Scottish Life Mortgages (SLM) may move in with parent company Royal London in a bid to improve service and efficiency levels.
The proposed move will see SLM move from Leeds to Cheshire, and will allow it to share compliance and mortgage administration staff with Royal London. The move is being seen as a pre-emptive measure to curb costs before the advent of statutory regulation next year.
Commenting, Chris Ide, chief executive of Royal London’s retail operations, said: “The regulatory shake-up in the mortgage market presents every participant, from lenders to mortgage advisers, with a significant challenge. The challenge is to develop robust processes that meet the demands of the Financial Services Authority (FSA) regime.
“For those companies that rise to the challenge of regulation, there will be a real opportunity to achieve high volumes of new mortgage business. The changes we are making to SLM will enable us to anticipate changes in regulation and to improve the service we offer to advisers.”
Steven Scholes, director of SLM, admitted that any move was still subject to staff consultation, but said: “As the only non-lender offering direct download of applications, SLM has already indicated its commitment to realising operating efficiencies that will benefit mortgage advisers. The proposals we have announced today will help us improve efficiency still further.”
