Industry figures face off at AOBP forum

This year's first event for the Association of Bridging Professionals (AOBP) saw lenders debate the burning issues within the short term lending market

Section: News from the AOBP

This year’s first event for the Association of Bridging Professionals (AOBP) saw lenders debate the burning issues within the short term lending market. 

 

The Forum was led by AOBP Chairman, Rob Jupp, where eight of the industry's most prominent figures gathered and debated highly anticipated topics, such as lender transparency and the future of bridging.

 

The panel were far from short of answers, despite the lenders being forced to fight against a two-minute clock and it didn’t take long for a debate to get heated.

 

 

Picture: [Left to Right] Alan Cleary of Precise Mortgages, Andrew Bloom of Masthaven Bridging Finance, Jonathan Samuels of Dragonfly Property Finance, Marc Goldberg of Lancashire Mortgage Corporation, Keith Aldridge of Capital Bridging Finance, Colin Sanders of Omni Capital, Christian Faes of Montello Bridging Finance and Jonathan Rubins of Alternative Bridging. 

 

The most memorable dispute that flared the evening's proceedings came from Montello Bridging's Christian Faes, who claimed that if a loan doesn't complete within two weeks, then the facility does not qualify as a bridging loan. 

 

He said: “I think when the application is originally made the intention is for funding to be required very quickly and that is why they have gone to a bridging lender.”

 

Masthaven Bridging Finance's Andrew Bloom countered Christian's claim. He said: “I think what Christian is saying is absolutely totally rubbish… Speed is [only] one aspect of a bridging loan.”

 

Jonathan Samuels of Dragonfly Property Finance appeared to agree with Andrew, stating: “Speed is crucial, but the fact of whether the bridge completes in two weeks or two weeks and one day makes no difference as to whether it is in truth a bridge or not.” 

 

While reflecting on the event, AOBP Executive Committee member,  Graham Allen also criticised Christian’s stance, he said: “…While in a perfect world a couple of days would be ideal, over 30 years’ experience in the industry has taught me that things go wrong and that frequently made assumptions can be the mother of all calamities.”

 

Graham also suggested that broadcasting this ideal could give clients unrealistic expectations.

 

 

 

As well as clashing opinions from the panel throughout the afternoon, the Forum attracted over 100 attendees, who were able to express their opinions on the debates through personal voting remote controls.

 

Graham said: “We covered a lot in a short time and from an entertainment point of view the key pads were a success, especially when people managed to press them at the wrong moment!”

 

However, he also criticised the lack of unscripted audience input by stating: “Regarding audience participation, having set questions for lenders was obviously disappointing to some who were reluctant to accept that there were not going to be any questions from the floor.”

 

One argument that really divided the audience, was on the importance of headline rates which saw Alan Cleary of Precise Mortgages and Jonathan Rubins of Alternative Bridging lock horns. Alan admitted: “The headline rate is interesting but you should be looking at how much the customer has to pay."

 

“Too many lenders give the intermediary insufficient information to make a good decision for your client”  

 

He added: “I don’t fundamentally have any issues with lenders having different calculation models but what we do need to get to, is transparency for all.”

 

 

 Over 65 per cent of the audience agreed that a product's leading rate can mismanage a borrower's expectations.

 

However, Jonathan disagreed by saying: “It is just a piece of marketing used by some lenders, not many, and [ I ] don’t really see that it foxes anybody so I can’t see it is particularly confusing.”

 

As the evening progressed, the topic of regulation once again caused quite a stir amongst the industry's finest, with Colin Saunders, CEO of Omni Capital, stating that the greatness of a lender depended on service and products, not whether on or not it was a regulated entity. 

 

Interestingly, the audience approved that a retraction in the bridging market is not foreseeable within the next three years. 

 

Christian Faes appeared adamant on the subject: “The critical point is though, it’s not an infinite market. Bridging’s never going to be a hundred billion pounds a year, it will probably never be £10 billion pounds a year.”

 

A comment that somewhat controversially, many seemed to agree with. 

 

Rob Jupp updated attendees on the association’s growing membership as well as the recently discussed IFS-backed bridging qualification.

 

 

The qualification has been a recent topic of discussion for the AOBP, which the majority of the audience appeared to support.

 

Rob also clarified the AOBP’s capability to be robust with members and take the necessary action if they fail to uphold the expected standards was also made clear by Rob from the beginning.

 

Andrew Bloom emerged the victor as another successful event came to a close, with 23 per cent of the delegates backing the Masthaven Managing Director as the overall top panellist. 

 

 

Keywords: AOBP, Forum, industry lenders, IFS, bridging qualification, Rob Jupp, Chairman, Marc Goldberg, Lancashire Mortgage Corporation, Andrew Bloom, Masthaven Bridging Finance, brokers

Source: Bridging & Commercial — https://bridgingandcommercial.co.uk/industry-figures-face-off-at-aobp-forum