The lender’s interest in expanding its product range into self-certification and the non-conforming sector has been the subject of industry speculation for some time, as exclusively reported by Mortgage Introducer on 16 April.
Linda Will, managing director of Accord, has revealed her strategy for entry into the market which includes a limited launch via selected intermediary partners in July followed by a full scale launch in October of this year.
She said Accord was in the process of developing its own online decisioning mechanism and ruled out the use of packagers as the sole route to market. She also went on to rule out entry into the buy-to-let market within the foreseeable future.
Will said: “We will be using our current systems along with manual underwriting systems for phase one of the launch. This will be used to test and modify the system ready for the bigger launch.
“We realise that good service is of paramount importance for brokers and we want to make sure we have got it right before we launch our products to the whole of the market.”
Will refused to comment on which intermediary partners would take part in the first phase of the launch.
Accord is also involved in discussions with Trigold over access to its ENC sourcing facility.
Rob Clifford, managing director of Mortgageforce, said Accord would take business volumes from specialist or non-conforming lenders because it, alongside its parent company, had a long history of good broker relationships.
“I think they will give some of the established players a bloody nose,” he said.
Accord Mortgages has also launched a two-year fixed rate mortgage available exclusively to members of the Tricorne alliance (Pink, Mortgage Intelligence and Mortgage Next
