For intermediaries, finding the right mortgage for the client is not simply about identifying the best rate on the market, but also ensuring that the case will fit the lender’s criteria and is packaged correctly.
From a lender’s perspective, this is where the support offered by a BDM or telephone BDM (TBDM) is invaluable, helping intermediaries to place quality cases successfully and quickly and offering a service proposition that really adds value, and provides intermediaries with the peace of mind that their case will be processed quickly and efficiently.
We’ve worked hard to improve our service over the past 12 months and being named number one lender for service recently is testament to how far we’ve come. But this is just the beginning and we’ll be introducing more enhancements over the coming months to further improve our offering and help make the application process as seamless as possible for intermediaries and their clients.
Speed of offer is key in today’s market and with good packaging ultimately leading to more offers and quicker decisions, our sales force are often asked for advice on how to put together the best possible case. Here are some of our top tips:
Affordability
Including all of your client’s income is essential when assessing affordability, which is why abbeyforintermediaries.com has a detailed calculator which is the same as the calculator our underwriters use. By using a payslip to get income deductions correct, including all income types on the calculator, and then transferring this information onto our introducer internet, your customer’s income will be assessed correctly and the case processed faster, meaning less of your time is taken up responding to additional questions.
In our lending guide, we’ve laid out the different income types we will allow and whether we treat 100% of the declared income or 50% in our calculations. Meanwhile, our income evidence requirement guide tells you what you need to provide to us to support the income you are declaring.
Our most recent improvement means that we now allow regular monthly bonuses, overtime and commission income types to be used as primary income, as long as they are proven to be regular and consistent through three months’ bank statements or payslips. In short this means that we’ll take 100% of bonus, overtime and commission in these circumstances.
BDMs
BDM and TBDMs are ultimately there to support you, so make the most of them. As well as providing education and information on lending policies and procedures, BDMs can help you navigate lender systems more efficiently, discuss difficult cases and escalate problems, all of which can add real value to you and your business
Packaging
When it comes to packaging, it’s really just about sending what we ask for, not more, not less. Some of the most common omissions we see relate to the following areas:
• Details of any resident over 17 years old who isn’t an applicant – we ask for their full name(s); relationship to applicant(s); whether they’re financially dependent on applicant(s); and, if they are providing (or have provided) any money towards the transaction.
• Details of a gifted deposit – we need to know the full name(s) of person providing the gift and their relationship to the applicant(s); the amount of the gift; whether the person(s) providing the gift will be retaining any legal interest; and, if there are any circumstances where the gift will be repayable?
• Details of a private sale – we need to know is the property being purchased at full market value; what (if any) is the applicant(s) relationship to the vendor; and, will there be vacant possession on completion?
• Broker declaration regarding affordability when benefits end – where Child Benefit and/or Child Tax Credit are been used as primary income, we require intermediaries to declare that the mortgage will remain affordable when the benefit(s) end.
Fast Track – Point of sale verification (POSV)
We strongly believe that point of sale verification is a valuable service for the intermediary market and the good news is that first-time buyers are now eligible for POSV too. Intermediaries do need to ensure they collect and retain satisfactory evidence of income from their client at point of sale as we will sample a certain number of cases each month to ensure this requirement is being adhered to. Where the case qualifies for POSV (including first-time buyers) our offer time is reduced by an average of five days, although our average time to offer is currently only 10 days on all cases.
Working together
Over the past 12 months, we’ve worked closely with intermediaries to introduce changes that will help them day-to-day and make it as easy as possible for them to place their business with us. In response to broker feedback, we’ve significantly cut down on the amount of paperwork we ask for, with one such change being that intermediaries are no longer required to obtain self-employed accounts as evidence of income where lending is less than 90 per cent LTV. Self-employed income can now be evidenced through either an accountant’s letter or the latest two years’ SA302s.
We’ve also improved our Mortgage Application Tracking System (MATS) messaging to make messages more relevant and useful for intermediaries.
Streamlining our processes in these ways are just some of the changes that have enabled us to dramatically reduce our average application to offer time from this time last year. We are committed to becoming the intermediary lender of choice, and therefore won’t be standing still. We’ll be unveiling even more changes over the coming months so watch this space for further improvements.
Jeremy Duncombe is head of sales at Abbey for Intermediaries
