Fifty-four per cent of brokers and intermediaries have revealed that they undershot their 2020 business projections, according to a new study by United Trust Bank (UTB).

Of those brokers, 25% suggested they had “substantially missed” their targets for last year. However, 23% of brokers also indicated that their results for 2020 had exceeded their expectations.

UTB’s study was carried out in December and based on responses from 102 brokers operating in the property and asset finance sectors.

The findings also showed that when asked to choose a word to best describe their business outlook for 2021, a majority (52%) chose “challenging”, while 44% chose “exciting”. The remaining 4% chose to describe their 2021 outlook as “worrying”.

“The COVID-19 pandemic continues to create challenge and uncertainty but it’s encouraging to see that 44% of property and commercial finance brokers achieved or exceeded their 2020 targets and many are looking forward to this year with enthusiasm,” UTB CEO, Harley Kagan, commented.

“At UTB our investment in fintech, the hard work of our staff and a resolute commitment to supporting brokers and borrowers enabled us to continue to lend throughout last year and to complete record levels of new business in a very challenging operating environment.

“We are already planning several new products, criteria and process enhancements and of course further investment in technology in 2021, and our focus remains on supporting our customers and helping brokers to write more business.”

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