Mortgage 2000 has introduced a range of improvements to its broker-focused sourcing site, financesupermarket.com. These will include faster underwriting, email updates and increased commissions for brokers.
Simon Nixon, chief executive at Mortgage 2000, said: “We are now pledging to underwrite all cases within three working hours of receipt. So if we receive a case at 10am, by 1pm it will have been fully underwritten, credit checked, references will have been applied for, the valuation instructed and the broker will have had an update report emailed to them.”
He added: “We will also send brokers email updates for every event in the process, for example, when references are received. Brokers prefer this to tracking the case on the website.”
Mortgage 2000 has also negotiated with some of the lenders on the site to offer enhanced commissions to brokers applying electronically. So far, 16 of the 70 lenders included on the panel have agreed to increase commission payments by £25, although this figure is expected to rise. They include Bristol & West, Kensington, Mortgages plc, West Bromwich Building Society and Bank of Ireland Mortgages.
While there are now many sites selling mortgages direct over the internet, Nixon believes it is the electronic sector where growth will be focused.
He said: “The US is now a year or so ahead of us in terms of electronic mortgages, which account for 60% of the intermediary mortgage market. Consumer electronic mortgages still only account for 3% to 4% of the market. Consumers do not always trust the system and they need an element of human reassurance.”
