You might have thought that 2020 had provided lenders with enough issues. You would be right.

With the operational demands of mortgage deferrals, furlough earnings and new business challenges of increased demand from buyers eager to take advantage of the Stamp Duty holidays, I can only imagine the rapturous welcome our Prime Minister’s call for first-time buyer 25 year fixed-rate mortgages must have received.

Many will cast their mind back to the Miles Review (remember that?) and think this is a recurring theme that is destined to go nowhere again.

However, we live in exceptional times and if the pandemic has shown us anything it is that the State has a new role in our lives: its ability to intervene at scale and at will is now not only welcomed by the public but expected.

The consequences, therefore, for lenders might be significant in the longer-term. Most of the recent investment in technology has focussed on the pre-completion part of the process where many have regarded their API strategy as being largely an issue of increased, slicker distribution.

There has been some recent focus on product switching to support the submission of broker-introduced cases and the payment of proc fees but post offer, there has been little evidence of much thought and investment at all.

Indeed, it is not uncommon to hear of some lenders who have been actively choosing not to employ solutions they already have (for things like electronic Certificate of Title) and porting was put on the ‘too difficult’ shelf long ago.

This is largely a result of looking at annual targets and an acknowledgement that once lenders have a borrower ‘on Offer’ they are exactly that – not a customer but a borrower.

But this will change with greater open banking and longer-term fixes. As lenders look at their current five to 10-year fixed rate product mix and, maybe, contemplate 25-year fixed rates, it will be important to have an eye to the future.

Lenders traditionally are great at building new product technology solutions in phases. The first is to get the product out there maybe with manual workarounds and the second is to automate the manual workarounds.

The third often scraps plans for automating manual workarounds in favour of launching a new product with its own associated manual workarounds. The fourth is a repeat.

And occasionally there is a fifth which involves replicating all of the accumulated manual processes into a new shiny, partially automated IT solution which happens every 10 to 20 years! This is not helpful in the long-term.

The current market and likely policy direction is highlighting the fact now is the time to plan to get off the current merry-go-round.  Lenders cannot put off IT solutions – a 25-year fixed rate won’t present problems in 25 years’ time, it will be the first time a borrower decides to move – whenever that will be! Imagine porting thousands of mortgages manually.

The thinking that banking is financial services with technology on top has meant too often that technology projects have beginnings and ends and there is a tendency to view these as being set in stone.

If the pandemic has taught us anything it is that planning, as well as technology, needs to be agile. To the extent that it is fair to say technology is more akin to a constant work in progress. Technology is not only the way we do business, it is has become our business.

I hope whatever plans and budget you wish for in your technology strategies for the coming years you receive this Christmas. But if you find some things you set your hearts on didn’t make it onto the Christmas list, please do let me know – there’s a chance I might be able to help those that have been good.

Tim Hague is managing partner at Sagis