Leading mortgage technology provider, Twenty7Tec, has released its monthly mortgage market data for July 2021.

Key findings in July include:

• 63.6%* Purchases as a proportion of the mortgage market in July 2021 (remortgages = 36.4%). *Excluding product transfers.
• 7.2% Growth in products available as of July 31, 2021, versus products available as of June 30, 2021.
• 9.7% Increase in July 2021 remortgage volumes compared to May 2021.
• -7.8% First time buyer search volumes in July 2021 versus June 2021.
• 19.5% First time buyers as a percentage of all mortgage searches in July 2021.
• -4.9% Change in July mortgage searches in the £150k - £250k valuation bracket versus June 2021 (despite the ongoing stamp duty relief in this price range).
• 3.75 The long-term average mortgage searches per ESIS document produced.
• 13,974 Mortgage products available at the end of July 2021.

James Tucker, CEO of Twenty7Tec, commented:

“Finally, a much-needed pause for all those working in the market. Volumes dropped slightly in July 2021 as minds turned from stamp duty holidays to summer holidays and the Euros. The market also appears ready to go again in September - with new products, improved rates, and innovation flooding into the market.”

Additional interesting market commentary:

Products available and innovation

Nathan Reilly, Twenty7Tec says:

"We are rapidly closing in on 14,000 mortgage products available in the market. That's still at only 70% of products available in February and March 2020, but it's a huge leap forward from the lows of April and May 2020, when under 10,000 products were on the market. It's a sign of confidence in the market.

"I think that we'll see more product innovation over coming months. Until just recently, lenders were predominantly focused on steadying the ship and now they are turning their minds to differentiation and innovation, particularly when rates are so competitive. Among other lender innovations we're seeing, one trend is the introduction of more eco mortgages and it’s likely these will only increase in popularity over the coming months."

Improved confidence

Nathan Reilly, Twenty7Tec says:

"There’s been some positive movements from specialist lenders in recent weeks, with the introduction of more high-LTV mortgages and the general expansion of product ranges, which is a really encouraging sign for the entire market. This feeling of confidence has also been increased by the introduction of some sub 1% mortgages that been launched in recent times.

"There seem to be fewer nerves around the state of the employment market – although the end of October will see two million people move off furlough, so it's possible that that will affect things a little.

"I think it's fair to assume that lenders have been busy adapting their underwriting to address the changed market conditions. Performance-based roles like airlines pilots (hours flown) and landlords (pub revenues) have seen their livelihoods affected by the downturn and their ability to get a mortgage may well have changed as a result. More broadly, it's fair to assume that for many people who can now work at work and no longer pay to commute, that what they can afford had improved as a result."

Phil Bailey, Director at Twenty7Tec says:

"We should note the complete absence of the cliff edge when the main stamp duty relief ended. One of the most pleasing elements for me was quite how quickly things have returned to seasonal norms in the mortgage world. That means that the Chancellor looks to have judged the soft landing just right after 18 months of fluctuations.

"The return to seasonal trends is a good thing for our industry. It means that brokers and intermediaries can finally take a break.”

The October market

Nathan Reilly, Twenty7Tec says:

"Lots of landlords are reviewing their portfolios at the moment and considering the benefits of the stamp duty tapering and competitive rates that are on offer. It’s likely the buy to let market will remain strong from both a purchase and remortgage perspective, which presents a big opportunity to intermediaries.

A fully functioning market

Phil Bailey, Director at Twenty7Tec says:

"First time FTB searches have dropped 20% since Feb 2021 and are at their lowest levels since November 2020. To have a fully functioning housing and mortgage market, we need both significant buy to let and first time buyer activity. Buy To Let is increasingly important for the lower valuation end of the market as first-time buyer interest shrinks slightly."

Higher volumes at higher prices

Phil Bailey, Director at Twenty7Tec says:

"In July 2021, we saw a drop in search volumes for all house prices under £500k, but a slight rise in volumes for properties from £500k-£1m and £1m+."

The Euros

Nikki Cooke, Twenty7Tec says:

"The Euros made a real difference to the volume of business being done. The times of day that people searched for mortgages varied and brokers' working patterns worked around 5pm kick offs. Using good data means that brokers and intermediaries can plan for what this means for their business in relation to major events."

SunTec’s customers can now benefit from a fintech-like platform that can transform customer experience and drive team productivity    

SunTec Business Solutions, a leading relationship-based pricing and billing software company today announced it has launched Xelerate on Salesforce AppExchange, empowering banks and financial services companies to build and deepen customer relationships, drive employee efficiency, and acquire new customers through data-driven insights. Furthermore, the platform can help banks to offer an enhanced customer experience and reduce time-to-market with real-time insights on customers, products, deals, prices and offers.     

