Mortgage Advice Bureau has credited its 43 per cent uptick in revenue this year to a mystery partner set to be announced in September.
The mortgage intermediary, whose revenues reached £91m in the first six months of this year compared to £63m a year earlier, put the growth down to “significant new lead sources” from a “long-term agreement with one of the UK's leading price comparison websites”.
The deal, secured sometime this year, will be announced towards the end of September, a spokesperson told FTAdviser.
In October 2020, MAB signed a deal with Moneyfacts to become its preferred mortgage broker. But the intermediary’s spokesperson told FTAdviser its new partner was “much bigger” than Moneyfacts.
In a trading update ahead of its interim results, MAB said it now houses 1,694 advisers, an increase of 114 (or 7 per cent) since December, when it housed 1,580.
Over the last two years, MAB has increased its mainstream adviser headcount by 28 per cent - reflecting a steady growth of 7 per cent every six months since the second half of 2019.
In this same period, it said its advisers have enjoyed an individual revenue boost of 17 per cent. This is in spite of a sector-wide decline for the first time since 2016.
"With restrictions starting to slowly lift from mid-April, we have now completed most of the recruitment discussions that were put on hold and therefore expect to see a significant increase in mainstream adviser numbers in H2 and moving into 2022, including the additional mainstream advisers required to service the new lead sources MAB continues to secure,” said Peter Brodnicki, MAB’s chief executive.
All but 52 of MAB’s advisers - who are directly authorised or later life advisers - are expected to receive an interim dividend at the end of October.
Brodnicki said he was “confident” the recent developments in lead generation and technology investments “put MAB in an ever-stronger position to accelerate its pace of growth”.
In March MAB announced it was developing its own home-buying app in partnership with tech firm Life Moments. Called ‘Home Buying Buddy’, it was designed to coach prospective borrowers through the purchasing process.
The mortgage intermediary also secured a long-term agreement with Nottingham Building Society to provide its advice via the lender’s Beehive Money app.
This includes providing advice to Nottingham’s 50,000 lifetime Isa customers, which are prime first-time buyer candidates - giving MAB the opportunity to increase its market share in a sector it’s already investing heavily in.
Earlier this month, the company bought a 49 per cent stake in Evolve FS Limited, an Ipswich-based telephone advice firm focused on new builds. The deal added 35 mainstream advisers to MAB.
ruby.hinchliffe@ft.com
