Together, which is one of the UK's largest non-bank lenders with a loan book in excess of £4.3bn, said it was making the move as it looks to protect its existing customers and borrowers.
Together has taken the decision to cancel all cases in its commercial and pre-offer regulated pipeline whilst it remains unclear when capital markets will reopen.
Together, which is one of the UK's largest non-bank lenders with a loan book in excess of £4.3bn, said it was making the move as it looks to protect its existing customers and borrowers.
The lender added that all cases which have received a binding offer and are still wishing to proceed will be reviewed in light of COVID-19 with an enhanced focus on valuation, affordability and plausibility of exit where it is a bridging case.
An email sent to partners read: "These decisions have been extremely difficult to make and ones that we’ve not taken lightly.
"We do not underestimate the impact this could have on you and your customers. We’ll endeavour, where valuation costs have been incurred and you’re unable to re-use them, to work with you regarding reimbursement on a case by case basis.
"While we focus on our binding offer pipeline and our existing £4.3bn loan book over the coming months, we will also continue with further automation of our systems and streamlining our processes so that when we return to the market with our new lending criteria we will do so in a strong position to support you and your customers.
"We thank you for your support and hope you can understand the reasons behind our decisions and will continue to work as closely with us in the future as you have done in the past."
Marc Goldberg, commercial CEO at Together, said: “Brokers and our intermediary network are an exceptionally important part of our business, and as such we have been communicating regularly throughout this crisis.
"Our latest announcement has been the result of careful analysis of the current and expected future impact of COVID-19 on the UK market.
“This was a difficult decision to make, but our priority has to be a focus on our binding personal finance offers and our existing £4.3bn loan book.
“Whilst this is disappointing for many partners, they understand the reasons for our decision, and have been very supportive. We look forward to working with them on the launch of our new lending criteria in the near future.”
