The meeting held on 14th June in London was designed to promote industry growth through mutual cooperation, and identified, discussed and agreed action points on three main issues.

According to delegates, the quality of initial enquiries remained a significant issue for both brokers and lenders. 

It was said that lenders should be setting a minimum standard for introduced applications to avoid a domino effect of negative outcomes caused by sub-standard submissions. 

However, brokers questioned the amount of information required for a DIP.

The panel agreed that lenders needed to be clear on the type of information they required and – as an action point – it was agreed that FIBA should collate a list of standard questions and guidelines for initial submissions, which brokers could use as a starting point.

At the roundtable, it was also agreed that solicitors, in an ideal world, should not accept cases they weren’t set up to deal with, especially when it came to two- or three-day turnaround times in bridging finance.

Borrowers needed to be guided towards the right choice of legal support for specialist cases.

As a result, FIBA plans to compile a register of recommended solicitors for borrowers, a move which was unanimously supported by the panel, combined with the need to categorise solicitors by specialism and for the inclusion of regionally based firms.

The event also tackled upfront fees and the panel was generally in agreement that in such a competitive market, brokers needed to have enough confidence in their business to not have to rely on these types of fees.

Adam Tyler, executive chairman at FIBA (pictured above), said that its roundtable demonstrated the value of bringing interested parties together from the legal, lending and broking sides to discuss and decide on actions that benefit all parties and improved services for customers.

“We are seeing the advantages that can be gained by trade bodies cooperating to bring their members together in this way. 

“I think that the close cooperation of our members and the lenders will bring mutual benefits for both. 

“We all want the best for our industries and members and by working together we can make a bigger impact in a shorter timescale. 

“At FIBA, we are looking forward to working with the ASTL again as well as welcoming the opportunity to support our members and the industry.”