The lender entered the broker distribution market in April last year though Legal & General, later expanding distribution out to Sesame, Openwork, Personal Touch Financial Services and a small pool of Directly Authorised firms.
Julian Hartley, mortgage director at ING said: “We are relatively new into the broker market and this can’t be an immediate decision. Our earliest deals were two-year fixed rate deals, so this isn’t something we need to decide this week but it is something we need to work out with our broker partners,” said Hartley.
Currently Halifax and Woolwich are the only lenders offering retention fees to advisers, although Accord also offers fees for additional lending and portability top ups.
Sales and marketing director with Personal Touch, Dev Malle, said retention fees have worked “incredibly well” for Halifax.
“If you ask brokers which lender has the fairest way of looking after customers or understands the best way to reward brokers, everyone would say Halifax for this reason,” said Malle.
Ben Thompson, director of mortgages for the Legal & General Mortgage Club, said with research showing millions of borrowers able to move to new deals but sitting on their hands, now is the right time to discuss this issue again.
“This is all about creating a better market shape. Wouldn’t it make more sense if consumers could stay with the same lender and just move rates instead of being forced to move every two or three years? Surely, a lot of consumers would be better off staying where they are?” he said.
Steve McAvan, group intermediary product manager for Accord, said paying retention procuration fees is a noble thing, but you have to offer the same products to both new and old customers.
“Retention fees will become a big issue again as soon as the remortgage market picks up. More lenders will start to offer them in time.”
