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Kensington: 2014 in review – Hammond

by: Alex Hammond
  • 23/12/2014
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Kensington: 2014 in review – Hammond
For Kensington, 2014 has been an exercise in focus. It was February that Investec announced the sale of our business, and the months that followed brought with them an overwhelming level of interest from numerous potential suitors.

In September it was announced that an agreement had been reached on a joint bid from private equity giants, Blackstone and TPG Special Situations Partners, subject to regulatory approval, and we are engaged in that process now. But, as we have demonstrated throughout the year, our focus on continuing to make specialist mortgages more accessible to more brokers and their clients has remained unimpacted by these external distractions.

Looking back on the year, we have made great strides in developing our proposition so that it addresses the issues we know brokers have in finding a home for their hard-to-place cases. Perhaps most notably, in May, we became the first lender to promise brokers a day one telephone call from a named underwriter to discuss every application. Our business is built on our ability to carry out individual assessment of cases by experienced underwriters and so it makes sense to put those underwriters at the front of our business. If a broker can speak to a decision maker at the outset, then they can get more clarity on whether we are likely to accept the case and if so, what supporting documentation we will need.

Providing brokers with clarity is something we have strived for throughout the year and this was the thinking behind the launch of our app in October, which gives brokers access to our calculators and criteria in their pocket.
As well as this we have completely revamped our online application system, launched a service levels page on our website and made great progress in promoting the availability of mortgages for the self-employed and contract workers.

This focus on developing our business by helping brokers to grow their opportunity will only strengthen as we move into new ownership and our 20th year of specialist mortgage lending in 2015. Watch this space, it promises to be an exciting year.

Alex Hammond, head of marketing communications at Kensington

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