For those of you who may still think the photo I use in some articles is current, it is not. The look of shock on some faces when we first meet suggests that it might be time to update said image and nothing confirms my retreat into older age more than recent events.\u00a0 Yes, it\u2019s true.\u00a0 The managing director and I have purchased a caravan.\u00a0 But Mike, you\u2019re too young I hear you cry.\u00a0 Nonsense, the MD may be too young, child bride that she was, but I am certainly age qualified. In fact, I know of several other industry specialists who call something on 4 wheels home for at least part of their leisure time. Of course, if you live permanently in something on wheels that may suggest a separate issue but let\u2019s not go there.<\/p>\n
Miraculously we have just completed our maiden voyage without killing each other or needing to brief counsellors or lawyers. We had a ball, not least because my parents, who are in their 80s, accompanied us in their van and seemed to take great delight in seeing us adjust to life on the road. They are an amazing couple coming up for 60 years married and they still cycle and play tennis. Even fitted in at the Byron pub!\u00a0 Of course, all good things must come to an end, and we are back home and coping with the day to day issues of life.<\/p>\n
Having spent a couple of weeks living in a very small yet simple space with no real need to interact with the modern world I find myself wondering\u2026\u2026\u2026when did things get so complicated and just plain hard?<\/p>\n
It seems to me that in my game there are two key drivers within the banks (and most other large corporates) that are working in concert to make things more difficult and slower than they need to be.\u00a0 The first is something we see in a lot of larger companies and it\u2019s got a very misleading name.\u00a0 Efficiency. We are introducing a new process to aid efficiency.\u00a0 We are closing your local branch in an efficiency drive.\u00a0 Calls will be taken by our wonderful staff in Mumbai in our relentless quest for efficiency.\u00a0 Loan security documents will be prepared offshore etc etc etc.\u00a0 It\u2019s all garbage of course.\u00a0 Efficiency is corporate speak for cost cutting and the consumer be damned. The challenge for all companies is that they are judged on their share price and return to shareholders with little value placed on service. Better to use up the consumers time sitting on call waiting than have sufficient staff to actually pick up the phone.\u00a0 Better to have a talented banker desk bound and stressed out of his or her mind than provide sufficient support for them to do a good job. I could go on but you get the picture.<\/p>\n
A while back the banks, in an effort to introduce further efficiency, adopted an automated valuation quote and instruction process.\u00a0 We reckon its added, on average, two weeks to the time needed to get our hands on a management rights valuation report.\u00a0 So, look at a 4 week valuation period as a minimum and you won\u2019t be disappointed.\u00a0 Used to be two weeks.\u00a0 Gotta love efficiency!\u00a0 And, because banks are cutting staff and no one on the front line can make a decision any more, allow another two weeks for an approval and Letter of Offer. That\u2019s 6 weeks if everything goes perfectly. Not long ago finance dates were set at 28 days, now we are advising clients to work on 48 days minimum, that\u2019s a 70% increase in the time it takes from contract to formal documented finance approval.\u00a0 It\u2019s not unusual for us to encounter people who have been waiting months for an answer from their bank on a credit application.\u00a0 Gotta love efficiency.<\/p>\n
So, that\u2019s driver number one in the game.\u00a0 The second, and I suspect soon to be number 1 contributor to this sorry state of affairs is Compliance. We live in an age and culture of zero personal responsibility, so we need lots of rules and laws to protect us against both ourselves and our fellow citizens.\u00a0 I\u2019ve travelled a bit and I think we might be the most nanny state centric place on the planet. In most countries, including Australia, it takes maybe 10 blokes (it\u2019s always blokes) to do a bit of roadwork, fill in a few potholes, that sort of thing. Anywhere else that\u2019s a couple of workers on the stop \/ go signs and 8 people swinging shovels.\u00a0 Not here though.\u00a0 Here we have 8 people on the signs and 2 people on the tools.\u00a0 Gotta love compliance.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s the same idea in finance and, post banking enquiry, it\u2019s going to get worse. Just as our law makers assume we can\u2019t drive through some road works without a cast of thousands supervising us, they also believe we can\u2019t make decisions for ourselves regarding our finances. The laughable level of disclosure and documentation banks must provide has led to very simple financial products and services being delivered with mountains of paperwork, Product Disclosure Statements and the like. Who reads all that stuff?\u00a0 We do, when it\u2019s for a client, but let me tell you, when it\u2019s my own personal matter I check the summary page and throw the rest in the bin. Bet you do to.\u00a0 The sad fact is that in an effort to protect the poor misinformed consumer we are simply delivering an impenetrable blizzard of rules, paperwork and\u2026\u2026\u2026\u2026\u2026\u2026\u2026compliance.\u00a0 Great result if you are in my profession, the more complicated the process, the more value a finance broker adds.<\/p>\n
Here\u2019s a thought.\u00a0 Why not spend the money saved through efficiencies on consumer education? Surely if we all understand how finance works we can make educated decisions and think for ourselves.<\/p>\n
Whoops, what a silly idea.\u00a0 Next thing they\u2019ll be cutting the numbers of stop \/ go people on the assumption that we all have a driver\u2019s licence.\u00a0 It will never work.<\/p>\n
On a parting note, the van is on the footpath and available via Air BnB.\u00a0 Should prove a nice little earner.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
For those of you who may still think the photo I use in some articles is current, it is not. The look of shock on some faces when we first meet suggests that it might be time to update said image and nothing confirms my retreat into older age more than recent events.\u00a0 Yes, it\u2019s true.\u00a0 The managing director and I have purchased a caravan.\u00a0 But Mike, you\u2019re too young I hear you cry.\u00a0 Nonsense, the MD may be too young, child bride that she was, but I am certainly age qualified. In fact, I know of several other industry specialists who call something onRead More →<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1046,"featured_media":927,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mbp_gutenberg_autopost":false},"categories":[3,7],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/theonsitemanager.com.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/926"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/theonsitemanager.com.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/theonsitemanager.com.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theonsitemanager.com.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1046"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theonsitemanager.com.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=926"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/theonsitemanager.com.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/926\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":928,"href":"https:\/\/theonsitemanager.com.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/926\/revisions\/928"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theonsitemanager.com.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/927"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/theonsitemanager.com.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=926"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theonsitemanager.com.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=926"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theonsitemanager.com.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=926"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}