Integrated directly with Salesforce, SunTec Xelerate is currently available on AppExchange at https://appexchange.salesforce.com/appxListingDetail?listingId=a0N3u00000OMycQEAT

SunTec Xelerate    

With banks and financial services companies grappling with evolving customer needs and expectations, there is a need for service innovation to stay relevant. This integration with a single sign-on will empower sales and relationship managers by offering relevant information on a single screen to deliver an enhanced banking experience to customers along with the agility and performance to support growth.      

Banks will be able to eliminate information silos, access intelligence on a centralized platform, and roll out personalized offers, pricing and products in real time and thereby increase customer engagement and retention.  Some of the key features enabled by the platform include customer portfolio management, centralized product & billing view, offer enrollment, and deal management. The Xelerate platform can be deployed as SaaS, on-premises or on Cloud.

Amit Dua, President, Client Facing Groups at SunTec said, “Xelerate is integrated with Salesforce to deliver insight-driven offers with a single view of customer data. This powerful platform leverages intelligence to enable relationship managers to roll out contextual products, offers and deals on the fly.  We’re confident that banks can increase their efficiency and innovate with speed, to meet the evolving needs of customers.”

By Troy Meyers Chief Customer Officer at essensys

Financial firms generate profits by borrowing short-term cash cheaply and lending or investing it for higher, long-term returns. A steeper yield curve—which indicates a wider gap between short-term and long-term interest rates—means more profitability. But the yield curve has been relatively flat in recent years, squeezing profits and adding pressure to counter with aggressive cost-cutting measures.

That’s bad news for financial sector contact centers. As noted previously, about 70% of center budgets goes to labor, making centers an obvious target for cost-cutting. Large firms began offshoring customer service operations in the early 2000s and shifted domestic agents to remote work in more recent years. As a result, the 2020 office evacuation drill was less jarring than elsewhere.

But uneven customer service performance during the pandemic has prompted firms to reconsider the relative value of offshoring and remote domestic workers to their overall cost-control strategy. One possible response is to repatriate as least some offshored service operations; another is to expand the remote model for domestic agents even further. Either way, intelligent automation is emerging as the most effective way to reduce costs while also giving a much-needed boost to efficiency and productivity.

Tech 1.0

Technology has long played a role in financial firms’ contact centers because most day-to-day transactions are easy to manage through non-human channels. Existing technologies can provide a customer’s account balance, payment due date, branch office locations and hours, etc. But when mortgage loans or foreclosures are in play, no customer will accept a technology program as a negotiating counterpart. The tone of those exchanges is often set by emotion rather than reason. So financial firms need technology that actually improves agents’ ability to satisfy the full range of customers’ needs.

An agent’s complex day

Agents in this industry face multiple challenges. In addition to providing empathy and flexibility in situations where high-stakes money matters are emotionally charged, agents also deal with financial transactions that are often subject to federal and state regulations. This adds to their training requirements. Large firms may employ tens of thousands of agents, which increases the logistical challenge of delivering thorough and uniform training. Inconsistent or insufficient training could leave agents vulnerable to making mistakes, and even small mistakes can expose the firm to hefty fines or lawsuits.

Lastly, the pandemic abruptly shut down in-branch customer service access, sending customers to the phones to deal with both simple and complex issues. This caused a spike in contact center call volume and complexity. Complicated issues typically handled by account execs and managers now fell to agents, who found themselves at the customer-facing end of a chain of service upheaval and forced to deal with more calls and unfamiliar issues which they were not trained to handle.

Tech 2.0

It’s impossible to manually address all instances when agents stay too long in after-call work or leave customers on hold for too long. But with intelligent automation, business rules are put in place to monitor these metrics and remind agents when they cross specific thresholds.

When agents select the wrong AUX state, it’s difficult to identify which did so by mistake and which did so to avoid answering calls; coaching after the fact is not effective. Intelligent automation notifies agents in the wrong state immediately. Potential savings are huge: One financial services customer leveraged AUX state alerts to realize $16.8 million in annualized savings.

Tech me back home

Many large financial firms sent half or more of their contact center operations overseas, where lower wages reduced operating costs. But when the pandemic forced overseas agents to work from home, pockets of weak electricity and WIFI service availability led to poor customer service delivery. Overloaded infrastructure caused problems among remote domestic agents too, but the problem—and its impact on the customer experience—was greater in offshore operations.  

