Speaking at a Legal & General Mortgage Club event, Salter, head of corporate accounts at Nationwide, said the lender would need to “start from scratch” to make a real impression on the mortgage market.
HSBC launched exclusively through Countrywide Mortgage Services last year and is currently the only broker used by the lender.
Salter said: “HSBC have also been talked about for so long, but because they’ve been anti-intermediary for so long, they’ll have to start from scratch, so we don’t necessarily see them having a big impact this year or even next year. But at some point if they get it right they will be a big player and certainly the big five will become the big six.”
On Monday, HSBC announced its market-leading fixed rate deal, launching a five-year mortgage at a rate of 1.99% – the lowest seen on record according to financial information website, Moneyfacts.
Salter added that larger lenders such as Nationwide were taking note of the high volume of smaller lenders entering the market.
“If you look at the new lenders coming in, they don’t have the legacy issues that existing lenders have and they have a brand new system which means they can get things up and running very quickly. Obviously we recognise that there are new lenders coming into the market and we have to raise our game and see what they’re doing and we do watch that.”
Leeds Building Society corporate account manager Clive Sandom said the organisation also welcomed competition but agreed with Salter on the pace at which new lenders were able to bring out new products.
“I think for new entrants and smaller lenders it’s often easier to bring out new products quickly than it is for bigger lenders with systems that they have to alter. We’re obviously still fairly manual based so it’s easier for us to go into certain segments, and we’ve done that a lot recently especially in the new-build market and some of the more specialist areas which we expect to be doing more of this year,” he concluded.
