Mortgage Advice Bureau (MAB) has said it expects some mortgage and protection appointed representative (AR) firms to resume recruitment earlier than planned as it reported better than expected trading at the end of 2023.
MAB said that in September 2023 its board took a “cautious” view on expected activity levels for Q4 2023 and the outlook for the full year.
However, it added: “actual trading was better than anticipated in Q4 2023 and the board now expects the group to report an adjusted profit before tax that is slightly ahead of the current market consensus”.
In November, MAB proposition director Andy Walton told Health & Protection why the firm had seen an increase in income protection (IP) sales having written 23,000 IP policies in the year to date.
Revenue up
In its latest trading update for the year ended 31 December 2023, MAB noted that while UK Finance estimated gross new mortgage lending for 2023 to fall 28% to £226bn, the advice firm increased revenue for the year by 4% to around £239m.
As predicted, its total number of advisers at the year-end was down 4% to 2,158 from 2,254 in 2022, including 117 advisers at Fluent, with the average number of mainstream advisers during the year down 2% to 1,940 from 1,988 in 2022.
Its number of mainstream advisers at the year-end was down 8% to 1,918 from 2,074 in 2022.
But MAB added the underlying level of demand for home ownership and home moves “remains strong”.
“As the cost of fixed rate mortgages started to reduce at the end of last year, we saw early signs of increased purchase activity as well as re-financing,” it continued.
“This pick-up in mortgage volumes has continued into January, with written volumes substantially higher than in January 2023 in the aftermath of the mini-budget.
“While uncertainty remains in the wider political and geopolitical environment, current trading is encouraging.
“MAB remains in a very strong position to capitalise on any market recovery and the inevitable catch-up in house purchase transactions that will follow.”
And while MAB assumes no organic adviser growth for this year, it added it expects some of its appointed representative (AR) firms to resume recruitment earlier than planned if the current momentum continues, with the group returning to previously achieved levels of adviser growth in 2025.
A MAB spokesperson told Health & Protection recruitment will be for both mortgage ARs and those of protection specialists and firms see the need for protection specialism.
“In terms of the addition of new AR firms, activity levels built strongly in H2 2023, and continue to do so,” it continued.
Peter Brodnicki, CEO of MAB, described 2023 as an “exceptionally challenging year with consumer confidence heavily impacted, resulting in many customers deciding to delay their house purchase or re-financing”.
“Against this difficult backdrop I am very pleased with how MAB has significantly outperformed the market,” he continued.
The group’s final results will be published on 19 March.