpler and easier for the lenders to assess an initial enquiry, for our members to be able to make their way through the full range of lenders and even for a solicitor who is unfamiliar with our world to be assisted independently at the outset by industry experts. For example, one debate centred on the minimum amount of information that would allow a lender to give an in principle agreement, subject to the necessary verification. As there was so much variation in requirements, we know that we cannot enforce any party to adhere, but education and awareness will help everyone involved in that process.
As a result of the success of these London based meetings, we now want to regionalise these forums, and we will begin with one in Manchester in April, followed by Leeds in May, then Glasgow, Birmingham and Cardiff. We have, of course, scheduled another two in for the capital in conjunction with our colleagues at the ASTL.
Underwriting
Not a week goes by without a new bridging lender coming to market, and if you add in the growing number of commercial lenders entering the sector, as brokers, and indeed our customers, have never had it so good. Yet, there is always a yin to go with the yang in any situation and while the proliferation of lending sources is a cause for celebration, there is a growing underlying concern.
As far as I know, there is no seat of learning dedicated to the art of underwriting, no conveyor belt of newly minted and eager young underwriters, ready to fill the increasing demand for what is a very underrated talent. Where is the next generation of underwriters coming from? There is only so much poaching and moving that can be done and I know that an experienced underwriter is worth his or her “weight in gold” at present.
As an industry, lenders will have to look carefully at the currently available talent they have and the amount of work they are going to have to put into ensuring that the next generation is up to the task of making good consistent decisions. Therefore, what can we all do now to help, and in returning to an earlier topic above, how can this be combined with ensuring the information at the point of entry from the broker community meets the standards required?
This is the subject of a long running debate and as was pointed out to me yesterday by a truly eminent industry figure at our Lender Committee meeting, the two of us have been talking about this for 15 years. There is a lot to be said about on-going training and education, or as we should call it, continuing professional development and this has to be a consideration in the education debate.