B&C sat down with Piotr Twaits, managing director at the firm, to talk about how the industry has changed over the past decade, as well as what’s in store for the firm’s future.

Looking back on the past 10 years, Piotr reflected on what he saw as a sturdy market, despite an often turbulent economic climate: “The market is pretty robust, it adapts really well.

“And when we've had some of these shock moments over the past 10 years, you sit back, take a big deep breath and think, ‘oh my word, how is it going to recover from this and how is it going to go forward?’”

While Piotr noted high interest rates as the most recent of the market hurdles, he said lenders had been hardy and came up with innovative ways to support clients.

He also acknowledged that new lenders were entering the finance space, particularly in property. However, he said their approach to the market was key.

“The ones that have done really well in terms of coming to market new [are] having a very controlled approach: soft launches, making sure that they've got their systems, people in the back having the ability to cope with the volumes that come in with that, and that approach has worked really well.

“The ones that rush to market and try to do all things to all people generally struggle. And their SLAs go through the roof and it grinds to a halt.”

Piotr felt the FCA had become more knowledgeable on the sector over the past decade, meaning brokers needed to be more up to date with aspects such as compliance and more recently, commission disclosures. Synergy has made it its mission to help brokers to navigate these changes, and Piotr puts its “industry leading” grasp of the regulations down to a strong head office function.

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The Synergy team has grown over the years, with head count rising to over 50 people at the start of last year, including a rapidly expanding marketing department as well as a finance education initiative to support new entrants to the industry.

“Another major step has been our finance education centre, which is really supporting their new talent coming into the industry and so helping them develop from minimal or no knowledge to a reasonable knowledge of commercial finance,” said Piotr.

But personnel and industry knowledge aren’t the only areas where the firm is looking to grow.

“What do we see over the next three, five, 10 years? I'd love it to be 50% growth year on year, but good, steady growth over that period of time,” he said. He noted the ever-increasing need for capital in order to operate in the face of market changes such as the recent Budget, while also highlighting the positive impacts of Brexit were yet to play out.

The firm is also looking to continue recruiting brokers to its network. Piotr explained that while the average of 18 new additions per-annum is something he would like to see the company maintain, he wants to concentrate on quality over quantity.

To Piotr, the past 10 years has moved fast, but so too has the broker sphere.

“The fact that the professionalism has been driven through the broker channels now is great news. It's not perceived as a lower statesman anymore. It's definitely value add.”

He continued: “I'm really incredibly proud to be a part of the Synergy and the AFS side of things and the broker community as well. I think we're adding some real value in the market for clients, lenders and introducers, partners that we all work with.”