Lenders could turn to account aggregators to save time

Services like OnTrees and eWise allow people to see all of their bank accounts in one place to easily work out their income and expenditure.

Woodcock predicted lenders making use of them within two years to quickly assess customers while still complying with the Mortgage Market Review.

The IRESS Mortgage Efficiency Survey 2015 found that the percentage of cases going to offer in 10 days or less increased by 4% year-on-year to 26.5% between April 2014 and March 2015.

But Woodcock reckoned all lenders should aspire to hit the 10-day window.

He said: “Lenders will use account aggregators to access income and expenditure within the next couple of years – it will take off as it takes paper out of the whole process.

“It would remove a couple of days out of the time to offer.”

He added: “I use an account aggregator and it’s good to see all your bank accounts in one place.

“If you have already given all your information to a trusted party there’s no reason why lenders couldn’t set it up so the two systems can talk to each other.”