"I have no doubt that progress will continue in 2018 and beyond. There is plenty of untapped potential, but progress will be steady if not spectacular."
While recent headlines decided to concentrate on the new business figures being very slightly down in September, it conveniently masked the fact that after the same sort of dreary headlines at the beginning of the year, the industry has had a very good year to date with new business 11% ahead of the same nine months in 2016.
The growth level might not have pleased many who had bet heavily on receiving massive new business inflows. There was a mistaken belief among many that MCD, in relation to secured loans, would do most of the hard work for them and intermediaries would, with little actual thought, switch some of their remortgage business to secured loans.
However as recent history has shown, brokers are not that easily persuaded. The incremental and regular growth we have experienced this year has been down to hard work from lenders and providers like Fluent, working with brokers and helping them to see where a secured loan can work better for a client.
Rather than dwell on small reverses, I prefer to look at the year as a whole, and it has been a good year. I have no doubt that progress will continue in 2018 and beyond. There is plenty of untapped potential, but progress will be steady if not spectacular.
A favourite saying I like states, ‘One swallow does not a summer make’. In the case of the secured loan market, we have seen solid progress this year, but real success will only be measured when sustained over the longer term.
Roll on 2018!
