Dale Jannels: “Take risks now and do something bold. You won’t regret it.”

Dale Jannels has worked in the mortgage industry for over 25 years and is CEO of One Mortgage System (OMS), Managing Director at Impact Specialist Finance and a member of the OPDA Executive Committee. He was named ‘Innovator Champion of the Year’ at the 2023 Mortgage Introducer awards.

“Take risks now and do something bold. You won’t regret it.”

Hannah – Hi Dale. Thanks for taking the time to be a Mortgage Visionary. Shall we start by looking at how far you think the role of technology in mortgages has evolved?

Dale – Morning Hannah, thanks for inviting me! The short answer to that is ‘not far enough!’ Look, technology has transformed some elements of the mortgage industry completely in the last few years. How many applicants have to go and get ID verification certified from a solicitor these days? Not many. But despite all the advancements in tech we have seen in the last 20 years, actual mortgage offers can take minutes, but the completion process is still taking weeks and thus house sales are taking months! Technology can do so much more to improve speed and efficiency. Some brokers are still inputting applications multiple times into various systems, which can mean mistakes may happen. When you look at how technology has disrupted other industries, the mortgage industry has been slow out of the blocks.

I know the mortgage business is complex. There are many different lending approaches due to target customers, scale, capacity, funding models, attitudes to risk, underwriting capabilities etc etc and this is great for the customer because there are products and options for almost everyone. However, often the biggest barrier to allowing lenders to move their offering to the level consumers now expect is their archaic systems. Many lenders are looking for ways to be more efficient, faster and consistent in processing and servicing and technology can help them deliver those gains. There are various reasons why not every lender can be a leader in a tech revolution, but many do have the appetite to be a ‘fast follower’ and we’re seeing that now.

Hannah – So where do you see the major gaps in the market?

Dale – There are so many. Gen Z do everything on their mobile phones. They expect businesses to have a slick app or be mobile friendly, but so many lenders and brokers are chained to slow, inefficient legacy systems that they put all their efforts into maintaining, leaving no time to innovate. Now is the time to be brave and replace these. The pace of change is only getting quicker and now that AI is being applied across more and more processes the potential benefits for improving speed and efficiency are enormous. For example, at OMS we have recently integrated a system from Sikoia which reads and analyses various financial documents with astonishing accuracy. It will look at bank statements, tax returns and payslips in conjunction with the application and spot and flag all kinds of anomalies. No children or dependents you say? Then what’s this £400 maintenance payment to the same individual every month? It also automates income verification and employer checks and rapidly accelerates the processing and pre-population of an application.

For the time being there are still borrowers who are less tech savvy, so lenders and brokers need to be able to cater for both. But moving forwards, eventually everyone will expect slick, phone app-based transacting as the norm.

Hannah – What advice would you give to lenders at the moment?

Dale – When you’re looking at a CRM portal to partner with, or a new originations platform to run your business, do your homework. Look at exactly what it is you’re buying into. Look at what brokers are having to use daily and talk to them about their experiences. What they like, what they don’t like. What they use most. What features they don’t use. Look at broker forums, they’re often full of useful good and bad feedback. Don’t jump to one system because it looks like everyone else has it. The incumbent market leader isn’t always the market best. Will they still be around in 5 years? Will they still support what you buy? Look at some of the recent mergers where there will be an internal shootout and only one system will survive and that’s the one that will get all the development resource and effort. What if you’d picked the losing one? You might get support for a while, but all the innovation will be happening elsewhere and no doubt they’ll charge you a fortune to change.

Hannah – And to brokers?

Dale – In the words of Elon Musk – “Take risks now and do something bold. You won’t regret it”. Brokers must accept that technology is now vital to their future success. It’s do or die. The pace of change is accelerating so quickly, with major advances happening all the time, especially now AI is being applied in so many different ways. I firmly believe that this isn’t just a matter of not growing as quickly as you’d like, this is about your survival. If you are a broker doing most of your business with just the top 5 or 6 lenders you may not have a business in few years’ time. The big lenders may look to encourage customers to go direct when it comes to product transfers or remortgages. It simplifies the process even further which enables greater efficiencies and potentially fewer staff. It cuts out procuration fees which reduces their acquisition costs. These savings can either be passed on to the borrower or they can choose to keep the wider margin. Brokers need to be looking at all opportunities in the mortgage market in its widest sense. All the specialist lenders like UTB of course, all the product niches, complex scenarios, these are the areas where brokers can add value in the future. And they need to provide a slick and professional technology offering which, let’s be honest, most brokers don’t have the budget or the appetite to develop themselves. Companies like OMS can give them a flexible and future proof white label solution very quickly whilst also providing numerous APIs to the best offerings in the market, all under one roof.

Hannah – Can you tell me a bit more about OMS?

Dale – One Mortgage System (OMS) started in 2017 as a cloud-based software as a service (SaaS) CRM system for brokers which enabled them to benefit from the efficiencies of using one integrated system for credit searches, valuations, ID checks, sourcing, etc saving them around 3-4 hours in processing time per case. This time can instead be spent adding real value to customers and growing their businesses.

It didn’t take us long to realise that the next logical step was to connect brokers with lenders through an origination portal to deliver even more processing efficiencies. It brings lenders, brokers and third parties such as credit agencies, valuers and conveyancers together to provide a more streamlined journey with lenders able to self-configure key areas of the system by choosing from 45 (at the moment) possible integrations including Experian, Hometrack, Uinsure, Go Cardless, L&Gs Ignite, Movin’ Legal, Companies House, HM Land Registry and Onfido. We currently have a number of fully integrated lenders including UTB, West One, Interbridge and Pepper Money providing an automated decision/application engine for brokers and customers.

Over 2,600 brokers use us, which makes us a very simple and cost-effective distribution channel for lenders. Around 5,000 applications with approximately £1.5bn of mortgage borrowing goes through OMS each month. Lenders therefore don’t need to link into 100s of systems to get distribution, when OMS can provide such a vast number of brokers, distributors and networks under one integration.

Hannah – So how does OMS support the market?

Dale – I wouldn’t say we support the market, we disrupt it. Our aim is to reduce the touchpoints for brokers and lenders, deliver the most efficient and slick process for all parties making it seamless between customer/broker/network/lender and third parties. It’s important to remember that at the beginning and end of all this is a customer trying to get a loan to buy a house, or remortgage one they already have, or borrow a bit extra for something important to them. They want to know as quickly as possible if it’s going to happen and then they want it to happen as quickly as possible. All the players in the industry have to work together with that in mind.

Hannah – Tell me about your involvement in the Open Property Data Association and how it could impact the market?

Dale – I’m a member of the OPDA executive committee. There are 14 exec committee members including representatives from On The Market, PEXA, Property Inspect UK, LMS, Atom Bank, Moverly Groundsure, and of course Buster from UTB and Maria Harris as Chair.

The aim of the association is to promote and facilitate the sharing of property related data, to encourage collaboration and to support the creation of innovative solutions and improve the way the property market and buying/selling process works. We want lenders, brokers, lawyers, estate agents, valuers, credit agencies and all other participants in the process to be joined up from the start with a view to significantly accelerating how long it takes to complete a purchase, sale, remortgage, second charge or any other property related process. Some sales/purchases are taking twenty weeks to complete and if the process worked properly we could do it in under two! The OPDA is just over a year old, and we want to build awareness and grow the membership and get as many organisations involved as possible. The more the better. LBG, Natwest, HSBC and Nationwide have signed up this year and we’re gathering momentum. We all want the same thing. An efficient system that helps consumers complete their transaction quickly and easily. That’s got to be good for everyone.