Offline Introducer Internet’ allows brokers to capture agreement-in-principles (AIPs) and full mortgage application data without connecting to the internet. Users are only required to log on to obtain the initial AIP and then finally to submit the completed application.
Abbey has stressed the service is particularly useful for when internet access is harder to obtain, such as in a client’s home. All of the information can be submitted offline and then transferred online later, ‘increasing broker flexibility and simultaneously reducing the costs associated with processing applications online’.
Ricky Okey, director of mortgages and protection at Abbey for Intermediaries, was adamant this type of system would be of a huge benefit to the busy broker. “Abbey realises that brokers spend a lot of their time on the internet searching for product information and completing applications for clients,” he said.
“This new service can offer all these features without having to be connected to the inter-net which is especially handy for brokers who are out and about with clients throughout the day.”
“The Abbey software can be loaded onto a laptop or desktop computer and has the added advantage of mirroring the online version so current users will be familiar with the functionality,” he added.
Abbey’s offline system will also allow brokers to check any submitted cases online or offline and will enable up-to-date product information to be sourced.
However, although Wayne Unsworth, mortgage adviser at Hallmark-ifa, stressed the importance of systems that allow for offline processing he believed that brokers should be getting more from the process.
He said: “Offline processing certainly seems the way to go. However they should be giving the people that are keying in the information more money as we are effectively doing the backroom staff’s job and are not getting any more for it.”
