Another One Bites The Dust
Share
It is a sad day as another well known brand, Cheltenham & Gloucester, takes a quick bow and scuttles off into the shadows, at least where intermediaries are concerned. As someone who started using C&G in the days before they paid a proc fee and who has their mortgage with them it is a double shame.
However, before we all get carried away on a sentimental journey let’s be honest, it was always going to happen, probably before the ink was even dry on the Lloyds/ HBOS deal.
Of course my thoughts are with those who have lost their jobs after a tortuous period of uncertainty and I hope they all find something soon, but let’s not get too carried away with casting Lloyds Banking Group as the pariah many of those leaving comments on websites seem to be doing.
If any of us were in charge of Lloyds from a pure business perspective the first decision to look at is the brand one. How many brands does one institution actually need? Where are the crossovers and where can we increase efficiency and make further savings?
Of course another brand missing effects consumer choice, but where all these brands are ultimately owned by one institution this is not as marked as it may once have been. Much depends on whether some of the underwriting “quirks” are merged into the remaining brands, more likely Halifax.
Actually there may be a business upside for brokers as more business with Halifax means potentially more opportunity to be paid on product transfers in a couple of year’s time.
Then there is the whole Lloyds hate brokers debate and the question of dual pricing. While we should, as good brokers, continue to support excellent lenders such as Woolwich, Coventry and Nationwide who have in effect put their money where their mouths were as far as intermediaries are concerned, we all know the issues that Lloyds had and the problems of trying to keep those in branch from twiddling their fingers and, in any case, that was the last regime.
Since Antonio Horta-Osorio took over there has been a marked change in the intermediary sales staff both in terms of their optimistic outlook and engagement. This is not, or does not seem to be, a chief executive who is anti-intermediaries, in fact far from it. It is early days, but I believe the right man is now in charge and for brokers this will be a positive, which in turn will benefit the general public as they will be able to obtain the advice they need rather than being forced into a potentially non-advised branch network.
Choice and competition will increase again, as it slowly seems to be doing and we all want Halifax, BM Solutions etc back to their fighting weight.
In fact, there is actually one comment I read that really stands out and should give us all a little bit of sensitivity before we go around bemoaning the state of the world - “As a Lloyds Banking Group employee who is affected by the announcement, it is really disappointing that all the intermediaries think of is themselves. I really don’t know why I’m shocked by this!!!”
As intermediaries we need to work hard to change our perception in both the eyes of the lenders and the public. We do not have a divine right to have all the best products and get paid inflated fees as we did pre-credit crunch. What we do demand, however, is that everyone who takes out a mortgage has access to proper advice and that lenders treat us with respect.
Respect, however, is a two way thing. Whilst we may not like or agree with decisions made, a little empathy and engagement is always preferable to throwing a strop and claiming “it’s my ball and I’m going home”. We need to be more unified and professional than that and it may well be that one day we really do need to all come together to change something and doing it from the outside will be difficult.
I know many of us have experienced hardship, however today we should not be sorry for ourselves, but for the hundreds who will lose their jobs and the passing of a great brand.
If you enjoyed this article, sign up here to receive daily email updates from Mortgage Strategy and Follow @mortgagestrat
View results 10 per page | 20 per page
Readers' comments (13)
Tim Robinson | 18 Mar 2011 10:54 am
Andrew I agree with you. C&G have had good and bad times in the years I have dealt with them.
I personally feel very sad for my BDM who has been through the redundancy wars more than most and at no fault of her own.
However the C&G have to all intents and purposes been on the market since the LLoyds / HBOS takeover.
Not wishing to worry the branch staff but could we not soon see Tesco Bank of the Virgin Bank name above the door in time to come!
Unsuitable or offensive? Report this comment
Andrew Carter | 18 Mar 2011 12:39 pm
To be fair to the broker who has been accused of only thinking of himself, just how much impact can the last three years had on a Lloyds employee? I assume that he/she has been with the bank since before the credit crunch. Many intermediaries have already lost their jobs, many, many more have seen a significant loss in income.
I would even go as far as to suggest that employees of the banks haven’t had it so good. Their salaries are, I assume, not renegotiated every year, and with such low interest rates, and fixed incomes they have probably had as good a ride as anyone for the last three years.
Basically the credit crunch and recession was going to catch up with everyone in the end. I think that Brokers probably felt it first, and maybe hardest, and we are still not out of the woods yet. For an employee of the state owned bank that is only now, three years later, feeling the personal cost of the financial meltdown to accuse us of worrying about our futures is, itself, incredibly selfish.
