An odd suggestion to help monolines better compete with banks

It’s a tactic that lenders – and their underwriters – may not be too keen to implement, but one broker is suggesting his lender partners take a page out of the bank playbook.

One broker believes increased lender wait times could be addressed by lenders who choose to stay open on the weekends.

“I think seasonality and low rates are definitely contributing to longer wait times, but they are big enough and they should be able to prepare for these factors,” Joe Cutura of Dominion Lending Centres Origin told MortgageBrokerNews.ca. “Maybe the broker lenders could stay open on Saturdays – that way they don’t have to hire more staff and incur more training costs and still provide better service.”

Increased wait times are a perennial concern for brokers, especially during the busy summer season. And that trend is just being exacerbated by record-low rates that are drawing clients to the market.

Still, according to a recent MortgageBrokerNews.ca poll 61 per cent of brokers say monolines have faster turnaround times, compared to 38 per cent who argue the banks do.

For his part, Cutura – a former big-bank employee – remembers being able to quickly push deals through as a banker when the need arose.

“Working at RBC we were mandated to give an answer to a submission within two business days, but it could be expedited when we needed to,” Cutura said. “Sometimes within a matter of hours.”

Last year’s Brokers on Lenders issue revealed brokers gave an average score of 3.7 out of a possible five for lender turnaround times, compared to an overall average score of 3.84 for all categories. The top seven were monoline lenders.

This year’s Brokers on Lenders survey is set to launch next week – will the results reflect the growing frustrating around turnaround times? Keep an eye out for the survey link next week.