Presenting at Mortgage Brain’s Mortgage Vision Masterclass, Paul Norgate, head of north region at HSBC, said: “We have a plan to go whole of market this year. In terms of firms, we’re up to in excess of 320-odd firms now which gives us coverage to a large part of the intermediary market.
“Our plan is to roll that out certainly in the next few months to give us that whole of market proposition.”
Intermediary operations enhanced with Open Banking
Norgate also said the bank had added to its underwriting and business development team so was prepared for a busier market due to the extended stamp duty holiday deadline and the return of 95 per cent loan to value (LTV) mortgages through the government-backed scheme.
He said: “Capacity doesn’t concern us, we’re geared up to deal with it.”
Norgate also said the launch of its Open Banking proposition on 8 March would have a positive impact on case timescales and added: “This is something we should embrace rather than fear or avoid.”
Additionally, HSBC plans to prioritise self-employed clients when relying on Open Banking for mortgage applications, to keep up with changes to criteria and circumstances.
“Potentially we might see change to our self-employed credit policy, as will many lenders – I’m not saying that’s going to happen but if it does, the Open Banking piece will futureproof us.
“So, we won’t have to keep going out and say, ‘now we need this, now we need something different’ because Open Banking will pull all that detail for us,” he added.