Why should you be shocked and/or disappointed by intermediaries being worried about themselves? Obviously you shouldn’t. We, like you, are mainly worried about our families that we are responsible for. However, when it all came tumbling down there were no multi-billion pound handouts for Brokers. I wonder just how those Lloyds bank employees, that are now pointing the finger, would have managed in 2007 and 2008 if the billions had been given to brokers rather than the banks.
It’s not much of a loss if C&G pull out of the broker market, and it is a sensible decision, all be it that the group should never have been allowed to form in the first place. However, sniping at brokers shows that some of the bank employees have no concept of what we have been through and on that basis I don’t think we need to have any sympathy with them at all.
Unsuitable or offensive? Report this comment
Anonymous | 18 Mar 2011 2:43 pm
It is very sad as C & G staff have always been courteous,and the BDM's were pro active and helpful, hope the staff manage to get jobs in this difficult environment,it does not seem fair, it was HBOS that got into trouble after all.
Unsuitable or offensive? Report this comment
Anonymous | 18 Mar 2011 4:00 pm
It’s not a competition would is the worst effected. Surely we can all agree that brokers are still in a prolonged period of stress and incredibly difficult times; while also agreeing that the last 2 years must have been exceptionally unsettling, upsetting for the C&G staff going though this process.
Big bailouts to banks haven’t been used to help these staff.
Unsuitable or offensive? Report this comment
Bobby | 21 Mar 2011 11:02 am
Andrew. Wow you are so wrong on this one. A self employed broker over the last 3 years has seen his income fall by 75%. Over 25000 brokers have gone, many bankrupt, many lives and marriages and relationships ruined, ill health and depression issues rife. EVERY factor has been against the broker for over 3 years. EVERY single one. The employee may now be tasting some of the medicine we have had forced down our throats for 3 years but will get a redundancy package , something a self employed mortgage broker does not get and could get a new job in a couple of weeks. They have also as someone else said been living a life of luxury in comparison for the last 3 years. You have grossly insulted the mortgage broking community and yes , maybe we do think of ourselves but that is because no one else cares a jot.
Unsuitable or offensive? Report this comment
thththt | 21 Mar 2011 3:59 pm
I think 'Booby' highlights exactly the point Andrew was trying to make. As soon as the attention is turned away from the poor suffering broker, its not long before we are reminded how bad etc they have had it over the last 3 years. But boy they had it good before then....too good if anything..
Unsuitable or offensive? Report this comment
Andrew Carter | 21 Mar 2011 6:46 pm
thththt,
When you say "But boy they had it good before then....too good if anything.." Are you referring to the Self Employed Brokers that worked, on average, in excess of 50 hours a week? Or were you referring to the Bank employees that clocked on at 8:59am and left at 5:01pm, and refused to look at something after 4:30 on a Friday just in case they were late getting away for their weekend?
In my experience, in this industry, those that worked the hardest earned the most money. Those that went for low stress admin jobs, both in brokerages and the banks, earned less.
As someone that worked over 50 hours a week for ten years to build up my client bank (business) I feel justified in earning a decent wage.
I'm not aiming this at C&G employees specifically, but when the banking sector showed so little compassion for us when we were struggling I don't see why they should throw insults at us now when we seem to have too much on our own plates to worry about them too much.
Unsuitable or offensive? Report this comment
Phil Rivers | 23 Mar 2011 10:38 am
Andrew have you miss placed your humanity on the way to work?
Unsuitable or offensive? Report this comment
Kevin Grannersby | 24 Mar 2011 1:24 pm
@Andrew Carter
"Are you referring to the Self Employed Brokers that worked, on average, in excess of 50 hours a week?"
Who forced you to do so? No-one. It was completely your choice.
If you wanted to just do the 9 to 5, (and reap the limited potential benefits available to you for doing so) then you could have done so.
But no, it's far easier to snipe at people who are losing their jobs. Hey, it's not as if you're ever going to meet them in person, is it?
Sometimes, the more I read of brokers' comments on these boards, the less sympathy I have for them.
Unsuitable or offensive? Report this comment
JRS | 25 Mar 2011 10:00 am
Wow, there are a lot of emotive comments on this message board, and not surprising given that livelihoods are at stake. Lets have a reality check about C&G though, they and many other lenders beat brokers doors down in the good times and then dropped us like a stone in the bad. And as for less sympathy for brokers, well I don't think that lenders could have had less sympathy for brokers over the last three years.
Unsuitable or offensive? Report this comment