In an interview with the FT, the bank’s head of mortgages Miguel Sard (pictured), said the service was suited to customers who opted for the execution-only route of securing a mortgage, removing the need to make an appointment with the bank or speak to a mortgage broker.
Santander launched the online remortgage service last month, allowing customers to get an instant decision within 30 minutes.
So far the average time to process a remortgage case for customers using the service has been 30-40 minutes. The lender initially expected the time taken for customers to get a preliminary mortgage offer would be an hour, before scanning and emailing documents to verify income and identity.
Following the initial offer, Santander will take an average of eight working days to confirm the application, but hopes to reduce this to four days in the future by using automated processes to verify passport identity and online valuations.
Sard told the FT the service was not a way of limiting the bank’s dependence on intermediary distribution and planned to continue growing its broker channel.
