Portman Building Society has denied allegations of cross selling following complaints from broker Norwest Consultants.
Norwest placed a client’s £400,000 mortgage with Portman in February 2000 and Harry Katz, principal of Norwest, claimed Portman’s financial services arm replaced term assurance that he had arranged for the client with its own.
Paul Howard, associate director of Portman BS, said: ‘This is obviously not standard practice, it would be a quick way to commit suicide in the intermediary market. We ensure, as all lenders do, that borrowers have appropriate insurance in place, but obviously if business is introduced we would assume the broker was dealing with this. I do not know the details of this actual case, but it is certainly an error and we would look to refund any lost commission.’
Katz admitted he had not had problems with Portman BS in the past and added: ‘I am surprised at this approach from The Portman but I guess that is what happens when you have a sales team under pressure… If they start doing this it will create problems for them in the long term.’
The Portman successfully fought off carpetbaggers last week with the re-election of the current board.
