Pepper Money adds payout before consent for second charges

The lender said that the change will “further accelerate the application process” for second charges and cut the time from application to completion by up to 15 days.

It comes after the firm added consent to follow for second charge mortgages, which allows the lender to issue a mortgage offer when consent from the first charge lender is the only outstanding issue.

Ryan McGrath (pictured), second charge sales director at Pepper Money, said: “The launch of payout before consent is the latest enhancement to Pepper Money’s second charge mortgage proposition, which continues to go from strength to strength.

“Where a customer’s first charge mortgage is held with one of 21 approved lenders, we’ll be able to reduce the time from application to completion by up to fifteen days, providing even faster access to funding.”

He continued: “This latest enhancement, which follows rate reductions and the launch of e-signatures earlier this year, will speed up the second charge mortgage process and provide brokers with greater certainty in helping their customers to achieve their financial goals.

“Consistently delivering outstanding service is a core focus for us at Pepper Money. We work with a closed panel of intermediary partners with whom we build close working relationships to ensure the best possible customer results.”

The latest second charge figures from the Finance and Leasing Association show that there has been a two per cent annual uptick in January in the number of new agreements to 2,346.

The value of new second charge business has also gone up by nine per cent year-on-year (YOY) to £113m.

At the British Specialist Lending Senate, several people said that second charges would become increasingly popular as borrowers do not want to disturb their lower fixed rate but want to explore other options of additional borrowing.

Rumours of new lenders entering the market have also spurred on innovation from current lenders with a widening of criteria and increased flexibility.