Advisers have been warned that as the lending industry concentrates on providing customers with a service based on the widest choice of borrowing options, those choosing to only use lenders which allow direct access could fall foul of not researching from a wide enough selection.
That’s the view of Tim Wheeldon, chief operating officer (COO) of Fluent for Advisers, part of Fluent Money Group.
He said: “I am all in favour of more second charge lenders opening up direct access to brokers, which might surprise a lot of people, bearing in mind that Fluent Money is the biggest second charge distributor in the UK.
“Every stakeholder, from specialist distributors to lenders, in our sector is committed to creating a wider acceptance of second charge mortgages via the intermediary channel. By opening up access to brokers direct, lenders are doing their bit to eliminate another objection to involvement.
“However, my hope is that brokers will recognise that only a small percentage of second charge lenders allow direct access at present. Therefore there is a significant concern that by relying on only a small member of lenders from which to make a recommendation, customers might very well miss out on better deals from lenders who only use specialists like Fluent to reach the intermediary channel.
“I think it is important that either customers are made aware that recommendations are based on a very limited sample of lenders or that advisers make use of the resources of specialists and ask us for suitable alternatives. At least then the customer can be satisfied that the choice of lender was made from a wide enough pool of lenders.”
