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Do lenders tap into your intel enough for product creation?

ended 18. August 2025

On Friday, Newspage launched a new initiative that has invited smaller lenders, such as building societies and specialists, to draw on the intel and insights of the broker community when building or enhancing products - to give them better products (and outcomes for borrowers) and the media firepower of the biggest lenders.

  • Have you ever been asked by a lender for your views on an existing or future product (on the phone, on a Zoom, at a meeting, via a survey, etc)?
  • Do you feel lenders would benefit by making brokers their eyes and ears - and bringing them into the product creation process?
  • Also, would you look at a “lender that listens” more favourably than one that doesn’t and just pushes out products in the time-honoured, top-down fashion?

Any thoughts, ASAP please.

3 responses from the Newspage community

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Justin Moy
Managing Director at EHF Mortgages
This often depends on your size or status in the mortgage broker market; some lenders are quite good at listening to feedback and creating new and innovative products, or tweaking criteria to meet unexpected demand. But much of the current feedback process concentrates on service feedback, visibility of the BDM's or if we have seen their adverts recently, rather than product design. There are plenty of smaller-sized broker firms with significant knowledge and experience not tapped into, which may be ideal for those smaller lenders looking to find their place and adapt products quickly. Given their levels of borrower interaction, brokers are so well placed to help shape the market, and importantly support lenders large or small.
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Bob Singh
Founder at Chess Mortgages
If you’re as old as I am then you’ll remember the Midlands Bank. The listening bank as they liked to be called before HSBC bought them out.

I have had 3 recent meetings and calls with lenders who are keen to get broker opinions on their products and pricing.

This is something lenders in general currently choose not to do because they rely on their in-house teams who may not have their ear to the ground.

The Newspage initiative to invite lenders onto a common platform to garner the opinions of experts is a fantastic idea where the outcomes are likely to be better for all concerned.

The move will serve to strengthen the broker lender bond for mutual benefit via an open discussion.

Lenders can also get valuable coverage in the trade and national press.

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Michelle Lawson
Director at Lawson Financial
Lender's try but in the wrong way- they can definitely do more. Often they send out a survey via email which will then get deleted and or not completed due to time constraints and the sheer volume of emails we get on a daily basis. Feeding back via the BDM or focus groups with the product teams so it is point to point would be useful. Sometimes the problem is we are speaking to the wrong people or the information never reaches the correct team. A lot of focus is also given to large volume brokerages rather than a cross-section. Smaller brokerages have a wealth of knowledge too which are often forgotten about.