For financial firms that choose to repatriate customer service operations, intelligent automation’s proven ability to lower costs, increase agent efficiency, and facilitate consistent customer experiences thanks to its unique blend of RPA and real-time data processing capabilities will provide a critical competitive advantage in the post-pandemic marketplace.

Conclusion

Technology can never substitute fully for human agents, but the right tech can amplify agents’ ability to deliver focused, empathetic customer service. Intelligent automation takes repetitive tasks off the agent’s plate and also processes data related to agent behavior and overall center activities, detecting service logjams across the agent population in real time and providing immediate support to get agents back on track quickly.

 As an innovative global trading platform for various crypto assets, founded in 2015. LBank officially launched the Philippine Ambassadors Recruitment in August 2021. LBank provides its users with safe crypto trading, specialized financial derivatives and professional assets management services. It has become one of the most popular and trusted crypto trading platforms with over 5.6 million users in more than 50 countries around the world.

Digging out promising projects to benefit users has been the consistent goal of LBank. Perfect coordination among various departments in LBank and efficient decision-making has laid a concrete foundation to dig out new promising projects and get listed on LBank at the earliest time, in the meantime to forecast the future trends. Nearly 250 projects and 500 trading pairs have been launched on LBank. Furthermore, LBank is always the first CEX to list or hold special sales of some great projects such as Babydoge, Mina, Dora, KINE, Nabox, etc.

Multi-country compliance to accelerate global deployment

As one of the earliest crypto exchanges, LBank has reliable financial licenses such as NFA/MSB (U.S), MSB (Canada), and AUSTRAC (Australia). LBank ranks first in the industry in terms of annualized return on defi mining. In addition to strong assets management services, LBank has also invested in more than 100 projects in the primary market with the aim of building a comprehensive crypto ecosystem.

At present, LBank has cooperated with many partners in North America, Middle East, Japan, Korea and Southeast Asia etc. In order to further develop the Philippine market, we are now recruiting Philippine elites community ambassador to enjoy a win-win growth!We look forward to your ideas and help you realize them.

LBank Community Ambassador

Community ambassadors are responsible for local community establishment, user growth, and community management, maintaining LBank's brand image in the local community, delivering the latest market activities, and actively providing feedback and handling various emergencies encountered by the community. They will have independent authority to plan and operate community activities. In the meantime, Community ambassadors will enjoy a much-rewarded referral commission and bonus for community operation and management. In addition, community ambassadors with outstanding performance will be promoted to the global ambassador by LBank and get more rights and rewards.

Expansion of offering and addressable market with FXPress operating subsidiary being granted an Electronic Money Institution licence

Cornerstone FS plc (AIM: CSFS), the cloud-based provider of international payment, currency risk management and electronic account services to SMEs, announces that the Group’s primary operating subsidiary, FXPress Payments Services Ltd (“FXPress”), has been approved by the Financial Conduct Authority as an Authorised Electronic Money Institution (“AEMI”), effective 4 August 2021. This allows the Group to broaden its product offering and enables it to act as a participant in the UK’s Open Banking Initiative as an Account Servicing Payment Service Provider, in line with the Group’s stated strategy.

The AEMI designation upgrades FXPress from its previous status as an Authorised Payment Institution and increases its capital adequacy requirement to €350,000. As an AEMI, the Group can issue electronic money and allow clients to leave money on account – effectively providing them with multi-currency currency accounts and e-wallet functionality. FXPress’s designation as an AEMI also supplants the more limited licence it holds in Avila House as a Small EMI, which is restricted to holding an overall e-money balance that does not exceed an average of €5 million.

In addition, this new authorisation will enable the Group to develop further products and services that take advantage of the UK’s Open Banking Initiative, which is designed to drive innovation and competition in UK banking services through the secure and transparent sharing of financial information. This supports the Group’s previously stated strategic aim of creating a broad portfolio of technology-enabled cross border payment and foreign currency services.

Julian Wheatland, Chief Executive Officer of Cornerstone, said: “The receipt of this full e-Money licence by FXPress represents an important milestone for Cornerstone and the achievement of another of the strategic goals that we set out at our IPO. It will enable us to allow customers to hold and retain funds in their multi-currency account as well as expand our offering by developing new products and services that leverage the UK’s Open Banking Initiative. We look forward to continuing to build on these strengthened foundations to achieve our aim of delivering transformational growth.”

 Projective Group, the international consulting firm, has today announced its acquisition of London-based DTSQUARED, the specialist data consultancy. 

