Brokers, borrowers dismiss fee for service
Customers of mortgage brokers are almost universally happy with the service they have received, and are unconcerned that brokers are paid commissions and trailing commissions by lenders, a recent industry survey has indicated. These are some of the findings outlined in the 'Consumer Access to Mortgages report' published by Momentum Intelligence, part of a media stable that publishes The Adviser, a niche title for mortgage and finance brokers, and several other real estate and investment titles.The report states up front that its objective is "to consider consumer satisfaction and the implications for Australian borrowers from any change to the current remuneration structure of mortgage brokers."According to the report, replacing a A$2000 commission to a broker (the average payment by a lender to a broker for an average home loan) with a fee for service that would take just $100 out of their own pockets was a step too far for the majority (58 per cent) of the respondents.Predictably, a high majority (96 per cent) of survey respondents who used a broker were:• happy with their experience;• very likely to use a broker next time; and • showed no appetite to pay any upfront fee at all. In a further attempt to count the Banking Royal Commission's revelations of poorly managed incentive schemes for brokers, the report drew on three years of "Third-Party Lending Reports" - also published by Momentum Intelligence - to validate what it described as "consumer sentiments around the negligible influence that commission has on which lenders the broker recommends."These reports assert that "commission structure and remuneration are consistently ranked as two of the least influencing factors of attributes that influence a mortgage broker's decision to recommend a lender."The factors that are most influential in a broker's choice of lender are product policy, product pricing and turnaround times, the report suggested.