Ifonline has announced that it is to launch the first mortgage sourcing system specifically designed for the sub-prime market.
The system will be launched to brokers in the week beginning 8 January 2001 and will be accessed in a similar way to the rest of the IFonline software.
Mike Douglas, head of sales and marketing at IFonline, said: “There is nothing like it in the marketplace at all. Yet you see statistics indicating that one in six people in some areas are being refused a standard mortgage, so the market is enormous.
“Furthermore, a lot of these people will need specialist advice from brokers.”
The new system will form part of the existing package. Once they are online, brokers will have a choice of four mortgage options: residential, flexible, non-conforming or buy-to-let.
The questions on the application screens have been deliberately designed to establish the information required by the sub-prime market.
All the suitable sub-prime mortgages are filtered out by finding out the credit history of the client, which includes any CCJs, mortgage or rent arrears, repossessions or bankruptcies.
The system pre-selects what is available and so brokers do not have to start from the beginning if the application is unsuccessful.
Richard Hurst, marketing manager at IFonline, said: “Because it is an intelligent questioning system, much of the administration legwork is being done for the broker, which gives them more time to spend with the client looking at other areas.
“Brokers add value when they are talking to clients not when they are searching through mortgages.”