Funded by recent investment from Gimv in April this year, this acquisition is a key part of Projective Group’s European expansion and provides a significant addition to the Group’s capabilities and existing team of 35 consultants in London.  

DTSQUARED’s team of 85 data experts will bring a wealth of experience in all aspects of data as well as access to an impressive client base across multiple sectors and strategic relationships with DTSQUARED’s global technology partners. This complements Projective Group’s current management consulting offering from Projective and Exellys, to provide a truly end-to-end consultancy package to clients. 

Stefan Dierckx, CEO, of Projective Group, said: 

“With our clients increasingly demanding advice and consultancy around data, we firmly believe that DTSQUARED’s knowledge and expertise around data management and governance is complementary to Projective Group’s current service offering provided by Projective and Exellys. Together with DTSQUARED, we can now better serve our current and future clients in answering business problems and creating value in a complex market with even more demanding regulations. This partnership represents the start of the next phase of growth for Projective Group and we are delighted to welcome DTSQUARED to the team.” 

The overall Projective Group offering will be strengthened by the mutual benefits of the acquisition, with all parties gaining additional capabilities and expertise. DTSQUARED’s knowledge and experience enables Projective Group to expand into the important and evolving data industry via the creation of a new Data Management & Governance offering for Projective Group’s clients. Projective Group can now support clients with all their strategic data requirements; to design, establish and implement the most beneficial, efficient, and profitable data solutions that provide real business value. 

Toby Pearson, CEO of DTSQUARED, said: 

“We have a strong record of growth whilst delivering the Power of Data for our clients these past eight years, but when Projective Group approached us, it was an excellent opportunity to combine forces and further strengthen our respective offerings. Together, our shared knowledge, expertise and ambitions uniquely position us within Europe to cater to all client demands both now and in the future. We will scale, affording all our employees a greater breadth of opportunities across a wider geography which will ensure that we continue to maintain and attract the highest of standards.  The coming months will be spent planning to deliver the best solutions and advice possible for our clients as we build excellence across Projective Group’s six major European centres.” 

DTSQUARED’s established positioning in the market means that the brand and operational management will remain unchanged by the acquisition, and it will now be able to scale at pace to meet ever-changing client demands. Toby Pearson, CEO of DTSQUARED, will also become the sixth member of the Projective Group board.  

Sber named world’s strongest banking brand and – for the fifth year running – Russia’s most valuable brand

With a brand value of RUB 730.6 bn and AAA+ rating, Sber has been recognized as Russia’s most valuable brand for the fifth year running in the latest Brand Finance Russia 50 2021 report. According to Brand Finance, Sber is worth more than all brands ranked 26th to 50th in this year’s league table put together. In addition to measuring brand value, Brand Finance also determines the relative strength of brands through a balanced scorecard of metrics evaluating marketing investment, stakeholder equity, and business performance. According to these criteria, Sber has increased in brand strength year-on-year to reclaim the titles of the strongest brand in Russia as well as the world’s strongest banking brand, and to become the third strongest brand in the world across all sectors in the Brand Finance Global 500 2021 ranking. With a Brand Strength Index (BSI) score of 92.0 out of 100 and the coveted AAA+ brand strength rating, Sber ranks only behind the iconic Ferrari and China’s WeChat. According to Brand Finance, Sber commands very high levels of customer loyalty, which can only be boosted by its recent rebranding into an ecosystem brand. In Brand Finance’s Global Brand Equity Monitor, Sber posts top market research results for reputation and brand awareness – it is widely known, always top-of-mind, and well-regarded. Its ubiquitous presence and – in consumers’ eyes – by far the best digital offering ensure high availability, which are strong foundations for brand strength. Sber brand is an asset which allows us to develop new services and products for our ecosystem. The brand ensures they are reliable and advanced – the qualities our clients value. Brand investment contributes to a rapid growth of our new businesses, and we are happy to retain leadership as the strongest and most valuable brand both in Russia and globally. Vladislav Kreynin Senior Vice President, Director of the Marketing and Communications

Department, Sberbank

Sber’s innovative and committed approach to its brand can be an example to all Russian companies. Despite being an undisputed market leader, Sber is not afraid to put itself in the position of a challenger and pioneer completely novel strategies. Its brand audacity helps it power through tough times, anticipate market disruption, and – ultimately – consolidate its dominance further.

