Canadian Mortgage Revolution: Raising the Bar on Professional Conduct
| July 20, 2011
With “Revolution” by The Beatles blaring overhead, roughly 60 mortgage industry professionals came to order yesterday morning in Calgary to discuss raising the bar on current professional practice for mortgage brokerage professionals.
Readers will recall recent RECABlog posts about the Real Estate Council of Alberta’s (RECA) own strategic planning process and the advice received across all industry sectors about raising the bar on the professional conduct of practitioners. Yesterday morning’s session had all the characteristics of a “grass roots” movement, to accept personal responsibility for raising the level of trust and confidence in consumers and accountability for promoting the unique value proposition of mortgage brokers.
Industry leaders presented ideas and information to the assembled group, and there was an opportunity for participation in a facilitated conversation about the challenges and opportunities unique to the mortgage brokerage channel. As representatives of RECA, the governing body, we observed that the challenges and solutions put forth are not exclusive to mortgage brokers. In fact, this could have been a gathering of real estate industry professionals with a slightly different slant on some very similar themes all supported in this instance by statistics from the CMHC 2011 Mortgage Consumer Survey.
The ideas included sharing ideas and best practices among professionals; enhanced education for industry professionals; less focus on rates and more focus on the unique value proposition that mortgage brokers can offer; enhancing relationships with lenders; establishing national standards, and regulatory and association harmonization; respective roles for all stakeholders including industry organizations; and, competition from unregulated service providers.
To all attendees yesterday, RECA offers kudos for your participation and willingness to have a look in the mirror. Spread the word. To the organizers, we offer kudos and our support for future sessions, to work together to advance the professionalism of the industry. These initiatives are completely aligned with RECA’s vision for the future of the industry.
To everyone reading this post, please comment and let us know what you believe is the single most important element in raising the bar on professionalism – the key, if you will, to industry professionals being held by the public in the same high esteem as other professions? And, what are you going to do about it?
