Skipton Building Society has today launched a new A-Z of lending, detailing its full lending policy.
Previously Skipton had a single downloadable document on the www.skipton-intermediaries.co.uk website, which listed the full lending policy.
The new A-Z of lending should download a lot more quickly, but it also comes with other features – including an intelligent search facility. If a broker wants to understand the mutual’s policy on income for example, they would key this into the search facility. The A-Z will then retrieve links to every section in the guide where income appears – meaning brokers will instantly see every aspect of the lending policy where their income is relevant.
Paul Darwin, Skipton’s head of intermediary sales, said: “Skipton’s new A-Z of lending has been created to make it easier, faster and slicker for brokers to get hold of key information that they need for their clients’ cases. We are always looking at straightforward ways for brokers to do business with us and our new online A-Z of lending facility does just that.
“Under the new MMR rules, brokers need to ensure their client fits lender criteria, so it’s vital that brokers can make these checks quickly. The new functionality of our online A-Z gives greater speed of access to the required information. And the new intelligent search facility will be really beneficial in helping brokers answer policy queries at just the click of a mouse.”
He added: “We find that service is now a key driver for many mortgage brokers. A number of larger lenders are not being so proactive in the market, which is putting more pressure on the others who sit behind them, and they are struggling to service the demand as a result. In some cases, the service issues they experience are resulting in brokers deciding to take their business elsewhere.
“There is a definite trend towards intermediaries actively placing their business based on service standards.
“So brokers are definitely in the driving seat and they are also learning – in our case thanks to a long-running communication campaign – to take real ownership of making sure their cases are well packaged when they submit them, including the necessary signatures, declarations and supporting documents. In a market no longer just characterised by volume, every case really counts and they are going out of their way to give each one the very best chance of success.”