Last Thursday, the Association of Bridging Professionals (AOBP) held its first event of the year, where new and old school lenders went head to head on the issues present in the bridging finance market.
The AOBP Forum 2015 audience
For the third year running, the AOBP held a forum for lenders, brokers, valuers and solicitors to deliberate issues present in the short term finance market. However, this time, the panel was split into two teams, one for ‘old school’ lenders, and the other for, you guessed it, the ‘new school’.
The old school panellists consisted of Gavin Diamond of United Trust Bank, Andrew Bloom of Masthaven Bridging Finance and Duncan Kreeger of West One Loans, headed up by industry heavyweight Marc Goldberg of Lancashire Mortgage Corporation, who claimed during the evening, that the bridging industry is worth a staggering £4 billion.
Keith Aldridge of Amicus stood as team captain for the newbies, which featured Jonathan Sealey of Hope Capital, Mike Strange of Funding 365 and Richard Beenstock of Ortus Secured Finance.
Andrew Bloom and Mike Strange giving their views
Eight non-scripted questions were launched at the panellists by Chairman, Rob Jupp of Brightstar Financial, and one representative from each team provided their opinion. The audience then voted as to which team offered the best argument.
Rob Jupp chairing the event
Questions covered a range of issues, including whether bridging lenders had seen an increase in ‘gaming’ since MMR, why many lenders are unwilling to publish criteria-based pricing, and the levels of involvement lenders expect the introducer to have with the client, post-completion.
In regards to the latter, Duncan Kreeger added that it is vital that brokers stay involved and to look at clients long-term.
Another question, which Keith Aldridge answered during the Forum, was about the impact technology has on the bridging market. Keith responded that Amicus had invested a lot of money on its third software system, and that its funders love its approach to technology.
Later on, Mike Strange also claimed that the “AOBP and NACFB should come up with a list of lawyers,” when asked why the industry cannot get together to come up with an extensive list of valuers they are all prepared to use, in the era of treating customers fairly (TCF). Marc Goldberg added that the Association should put together a list of valuers, however lenders are entitled to choose.
With a majority vote from the audience, the new school team were crowned as the winners at the end of the forum, which was followed by further networking.
To read the article on the Forum’s panellists outcome predictions to the upcoming Election, click here.
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