Mortgage Brain launches ‘Mortgage Skill’ on Amazon Echo

Mortgage Brain has become the first UK mortgage technology company to develop a ‘Mortgage Skill’ on Amazon’s Echo devices.

The feature will enable users to ask Alexa, Amazon’s virtual assistant, to search for a mortgage and find their local mortgage adviser.

Alexa will search through over 10,000 mortgages after asking a few questions and provide details of products that match their requirements.

As well as verbally relaying information Alexa will also send a summary of the top fixed, variable and tracker mortgage results to the user’s Alexa app.

What’s more, Alexa will search through thousands of mortgage advisers based on an owner’s postcode – or the one registered for the device – to provide the name and phone number of the nearest one and send a list of up to 10 local advisers to the Alexa app.

Mark Lofthouse, chief executive officer of Mortgage Brain, commented: “This launch is part of a much bigger picture and strategy. It is the start of a consumer’s digital mortgage experience and, after this initial introduction, they can complete a fact find online and securely exchange documents and messages through The Key, our CRM system’s Client Portal.”

“And that’s not the end of the story,” he went on, “as the advice process, product selection and application submission through the completion can be just as slick and efficient using our sourcing systems and application submission platform.”

This development is an extension of Mortgage Brain’s launch of the first ever consumer mobile app – UKMortgages – five years ago, which enabled users to search for a mortgage and find a local adviser. The app has since then been used around two million times and delivered tens of thousands of new business leads to advisers.

“With this new Amazon Echo Mortgage Skill, consumers can carry out initial mortgage search and enquiry process by asking Alexa,” Lofthouse added. “Users simply say the trigger words ‘Alexa, Open UKMortgages’ and Alexa takes it from there.”

He said this innovation will deliver ‘real and tangible benefits’ to Mortgage Brain customers.