Brokers that attended a workshop on Thursday, June 7, organised by Brightstar Financial, praised its aim to educate brokers about specialist lending.
Subjects covered on the day included complex examples of buy-to-let, remortgages, bridging lending and commercial mortgages.Michelle Westley, the head of marketing at Brightstar Financial, said that more brokers want to arrange specialist lending but may not have the necessary knowledge. The workshops enabled brokers to meet with lenders and learn how they could upgrade their knowledge skills. Westley recognises the need for partnerships between brokers and lenders, and said:
“Partnering with an expert can be so beneficial and feedback from brokers in our first workshop showed that a conversation with Brightstar can open up a wealth of opportunity.”
Brightstar is organising more workshops in 2018 in which brokers can discuss what they need to know to offer a more diverse range of financial products. The FCA is promoting financial inclusion and encouraging brokers to offer a wider range of services.
A threat to the industry that was discussed at the workshop was robo-advice, or automated systems that provide financial advice. Robo lending could impact some areas of mainstream borrowing, but more complex specialist loans cannot be handled by automated technology. There is still a need for human brokers to discuss lending requirements with borrowers.
Since many alternative lending deals are customised for an individual’s needs, a broker with a wide knowledge is able to give more targeted advice than current automated systems.
