GUIDE TO BRIDGING FINANCE
A good example is a case we are cur-
rently processing. We have quoted a rate of 1.15% per month. Another well- known lender has also quoted 1.15% per month, yet its interest charge over the 12 month term is £28,000 more than ours. So the other lender was actually
charging 1.30% per month but it is diffi- cult to spot this unless you directly com- pare the total amount repayable. Transparency of costs in this market is less than it should be but you can be assured that Precise Mortgages sets high standards in how it deals with interme- diaries and customers and you will not find a more transparent lender than us.
Fraud prevention vital Whether the bridging market will become regulated in the future is unclear but what is clear is that the Financial Services Authority is taking notice of the sector as it grows and attracts more attention. Fraud prevention is one of the FSA’s
key objectives and I would urge every- one, whether they are a broker or lender, to exercise vigilance especially when they do not know the customer or they have a case introduced by someone they do not know.
Because the market appears to be in growth mode and is not FSA regulated,
it may attract fraudsters. Precise Mort- gages employs a team of people dedi- cated to fraud mitigation as well as investing in various fraud detection tools – in December 2011 alone we thwarted three fraud cases for a sum total of £788,000.
One case was an introducer fraud and
when we contacted the broker he was rightly mortified that he had been duped by an introducer he had never met before.
He was also worried about the impact on his reputation and future business with us, although we were happy the bro- ker was not complicit. In another case, which was far more
serious, identity fraud was being used in an attempt to raise finance on an unen- cumbered property. The case was flagged by our fraud sys- tems and on investigation we found that the real owner of the property had no idea that a mortgage was being raised against his property.
Speed of service essential Speed of service is high on both inter- mediaries’ and customers’ agendas and it is high on ours too. I am pleased to say that our turnaround times are good and a loan we have just completed is a case in point.
We received an enquiry on a £3.5m loan secured on a prime property in the South-East which we man- aged to release funds on in less than a week, start to finish.
Generally we will give
an approval in principle on the phone immediately and in writing within the hour. The speed in which we
can release funds is often dictated by the speed of the legal process and we have found that many a delay has been created by
10 The guide to Bridging Finance 2012
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