In the past year, Prudential’s Premier Mortgage Service (PMS) recorded applications worth £24.5bn and completions totalling £18.35bn, both substantially larger than the other UK clubs.
John Malone, national mortgage manager at PMS, conceded that the next 12 months will be testing, as the competition for business quickens in a market that has had a slower start to 2003 than 2002. He said: ‘In light of such conditions we expect opportunities to surface in less traditional areas and for the market to be driven by remortgage deals.’
As the second-largest club in the UK, the Legal & General (L&G) mortgage club did not have any figures available at the time of going to press. But John Cupis, sales and marketing director at L&G, admitted its figures would not be as large as PMS’ as it only has 16 lenders on its panel.
He said: ‘L&G’s focus has been to work with a small number of lender partners and to concentrate on delivering volume business.’
Zurich Advice Network, the third-largest club, also has 16 lenders on its panel, but recorded applications worth £10bn and completions of £6.5bn
The smallest of ‘the big four,’ Norwich Union, reported applications for the mortgage club as a whole were £4.9bn in 2002, and for the IFA club alone applications totalled £3.1bn. It does not have any completion figures as yet.
