CFI: Bridging


Rumours of yet another new bridging lender by


Martin Kearns, head of strategic policy, Tiuta


Quite frankly, if you had said to me two months ago that my next review of the bridging market would include news regarding the launch of another new lender into the sector i would have seriously questioned your mental health. it has been my opinion for the last few months that we were probably at saturation point when it came to new lender entrants. However, i appear to have been proved wrong on this point.


Seeing is believing this has come about following the news that ex- director of packaging at now bust sub-prime lender edeus, terry Pritchard, is setting up a bridging lender that will apparently offer first, second and commercial finance. if we are to believe the initial press the lender, which at this time has no name, has secured funding from an amalgam of private individuals, an australian bank and a family trust fund. the initial funding line is believed to be £30m and we are told the focus will be on filling the gaps where current lenders are not able to be as flexible as the new lender proposes to be. the lender is due to launch


in december and therefore we will be welcoming another new player to the bridging lending fraternity. How many more newbies we see in the coming six months is anyone’s


guess. as i say, i believed we were close to, if not at, saturation point, however that is clearly not the case. this has everything to do with the perception, pushed in some sections of our industry, that bridging is booming and should be viewed as the lending equivalent of shooting fish in a barrel. We would be the first to say


to new and existing lenders that this is far from the case, and while there is a great deal of noise around the sector at the moment, one suspects that those actively lending and lending significant sums are much smaller in number than you might anticipate.


No boom certainly there is business out in the marketplace however it requires work to find it and, within this, key relationships are crucial. these are not developed overnight, neither is a service ethic or underwriting expertise and one would hope that the new entrants are not coming to market with anything less than 100% commitment to quality in these areas. as a lender that’s been in


this market for well over five years we are only too aware that making a success of this type of lending requires know-how, expertise and quality throughout the business, whether that be in business


underwriting, compliance – the list goes on.


Merry go round one suspects that, if this lender does successfully


come to market, we will probably see the recruitment merry-go-round going full circle again. the point should be made that new lenders want to hit the ground running and to do so you don’t have the luxury of training and developing new staff. What you have to do is get experienced bums on seats immediately, and the way you do this is to recruit from existing players. this has been a clear theme of 2011 for the


PRECISE PANEL


Other recent news came from a relatively new entrant, Pre- cise Mortgages, which has launched a short-term lending preferred packager panel – try saying that after a few drinks. Precise has launched this panel with four firms: BuildStore, Fi- nance 4 Business, Only Bridg- ing and y3s. Precise says it will encour-


age brokers to use these pack- agers to place business with it, and in turn, it’s offering panel members the best service, the best proc fees and around the clock attention. Precise says it will be adding a further six firms to the panel in the near future. This is an intriguing concept


development,


and is not something Tiuta has ever considered. The Precise reasoning around this is that in- experienced brokers/introduc- ers, who don’t often deal with bridging/short-term cases, may be better placed going through the packager route, rather than going direct to Precise. One suspects that Precise believes these individuals are effec-


bridging sector and one suspects it will not change as we move closer to 2012.


“How many more newbies we see in the coming six months is anyone’s guess”


tively becoming something of a drain on their resources when contacting them direct, and therefore they’re willing to pay the packager a bit more to take them off their hands. For that trade, the packager also gets preferred service and preferred product pricing.


FLEXIBILITY Our own opinion is that, firstly, we believe it’s up to the broker or introducer how they want to interact and conduct business with us, and we’re able to ac- commodate whatever route they choose to take. If they wish to come direct, we work with them; if they prefer to use a packager, we work with the packager and the broker/intro- ducer in exactly the same way. Our service levels, products and procuration fees stay the same regardless of the route chosen, we look at each deal on its merit and handle the in- troducer or broker or packager in the same way. We believe there is much to be said for a level playing field across all our distribution routes.


mortgage introducer NOVEMBER 2011 59


Page 1  |  Page 2  |  Page 3  |  Page 4  |  Page 5  |  Page 6  |  Page 7  |  Page 8  |  Page 9  |  Page 10  |  Page 11  |  Page 12  |  Page 13  |  Page 14  |  Page 15  |  Page 16  |  Page 17  |  Page 18  |  Page 19  |  Page 20  |  Page 21  |  Page 22  |  Page 23  |  Page 24  |  Page 25  |  Page 26  |  Page 27  |  Page 28  |  Page 29  |  Page 30  |  Page 31  |  Page 32  |  Page 33  |  Page 34  |  Page 35  |  Page 36  |  Page 37  |  Page 38  |  Page 39  |  Page 40  |  Page 41  |  Page 42  |  Page 43  |  Page 44  |  Page 45  |  Page 46  |  Page 47  |  Page 48  |  Page 49  |  Page 50  |  Page 51  |  Page 52  |  Page 53  |  Page 54  |  Page 55  |  Page 56  |  Page 57  |  Page 58  |  Page 59  |  Page 60  |  Page 61  |  Page 62  |  Page 63  |  Page 64  |  Page 65  |  Page 66  |  Page 67  |  Page 68