The platform, known as the Trading Hub, will be a web-based system, allowing complete two-way integration between AMPD and its lender partners. A contractor has been chosen, subject to contractual negotiations, to provide the system, which will be developed over the coming months. AMPD plans to launch it in the first half of Q2 2007, with some elements possibly being available sooner.
The Hub will allow pre-population of information on documents, such as decisions in principles (DIPs), key facts illustrations (KFIs) and application forms, and Eddie Smith, operations director for AMPD, said they were also looking to provide online sourcing: “This is not simply a mortgage processing system. It will incorporate all the key mortgage related functions needed to trade in the on line world. Nobody in the packager community can take survival for granted. The key is to have access to technology.
Smith added: "Many lenders are dealing with legacy systems that are not designed to cope with the way we do business now, instantly and electronically. We recognise many lenders still have work to do to update their systems, but we are well on the way to integrate with a number of them.”
Darren Pescod, managing director of The Mortgage Broker, commented: “Any added functionality on a system like this, such as pre-population, will be of use to brokers who use the system. As with any of these things, the proof will be in the pudding.”
