The Growing Finance Broker Market Needs Better Technology

“Finance brokerages need better technology to maximise the opportunity afforded by an accelerating bank branch closure programme,” Allen Jones, MD at financial technology experts Copernicus.

Banks in the UK are set to close a record 762 branches this year, according to a recent Reuters report. It is the latest statistic in what has been an accelerating trend.

While emerging banking technology is proving to be valuable to business customers, the Federation of Small Business has reported that small businesses across the UK continue to value the personal interaction that is not easily replicated by online or mobile banking. This is the gap that finance brokerages are filling, as Jones observes;

“The fast-growing SME audience are often time short and hungry for quality trusted finance guidance to grow and sustain their businesses. More SMEs and the demise of the local bank branch are creating an increasing opportunity for local finance brokerages to serve their local business communities with the type of personal face-to-face service that such businesses often value.”

Jones points to the fact that financial brokerages typically provide a high level of experience and product knowledge, often gained in previous banking roles to their customers as being a major strength. At the same time, he is candid in his observation that; “the technology to support their business is something with which they are often distinctly less comfortable from our experience.”

In the same way, that Jones sees the way in which finance brokers can provide a growing audience of customers with trusted, easy to access and utilise financial expertise; he is determined that Copernicus can provide these very brokers with technology that shares the same ‘trusted, easy to access and utilise’ features, concluding:

“There is a fascinating dynamic in finance right now; digitisation by traditional banks is driving the broker opportunity, but these brokers in turn, can benefit by digitising parts of their operations to operate in an effective, efficient and compliant manner. While these finance brokers work to meet their customers’ needs with appropriate personal service, we are determined to echo this approach to support their technology needs.”