Mortgage Advice Bureau Regulatory News (MAB1)

26 May 2020

Mortgage Advice Bureau (Holdings) plc

AGM Statement

Mortgage Advice Bureau (Holdings) plc ("MAB"), one of the UK's leading consumer intermediary brands and specialist Appointed Representative ("AR") networks, will hold its Annual General Meeting at 2pm today during which the Non-Executive Chair, Katherine Innes Ker, will make the following statement:

"Adviser numbers have remained stable since our final results announcement on 23 April 2020. As at 22 May 2020, our number of advisers totalled 1,476, including 215 furloughed advisers.

Amid a relaxation of the lockdown announced by the UK Government, the housing market re-opened in England on 13 May 2020 with new regulations enabling surveyors to undertake physical valuations and property appraisals and buyers to visit properties and arrange removals, subject to a new set of safety guidelines. This signals the start of a gradual recovery of the housing market, despite some remaining loan to value constraints. Restrictions on the housing market in Wales, Northern Ireland and Scotland remain in place but are expected to be lifted shortly.

After a strong first quarter followed by two months of significant reduction in purchase-related activity under lockdown, we expect our growth to start resuming progressively as advisers come out of furlough and purchase related productivity starts to build.

During this challenging period, our advisers have turned their focus towards opportunities in the re-mortgage, product transfer and protection markets. We have prioritised our resources to support advisers in these areas and ensure the improvements we have seen as a result are maintained and built upon as purchase transaction volumes start to recover.

The attitude, hard work and dedication of the MAB team during this unprecedented time has been exceptional, and as a result MAB's support for its ARs and their customers is standing out more than ever in this market.

Over 40 new campaigns and initiatives have been rolled out or piloted in the last 10 weeks alone, and we have been delighted with how our AR firms and their advisers have responded. They have embraced new ways of engaging remotely with customers, making more of every opportunity as well as ensuring their customers are properly looked after during these challenging times.

Whilst the outlook will no doubt remain uncertain for some time, we have already seen increased activity since the re-opening of the English house purchase market, which we expect will gather pace over the coming weeks and months.

Additionally, we believe that the new ways of working and initiatives we have implemented to support our ARs in maximising lead generation in the re-mortgage, product transfer and protection markets will strengthen their future performance as well as assist with new AR recruitment. We therefore remain very positive about the future."

Enquiries: