Underwriting
by Robert Barnard head of business development, Aldermore
Closing the net
Nothing annoys brokers more than seeing a case declined and not understanding why. At Aldermore we’re trying to stop good cases from slipping through the net
Sensible underwriting is something most lenders claim but brokers will know whether they deliver it or not. At Aldermore we make this claim too but it’s not just empty words. We back it up with action. One of the biggest advantages of coming to Aldermore for a buy-to-let deal, and indeed any deal, is the fact that we don’t credit score. That allows us to look at the whole picture of an application when it comes in rather than be ruled by the iron rod of a restrictive credit score. We have state of the art technology with a lot of the functionality that the mainstream lenders have and scanning and uploading of documents into our system means we operate on a paperless basis. But technology is only half the equation. We have experienced manual underwriters who are able to make sensible decisions based on quantitative and qualitative information brokers give them. Underwriting is done at every stage of the process which means we have very few changed decisions, providing a greater degree of certainty for brokers and helping them present a professional service to their clients.
Not no We have three possible outcomes at decision in
principle stage: accept, decline and refer. At Aldermore, refer is not another way of saying no. It potentially means we have found some discrepancy between the information submitted by the broker and what we’ve found during the credit search and underwriting process – often something as simple as a credit card the applicant has told the broker has been paid off in full has a balance of £1,000. Our hands on approach doesn’t just help us get business through when it fits, we also review every single refer manually. The advantage of the
manual underwriting approach is we can look at this in more detail and decide whether it should affect the offer ultimately. We give brokers at all stages of application and enquiry full access to underwriters and we don’t hide behind any call centres. When brokers ring us all they have to do is press a button to be put directly through to an underwriter. We believe this contact is vital when working with brokers. Our aim to is countercheck why and work out whether there is any way we can make that case proceed, so we will look at cases when challenged. It may be that rental cover is £50 short a month and that the case has been turned down on that basis. Our underwriters can look at that and go back to the broker with a slightly tweaked offer – we may not offer the full amount the borrower has applied for but we might offer £2,000 less with the lower rate of rental cover for example. Brokers either get a phone call from the underwriter working that case, or an email in the normal format, or if the case has come through a decision in principle we can contact brokers through our system and it drops into their online application system.
Can do attitude We’re a lender that maybe isn’t used every day by
brokers because we are by our nature smaller than the mainstream lenders. That’s why we’re keen to build brokers’ awareness of our systems and processes: we won’t leave cases stuck in the system. We will pick up the phone and help brokers get cases through. n
Interview by Sarah Davidson 31
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