Aggregator launches new tech platform

Powered by Salestrekker, the new Vownet system was built and designed using feedback from mortgage brokers and members of the Vow Financial team who have worked at other aggregation businesses.

“We had a good understanding of what our competitors were doing. We knew what the benchmarks were,” Vow general manager Clive Kirkpatrick told Mortgage Business.

“We decided to move forward with the Salestrekker platform. With the work of our brokers and our state managers it has been heavily customised,” he said.

The aggregator included 20 brokers in its pilot phase, which began last year, and built the platform around a series of “critical stages” in the customer journey, from a digital fact find through to settlement and customer care.

“The client is sent a welcome note that automatically provides them with the credit guide and privacy consent, so the broker is instantly meeting the regulatory requirements to provide credit advice,” Mr Kirkpatrick said.

“We have built it to be a great CRM and product selection tool but it is also about automating as much compliance as possible. We want to make sure brokers are doing the right thing every time.”

Software has become a critical battleground for mortgage aggregators. The ability to attract and retain brokers often hinges on the success of a group’s technology platform. However, Mr Kirkpatrick highlighted that Vow is selective about which brokers it works with.

“We only want to retain the brokers we want to retain. We are building a much better business than we have had before, enabled by platforms such as Vownet and Vow Professional and the people we have on our team,” he said.

“We will be selective on who we bring on. We want brokers who share the same goals as we have. We don’t want to be recruiting brokers purely to build numbers.”

As the broking industry faces increasing regulatory pressure, compliance has become a major focus for aggregators. Building a platform that could streamline the compliance process for brokers was one of Vow’s core objectives.

“The platform is very heavily focused around the compliance piece and populating the compliance documents to take that strain away for the brokers,” Mr Kirkpatrick said. “Those compliance documents can also be branded with the broker’s logo, so it is highly customisable.”

[Related: YBR posts positive results following strong lending growth]