It hopes the platform will be ready for use in 2012 and will offer both brokers and customers an “easy and profitable” way to access multiple Santander products including current accounts, unsecured loans and credit cards.
Miguel Sard, managing director of Abbey for Intermediaries, said: “I have seen a clear change and a clear demand from intermediaries who now want to give their customers a holistic service.
“That’s why we’re working on a platform that we can put in the hands of the intermediary that gives them access to all of those products including savings, unsecured personal loans, credit cards and banking.
“These are our core banking products and we believe they are competitive in the market. Now we’re working on how we can get the intermediary in on these aspects of the business.”
Sard said the lender had done some pilots with brokers selling current accounts beside mortgages, but with limited success.
He said this was why AfI was developing the platform to try to make the process of cross-selling easier.
“We want to create the process that makes it easier for the broker and for the customer,” he said.
“If we start putting too much paper pushing in the middle of that it won’t work. We’re in the early stages of looking at how we develop our technology to put all of these products onto that platform to make it easy for brokers to talk to their customers about all of those services.”
Sard didn’t confirm how large a proc fee AfI planned to pay brokers or whether customers would receive preferential rates if they bought multiple products.
He added: “We don’t have figures yet but the idea is to pay brokers a proc fee. We want an easy process and it should be profitable for brokers.
The lender already pays brokers a proc fee for “loyal movers” where an existing Santander customer is advised to take a Santander mortgage if they are moving property.
