How they go about it and their appetite for different levels of risk, especially when comparing a high street underwriter with their specialist counterpart, varies widely.
In the third instalment of our four-part video series on the self-employed lending market, our panel of experts shared their experiences of how specialist underwriters view self-employed cases and how brokers can use this inside knowledge to their advantage.
Speaking on the video debate, Maeve Ward, head of intermediary sales for personal finance at Together, said: “Underwriters want to understand what the applicant is trying to do, what security [they are] taking, what does their credit profile look like and, if there are blips there, what’s the story?”
She added: “How does their affordability look now and, ultimately, [how] is their affordability going to look in the future?”
Once they’ve been through this process, Ward said the underwriter takes a step back to look at the case as a whole to consider whether granting the loan leads to a good customer outcome.
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Nick Parker, head of networks and clubs at Together, went on to discuss how high street and specialist lenders decide on the borrower’s propensity to default.
Later, the panel discussed the attributes and evidence that specialist underwriters look for to give them surety to lend, along with the most common questions an underwriter might ask and how brokers can prepare for this or pre-empt them.
Catch up on part one of our series to hear how the explosion of gig economy workers has made self-employed income more complex while adding an opportunity for further growth in the self-employed market. In our second instalment, the panel discussed complex self-employed borrower circumstances and shared tips on how brokers could successfully place those cases.
