Speaking to Mortgage Solutions, Nadine Edwards, national account manager at NatWest, said: “NatWest has gone through a series of changes over the last two years, including our new business development team, who can support brokers via live chat and the telephone, and our new broker portal.   

“These changes benefit us as a lender and our brokers to get the right outcome for their customers.” 

  

Making effective changes 

Edwards said the response to the new portal had been “really positive” and brokers were involved in the development of the platform throughout. She said it wasn’t a one and done task as the lender didn’t want to lose sight of what the brokers had found helpful previously, it enhanced and built on that.   

NatWest ‘s new platform has made the journey “quicker and slicker” and allows brokers to navigate the mortgage application journey more easily. 

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Edwards added: “When the broker submits the case, we can offer them things that we couldn’t previously, such as Decision in Principle (DIP) certificates, and upfront packaging requirements.” 

 

Supporting the lending process 

She said the portal would help support brokers with submitting cases, enhance the application process and “continue to make the mortgage application journey the best it can be for brokers and their customers”. 

“Brokers now know what we’ll need to help underwrite their application upfront. It’s all in one place, with the ability to upload documents to us directly. This is helping to speed up the application to offer process.  

She added: “We’ve made improvements on what is needed to progress your customers case, and we display what packaging is required at the point of application submission, which is a change to what brokers may be used to.   

“The intermediary website has lots of useful information on what will be needed to progress your customer’s application too.  These are all areas which we’re continuing to improve on and welcome any feedback.”   

  

Giving brokers clarity 

Edwards said when it came to packaging a case properly, lenders have a responsibility to make sure they are clear on what is required, adding: “Clarity is key.” 

She appreciated brokers are very busy and have many lenders to choose from and, so “we want to make the application process simple and transparent to enable us to be easy to work with.”  

Edward’s said NatWest’s “fantastic business development team” was also on hand to support brokers.  

Feedback is key as we continue to evolve what we do to support our broker community and their customers.  

 

Nadine Edwards, national account manager

Nadine has over 16 years of experience in the mortgage industry. Before joining NatWest Group in February 2022, Nadine held various roles, including mortgage broker, business development manager and corporate account manager.

 

This part of a series of interviews with senior executives at NatWest following its partnership with the British Mortgage Awards. Read our interviews with Gemma Aktin, Mark Bullard and Brad Fordham.