Cover
T IS FOR TMW
TMW has been the stand-out
thoroughbred but the memo’s already gone off to their senior corporate accounts manager James Chidgey. You’ve dominated a small field this year on the flat but next year’s contest looks more like the last race on Cheltenham Gold Cup Day - a claustrophobic and frenetic stampede up the Prestbury Hill which will test the best. Have you got what it takes to be the industry’s pedigree runner in 2012? The application fees aren’t to
everybody’s liking and occasionally the processing can be on the slow side but this clearly has some correlation with the significant volumes going through the system. Where they edge their big rival BM Solutions is in areas such as income verification, and other idiosyncratic policy criteria. They also have a management team which strikes the right balance between being prescriptive on targets for brokers but equally spending time getting to understand each national or regional account and with a splash of personality making the relationship side of things rarely a chore. Grade: A-
U IS FOR UNEMPLOYMENT
youngsters right now but if my recent interviewing experiences at Mortgageforce are anything to go by then there is more to this than the prevailing economic conditions. It’s anecdotal I know but from a sample of five applicants there was only one individual who expressed the requisite motivation, desire and most importantly attitude to get the job. This is where I will doubtless sound like
Victor Meldrew but this country’s greatest malaise right now is the legacy which a decade of trash reality TV has left us. Too many youngsters are not prepared to put in five years of hard graft as an apprentice to get to a better place. Yes, some have been losing out in the competition with migrant workers but the minimum wage is what it is. Unfortunately, the junk on our TV screens which promotes the prospect of fame, celebrity and easy riches for young people today is simply creating wholly exaggerated expectations on their part. Innit. That’s for real. Grade: F
V IS FOR VIRGIN MONEY
W IS FOR WOOLWICH
Now at 75% LTV on buy-to-let to support its superb 90% LTV on mainstream. The superb offset suite is to Woolwich what Ritchie Gray is to the Scotland rugby team. But you know what I am going say next don’t you?! That overseas call centre. This one subject probably polarises broker opinion across the land more than any other and it makes Woolwich the marmite lender which is a shame because every other part of their teamsheet packs down so well. Grade: B
X IS FOR X-FACTOR
The 2011 winner is Abbey for Intermediaries. It’s delivered and backed brokers throughout.
There may well be a million unemployed
As the bespectacled fella in the advert swooned “I need to change my ticket”. Northern Rock’s good bank has served brokers better than any of us might have forecast three years ago during its darkest days. Its affordability approach still needs improving and service can be chequered. But if Branson can do for them what he did for air travel and music then we will all be rocking and rolling. And red uniforms for the BDMs? Come on Dickie, you want it and we want it. Grade: B
32 mortgage introducer DECEMBER 2011
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