FR: What do you think makes Norton stand out from the crowd within the industry?
We have a much larger range of lenders on our panel than most of our competitors. We also have our own lending facility, Norton Home Loans, which maximises conversion rates for our introducers through greater flexibility.
We offer other financial products to customers to increase the introducer’s revenue and find the right product for the customer’s circumstances. The company is now more than 40 years old and many of the individuals within Norton have around and in excess of 20 years experience with the company. We believe this is an essential component of achieving the conversion rates and service levels we do.
FR: Describe your average working day in five words or less?
Exciting, challenging, busy and varied.
FR: What do you predict for the regulation of secured lending?
The changes in March 2016 to mortgage regulation have been well documented and it’s just the exact detail that is to be decided in the consultation.
The FCA have been quite open about the fact that their style of regulation is much more intrusive and a number of brokers may be surprised regarding the intense level to which they will investigate companies either at authorization or during a thematic review. As always it will be the firms that are adhering to the principles who will fair better over the next few years.
FR: Secured lending has continued to rise over the last 12 months – why do you think the demand has continued to grow?
There has been increased demand from mortgage brokers looking to offer secured loans as an alternative to a remortgage. This has happened gradually as brokers have become more active in selling the benefits of a secured loan. Also, mortgage brokers have more confidence in offering secured loans now they are regulated by the FCA. There are many reasons why a secured loan is a better option when compared with a remortgage and brokers are becoming increasingly aware of this.
FR: With more lenders entering the market and the popularity of secured lending rising, do you think this has affected the ‘bespoke’ nature of service for consumers?
Additional lenders and better products can only be a good thing for the industry and for the consumer. The greater choice and availability of secured loans means it’s easier to find the right loan for the customer. The ability of lenders to look at individual customers’ circumstances and offer flexibility on criteria for all customers still remains in the industry.
FR: What products do you think we will be seeing by next year?
For the market to expand additional customers need to be catered for by expanding criteria’s. The main area for future product development I believe will be at higher loan to values. Even though some lenders will lend to 90/95%LTV currently these customers need a very good credit score. If near-prime customers with a small amount of adverse credit are accepted by lenders at the higher loan to value ranges then this should have a dramatic effect on the overall volume of lending.
FR: Have you got any big plans or exciting news coming up for Norton you can tell us about?
As always we are looking to grow substantially in 2015 for both our lending book and our brokerage. We have had a big increase in business from our introducing brokers, reflecting our flexibility around criteria and the certainty of payout from Norton. For the brokerage our sales team managing our introducing brokers will be expanding rapidly next year to cater for our ever growing product range.
FR: What advice would you give someone starting out in the industry?
Hard work is always the ingredient that brings success to any company and this combined with the aim of doing the right thing for a customer, finding the right product and achieving the best outcome is an essential part of surviving in the regulatory environment.
