Mortgage Broker representative Group AEMA adopts common electronic mortgage trading platform and calls
on lenders to follow lead
7 June, 2016: The Association of Expert Mortgage Advisors (AEMA), which account for almost 50 per cent
of all mortgage broker business in Ireland, has announced that its broker membership is going digital
and moving to a common electronic mortgage trading platform. The move is part of AEMA’s industry
leadership initiative to target some of the €12 million in cost savings and productivity gains over the
next four years that both the mortgage broker and lender industry could achieve if all adopted an
industry standard electronic mortgage trading platform.
AEMA is implementing the standards-based Mortgage Trading Exchange (MTE) solution from mortgage software
specialist Mortgage Brain, which is already used by over 300 individual brokers across Ireland. The
mortgage software platform allows both brokers and participating lenders to efficiently send, track and
administer mortgage applications and related documents electronically. The system provides a single
point of integration to all lender platforms. The savings stem from the fact that lenders need only
integrate MTE once to their back office, rather than having to build and maintain multiple bridges to
the systems of different broking firms.
Speaking at the announcement, Trevor Grant, the Chairman of AEMA said: “We have identified the urgent
need to migrate to a digital process and in doing so, drive more efficiencies and improved levels of
customer service in our business. We have now acted by selecting Mortgage Brain as our eTrading partner
to enable all of our members to use the mortgage trading exchange (mte) module to deliver applications
and supporting documents electronically to all lenders in Ireland in conjunction with their own
individual CRM systems.”
Mr Grant added: “Now is the time to cut out today’s costly paper based processes and fully digitise the
mortgage application and documentation process. What we need is a common industry platform and not
different lender solutions which only add to our costs but do not improve broker productivity. We need
to focus on advising our clients and not waste time re-keying data on to different lender systems and
submitting paper applications.”
Michael Quinn, managing director of Mortgage Brain Ireland said: ‘This is a very important industry
leadership initiative from AEMA. The estimated €12 million in savings that the Irish mortgage industry
can make by adopting an industry standard is very significant. The productivity gains will be shared by
brokers and lenders alike. We are delighted to now partner with AEMA in calling on the industry to
leverage the benefits of a common mortgage administrative platform in order to achieve these substantial
gains.
“Brokers can use our mte in conjunction with their existing CRM systems and protect their existing IT
investments. This will help eliminate multiple re-keying which considerably erodes broker productivity.
Lenders too will save by getting data and documents directly into their back office IT systems enabling
faster and more efficient mortgage processing. All with only one single IT ‘bridge’ the Mortgage Trading
Exchange.”
The proliferation of paper in today’s mortgage application process makes the entire journey slow,
cumbersome and costly both for intermediaries and lenders. Working with paper slows the entire business
process down and both intermediaries and lender employees spend enormous time pushing paper around,
according to Quinn.
Mark Lofthouse, CEO, Mortgage Brain added “Irish brokers are clearly embracing the technology and its
benefits. I am delighted to see the AEMA driving this important industry initiative. Mortgage Brain has
already proven that an industry solution delivers better broker and lender service at a lower overall
cost.”