It really does take at least two years to bring a new lender to market. It requires the proverbial blood, sweat and guts – not to mention a very experienced team, extraordinarily detailed project management, at least a seven figure sum to invest, and of course, successfully applying for FCA approval, which in itself will take a minimum 15 months.
The idea for Pure Retirement came from the board of Age Partnership, the leading at retirement broker in the UK that is its sister company, in mid-2010. It was seen as a natural progression and the idea was then evolved into a business plan and the decision made to go forward in mid-2011.
The next step was to apply for FCA approval. This process is quite rightly rigorous and lengthy. It goes hand in hand with developing a very detailed plan of how the lender will be financed and will operate, for this is what the FCA is evaluating. Phenomenal detail is required for everything – from IT processes and disaster recovery plans, to funding streams and product propositions.
On top of this detail, you need credibility as a potential new lender, given the huge responsibilities involved. Having Age Partnership as Pure Retirement’s backer, with its experience and success in the sector provided immense credibility. Also important to the application was that a very strong consumer offer was put forward – we want to make a real difference to what is available to equity release consumers.
It takes three months minimum to prepare a FCA application, then up to twelve for the application to be completed – and the rules are onerous, for if the application is not successful within 12 months, you have to reapply and effectively start again.
It is a nail biting time as the deadline approaches but fortunately we received our permissions within the required timeframe on 17 May 2013, a momentous milestone for us.
With this green light, the reality of going for launch became the focus. The first step was to assemble the core team of people that will run the company. We’re almost a team of 20 now, and being based in Leeds has been great for recruitment of quality people as it is a financial services hotspot.
Other tasks were to finalise our funding, develop our products and distribution, and our marketing.
We worked with an agency to create the name and brand design, in response to the really clear brief that the company will offer a fresh approach to equity release, and be a modern, non-stuffy financial services company.
The final phase before launch was testing. Testing everything is imperative if you want all to go smoothly at launch – we’ve tested all of our systems and processes – to unearth any glitches, and make sure we can handle expected volumes when we go live. We’ve been able to use the data from Age Partnership’s nine years in business to know what volume we can expect to receive.
And so launch day arrives. As we look back we can reflect on the journey and its highs and lows. My key piece of advice is to have great external advisers – legal advisers with the right knowledge are worth their weight in gold. It’s also important to have other great third parties on your side – as a lender your success will also be reliant on the outsourced parts of your business, such as conveyancers and surveyors.
The best moment so far was getting our FCA permissions in May last year, but there have been a number of key milestones along the way – getting funding agreements, holding the company brochure for the first time, seeing the website go live, joining the Equity Release Council, telling the media about our plan to launch. Each has been a step to bringing the business to life.
My key advice to anyone contemplating doing what we have is be very committed, it is a very substantial and involved piece of work.
