That was one of the views to emerge from a survey of 467 directly-authorised brokers which also revealed their thoughts on lenders’ online systems.

Just over half – 52% – believed technology would have a high impact on their business in the next 24 months.

Although 20% thought there would be no affect, or very little, and 28% thought there would be a ‘medium’ impact, the majority were convinced of the importance of technological advances.

As well as predicting a greater use of automated desktop valuations and e-signatures, the 52% brokers surveyed as part of the fourth edition of the Mortgage Lender Benchmark who though technology would have a big impact, also expected more system integrations.

They believed the ability to apply directly to more lenders via sourcing systems would reduce the need to re-key applications.

And, they also expected more standardisation around underwriting requirements. One broker said: “Open banking will have massive effects on the market. Fraud will be much more difficult, but lenders who don’t currently ask for bank statements may not like what they see.”

Nate Harwood, co-founder of financial services review website, Smart Money People, which runs the survey every six months said: “Brokers had a lot to say about technology in our survey. While many believe that technology will make their job quicker and somewhat easier, there’s differing views about what this will mean for their businesses.”

He added: “While some brokers believe that technology will help them to grow their business, others recognise that more customers are likely to apply to lenders directly, with many lenders particularly keen to encourage more execution-only business.”

Satisfaction with lenders

Average satisfaction levels with lenders emerged as 82.7% amongst the brokers surveyed. Online systems and tools were the most commented upon themes after speed.

TSB and The Mortgage Works came out of the survey as top quartile lenders when it comes to their online systems. However, Barclays was at the bottom with 20% of its broker feedback focused on its online system which was commonly described as ‘awful’, ‘difficult to navigate, ‘clunky’ and ‘painful’ according to Smart Money People.

Rating the technology

Criteria Sourcing tool, Knowledge Bank, and equity release sourcing product, Air Sourcing, came out to of the satisfaction ratings from the brokers. Both of these products came out as ‘best in class’ for software solutions.

Brokers generally thought existing technology solutions were a useful starting point but they frequently commented in the survey on a lack of accuracy and completeness for product and criteria sourcing tools in particular.

CRM solutions received very mixed feedback around ease of use and functionality, it was revealed. Meanwhile accuracy was the key pain point for affordability solutions.

The overall satisfaction across all broker technology solutions profiled stood at 81.4%.