With market predictions suggesting this market will grow from £12bn to £20bn in the next few years there is mileage for AfI to do well and also bring some much- needed stability to a sector too strongly dominated by Nationwide’s The Mortgage Works and Lloyds Banking Group’s BM Solutions.
Cross sellIng
But it is not the only development this year. Sard says the lender is also developing a platform so brokers can earn a proc fee when they sell Santander products other than mortgages and general insurance.
It hopes the platform will be ready for use later this year and will offer both brokers and customers an “easy and profitable” way to access multiple Santander products including current accounts, unsecured loans and credit cards.
on an interest only basis. The minimum purchase price is £100,000 and borrowers must be employed earning over £25,000 basic per annum aged between 21 and 70. Applicants must already have a
residential or buy-to-let mortgage and can only hold up to three secured loan commitments in total at application including a residential mortgage. Houses in multiple occupancy are not eligible. “We’re new in this market but the
non-professional end for landlords with up to two properties is where we believe we can make a difference. We think we can give good support in this end of the market,” Sard explains. “Buy-to-let is going to grow this year and we are confident there is space for us as well as the other players. We will probably take some of their market share but we also expect to take part of the growth in the overall market.”
He is confident Santander will be one of the big boys this year. “Instead of two big buy-to-let players, in 2012 there will be three,” he claims.
self-defenCe While nearly every broker has good things to say about AfI there is one bugbear that raises its head time and again. Brokers hate being cut out of any deal and worse still, they hate it when a client they’ve introduced to the lender is offered better rates than they can offer by the lender directly when the time to remortgage comes. AfI has been accused of this. But Sard defends the lender’s policy. “When contacting a customer nearing maturity, we always try to recognise the customer’s relationship with the intermediary and we do not mail earlier than four months ahead of the maturity date,” he explains. “We advise in our letter that customers may wish to discuss their choice of mortgage with their adviser, and we also provide a dedicated line for advisers to use so that they may maintain their relationship with the client. We also advise key accounts of our forthcoming mailings so that they understand our mailing activity.” There is the financial aspect as well. While there are lenders in the marketplace who pay a retention proc fee to brokers, AfI doesn’t and Sard says it doesn’t plan to.
“We have a dedicated mortgage
retention line for intermediaries looking for details of the mortgage products available to existing mortgage customers,” he says. “Our teams are able to provide the intermediary with details of the mortgage rates that may be available to their client and that we will always quote the best products available to the client when an intermediary calls us. The process is fully detailed on our website and the products offered are the same as would be offered directly.”
servICe In fairness to AfI, it has demonstrated its commitment to brokers in recent months.
In June the lender updated its document upload tool enabling brokers to securely upload and submit case information via AfI’s Mortgage Application Tracking System. More than 80% of case documents are now sent this way. “We also introduced secondary email functionality in September,” says Sard. “This allows intermediaries to enter a secondary email address where they would like MATS updates to be sent to for example their administrator, which has proved very popular.” And it plans to introduce end to end case tracking in due course as well as working on other technology platforms that will assist broker communications. “Service is a never-ending story and we want to be putting something new in place every couple of months,” says Sard. “If we become complacent we’ll lose our edge very quickly.” Sard is right. It seems strange that in such a depressed mortgage market just a third the size of its peak, competition could be so important. For some lenders the notion seems to have passed them by. But Abbey for Intermediaries has made concrete steps towards setting itself apart from its competitors and in a market where brokers have all the power to boost volumes when other factors rebalance, it will serve them well.
While “bankers” may appear an untrustworthy bunch, it seems Sard has broken the mould on first impressions. Now he simply has to follow through. n
mortgAge introducer JANUARY 2012 41
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