Richard Haigh
Managing Director, Brand Finance
Brand Finance is the world’s leading brand valuation consultancy with offices in over 20 countries. Bridging the gap between marketing and finance, Brand Finance evaluates the strength of brands and quantifies their financial value to help organizations of all kinds make strategic decisions. Drawing on expertise in strategy, branding, market research, visual identity, finance, tax and intellectual property, Brand Finance helps brand owners and investors make the right decisions to maximize brand and business value.

Today, Baird Capital, the global private equity and venture capital arm of Baird, announced its portfolio company Aura Futures (“Aura”), a leading provider of workspace technology solutions to mid to large-size enterprises, has acquired Reflex Limited (“Reflex”). Financial details of the transaction were not disclosed.

Established in 1983, Reading-based Reflex is a full-service audio-visual integrator. Since its founding, Reflex has strived to be at the forefront of AV technology, aiming to bring pioneering new solutions to market. The company’s expertise includes technical design, project management, complete installation services and post-installation training and support.

“I am so pleased to welcome the Reflex team to Aura,” said Alpesh Unalkat, Aura CEO. “Their technical expertise and strong reputation in higher education, corporate and public sector markets will further strengthen Aura and enable us to continue growing our footprint. We see lots of potential growth for Aura, especially with Reflex’s capabilities and similar deep commitment to meeting and exceeding customer expectations. I’m excited to see what we can accomplish together in partnership with Baird Capital.”

“We are delighted to continue our support of the Aura team with this important acquisition,” said Michael Holgate, Partner with Baird Capital’s private equity team. “The COVID-19 pandemic has accelerated the focus on how technology can improve productivity and collaboration in an agile working environment. As workforces return to the office, Aura’s broad range of capabilities can provide the solutions businesses need to be successful in a post-pandemic world.”

Baird Capital announced its investment in Aura in March of 2020 bringing together two independent businesses simultaneously, Karlson and Intevi, which form the group's core platform. At that time, Baird Capital Partners Andrew Ferguson and Michael Holgate joined the Aura board of directors.

In its first year of operation, the team at Aura was awarded Print IT’s Dealer of the Year 2020 for their work in building a workplace technology provider and created a unique ‘connected workspace’ facility in London. Reflex adds to Aura’s capabilities in the AV space and will enable the business to offer the widest range of office solutions to its client base. Aura’s proposition directly addresses the key questions around workplace configuration as enterprises return to the office post-pandemic.

This acquisition news follows closely on the heels of Baird Capital’s private equity team closing its second Global Fund with over $340 million in committed capital. Learn more here.

• Addition of Atome, LayBuy, Sezzle and Tamara demonstrates the growth of APEXX’s BNPL Connect
• APEXX will have integrated over 20 global BNPL providers by 2022, enabling merchants and PSPs to offer BNPL as a payment method in over 40 countries

APEXX Global, (“APEXX”), the multi-award-winning global payments platform, announces that four new Buy Now Pay Later (“BNPL”) providers, Atome, LayBuy, Sezzle, and Tamara have signed on to use BNPL Connect globally. These are in addition to the five market-leading BNPLs APEXX announced in February this year – Arvato AfterPay, ClearPay, OpenPay, Tabby, and Zip Co.

BNPL products have surged in popularity during the coronavirus pandemic, with consumers around the world attracted by the flexible nature of paying for goods in instalments with no interest charges. BNPL providers have flooded the market and, in the process, revolutionised the online retail and consumer credit market, however this has led to a proliferation of different options for merchants and consumers.

To address this, APEXX launched BNPL Connect in March this year and the product has seen huge take up from merchants and payment service providers (PSPs) globally. BNPL Connect allows PSPs and merchants to access multiple BNPL solutions through one consolidated API, and in turn, consumers can choose from a range of different BNPL options. This significantly reduces the time to market and cost for Merchants and PSPs in offering these services globally.

Together, Atome, LayBuy, Sezzle, and Tamara are amongst the largest BNPL providers globally and offer coverage across the United States, Europe, Australia, New Zealand, Saudi Arabia, UAE, the UK, and 12 countries across Asia-Pacific.

Rodney Bain, Chief Strategy Officer and Co-Founder at APEXX, said: “We’re delighted to welcome four more of the world’s leading BNPL providers onto BNPL Connect. The reception since we launched has been incredible and the addition of these leading names onto the platform demonstrates the surging popularity and growing significance of BNPL solutions in the global payment industry.

“By next year, we will have integrated over 20 BNPL providers onto BNPL Connect, offering our PSP partners, merchants and ultimately consumers BNPL as a payment method in over 40 countries. Deferred payment schemes have an opportunity to create a consumer credit environment that is easier to access, fairer, and more transparent.”