The advice world is trying to work out how to adapt to the changes from digitisation, and for Brian Brodie, group chief executive of Freedom Finance, this is particularly pertinent.
He arrived from Virgin Money five months ago. He was brought in to develop the loan broker into a more diverse and digitally focused platform, in an attempt to catch the next phase of digital evolution.
Mr Brodie said: “We want more and more content delivered to us that’s relevant – content that will help me in my life – and we want digital to make it easier to do business with people. One of the things that is becoming more obvious is that some people want a digital journey that’s very straight through, but other people like to engage with a human and get more education and have more understanding.
“It’s a fusion of the human world and digital worlds – bringing the digital experience and human warmth together.”
Everyone can be different on this score, he said based on their own experience and ease with the digital landscape.
Mr Brodie said: “Say you’re buying a loan. You’ve got through a part of the process, and you’re unsure of the next step, and something doesn’t feel right. You have to use a human being in the situation, and we have to find creative ways of getting the human person in that digital experience.”
This human could interact through a webchat or more direct “facetime” he explained. “That might not be appropriate for every single transaction, but it might be for certain customers at a certain point.” “It’s building up something in the digital world that’s not just flat graphics.”
Freedom Finance is a loan broker that unsecured loans, and has 30,000 customers a month. It does also offer secured loans, known as second-charge mortgages. It has just bought a first-charge mortgage broker, Sensible Home Finance that double the number of advisers at the offices and take it into more conventional home-loan territory.
As this is Mr Brodie’s first acquisition, and a big strategic decision; so is he worried about a dampening of the housing market following uncertainty over the UK economy?
He said: “The broker we acquired; it’s more a remortgage brokerage rather than a house purchase brokerage. People always need a new deal, so that part is a little more predictable than if you use a house purchase brokerage.
“Maybe in the short term you might see the interest rate movement go down at some point, but you have to accept the fact that these low levels will reverse and start to move up. People who are on a long-term tracker may see their payments starting to go up, and want to move onto a fixed rate. That’s why it’s a suitable and appropriate acquisition.
“If you look at July, we would have done £18m of unsecured loans against £5m of secured loans, so the early indicators are that people still need to borrow money.”
Freedom Finance is owned by private equity firm, Pollen Street Capital, which bought the business in 2014. It appointed Mr Brodie earlier this year, clearly with his CV in mind.
Mr Brodie worked in the mortgage sector for a number of years before joining Virgin Money four years ago and becoming sales and marketing director for the brand three years ago.
He said: “Virgin Money is a huge, powerful fantastic brand. I was very fortunate to see that up close, which has given me thoughts about what we might do with the Freedom Finance brand.”
Mr Brodie was responsible for the digital part of Virgin Money business, specifically, the trading through the web estate. He has thought about developing the Freedom Finance brand and raising its profile beyond its current TV advertising slots.
He is relentlessly upbeat about the future of the economy. Mindful of people “talking themselves into a recession”, he said: “people will still need to move homes.
“I haven’t got a crystal ball, but the economy will depend on the deals we’re going to get [on Europe]. I think all business people will have to be on their toes and be responsive – and that’s always been the case.
“Freedom Finance has been around in one form or another for 30 years so if something were to happen, the business would weather the storm. I’ve lived through a fair few recessions, and many of the people running businesses have been through something similar in their own lifetimes – there’s a lot of experience.”
“There’s still good employment, even where sterling is where it is. There’s a strength in exports, which may bring more growth in the economy. We just have to be resilient.”
Melanie Tringham is features editor of Financial Adviser
March 2016 – present Group chief executive, Freedom Finance
2013 – 2016 Sales and marketing director, Virgin Money
2012 – 2013 Customer and distribution director, Virgin Money
2012 – 2012 Operations director, Virgin Money
2009 – 2011 Chief executive, HML
2008 – 2009 Managing director, HML
2005 – 2007 Director of RSO, Royal Bank of Scotland
2003 – 2005 Director of mortgage operations, Royal Bank of Scotland
