Bankers beating brokers at their own game?

Brokers credit their expertise and value add for helping them win back market share, but one lender is warning that the big banks are now utilizing similar tactics.

Brokers are quick to point to their knowledge and expertise as the reason the industry is winning back market share, but one industry player believes the banks are catching up in that area.

“It’s a misnomer – and I know we like to believe that the financial institutions can never provide the same kind of service that a mortgage broker can but I’m not really sure about the validity and accuracy of that way of thinking,” Boris Bozic, president and CEO of Merix told MortgageBrokerNews.ca. “Financial institutions spend a lot of money on training; look at all the (big banks) and how they’ve grown their proprietary sales forces.”

That’s not to say that brokers aren’t upping their own game and the public is taking notice, however.

Bozic believes the industry, as a whole, is helping draw attention to the value that a broker provides – through advertising, industry events, and industry organizations.

“There is no doubt the brokers out there today, the really good ones, are hustling, they’re providing exceptions service,” Bozic said. “There are a number of brokers who are really running their business like a business – they’re saying we’re not a bank; we’re experts in a certain niche, in a certain market sector and saying ‘that’s where we want to go out and really dominate.’”

And the public is taking note.

“It terms of mortgage originations, 52 per cent of mortgages were from banks, with 34 per cent from mortgage brokers  (and  the  remainder  from  credit  unions, life  insurance  or  trust  companies,  and  other lenders),” CAAMP’s annual spring report states.
Moreover, brokers are the current leader in winning first-time homebuyer business, with 39 per cent choosing to work with them.