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A futurist and fintech startup co-founder has encouraged brokers, banks and the whole financial services to accept and evolve with technology.
At an event in Sydney this week, experts have been discussing where technology could take banks and financial services in the future.
Speaking at AMP's Amplify event yesterday (13 June), guest speaker Brett King looked at the way banks have progressed through the introduction of the internet, to mobile banking and then even further to mobile payments.
King, originally from Australia, is the co-founder and CEO of mobile banking startup in New York, Moven.
Looking at the way technology is evolving, with virtual reality and smart speakers, King said it could be that advice on buying a home is something we ask our Google Home or Amazon Alexa for in the future.
Speaking after the conference, he discussed the possibility of technology knowing someone would be about to buy a home before they even said anything. The whole point is to limit the number of interactions, or friction, you have to make applying for finance as fast as possible.
King said, "Ideally what would happen is by the time you walk into the display home or village we know where you are and there's a good chance you're in the process of buying a home. So then we have to look for the behavioural trigger that indicates you're ready to make a purchase on the home. That maybe you go into your account to look at how much you can afford for a deposit.
"Pre-approval is a very important construct here. If you think about lowering friction, one of the key data competencies that financial services or organisations will have to have is the ability to approve in real time. If you have to wait to approve someone for a mortgage or a line of credit you're going to miss out on future business."
King also discussed the possibility of AirBnB underwriting home loans, when buyers agreed to rent out rooms in exchange for help on the loan.
So where does this kind of future see the mortgage broker?
"Learn to code," King laughed. "I'm joking. I think if you look at the platform, that experience around the mortgage, start extending beyond just a mortgage product and start thinking in that experience of buying a home and where you can get a foot in that experience based on the technologies.
"That really comes back to partnership between the mortgage broker and the mortgage provider from a platform perspective with other players in that ecosystem and becoming more open and accessible to that.
"It's really more about saying you've got a platform here with the ability that gives someone access to a mortgage, how do we get that to more people through the technology layers? This is where you have to shift your thinking."
AMP Bank Group Executive Sally Bruce said that brokers were already providing a frictionless service, by completing the paperwork and other processes for borrowers.
She said having these kinds of conversations was vital in making sure the financial services, including AMP, could evolve to maintain relevant.
She added, "All industries, including financial services will evolve as technology continues to drive change. It is both smart and necessary to be actively working to anticipate these changes.
"No one is immune to the changing landscape and mortgage brokers and advisers have an incredibly important role in this evolution given the valuable service they provide in supporting more than 50% of all Australians seeking a home loan.
"At AMP Bank we look forward to working closely with our partners to anticipate consumers changing expectations and to be best placed to meet them."
Agreeing that noone is immune to the changes of technology, King said, "What you learn when you look at technology disruption in 250 years, there's zero industries that have been able to remain static in the face of technology disruption. I as a futurist can't understand why people resist change, because it's inevitable, or argue the relevance of their existing traditional model in the face of this sort of disruption. Everything history teaches us, it's inevitable and you've got to be prepared."
