“We are absolutely delighted to receive this award for the second year running. Commercial First is an intermediary only lender, and it is crucial that we continue to consistently improve our product and service proposition. It is great to see our efforts in these areas recognised by the broker market.
"Over the past twelve months since we won our first Mortgage Introducer Best Commercial Lender Award, we have achieved a major expansion of our sales team, significantly widened the range of products we provide, and invested heavily in our people and infrastructure. We continue to simplify our business where possible, and are committed to setting the highest standards of practice for this market. We introduced a Commercial First Illustration, “CFI”, to the market and borrowed much from the KFI template to provide at the enquiry stage of an application a transparent document brokers and clients could rely upon.
"Following this theme we have also published a service charter to ensure our supporting intermediaries are fully aware of the standards they can expect to receive when recommending Commercial First to their clients.
"In another significant vote of confidence in our business, Lloyd’s Development Capital acquired a minority stake during 2006, and we look forward to the benefits such an institutional partner brings to our team.
"On that note whilst it is great to receive this award, we are working harder than ever to get better. We are about to launch ground breaking technology that will deliver even higher levels of support for our partners, and we recently added a BTL product for commercial property. This means we genuinely have one of the widest product ranges of any lender in the commercial property market, and importantly one that is only available through professional mortgage intermediaries.
"We believe in the broker market, and the service they can provide business customers. In the five years we have been trading we have enjoyed remarkable success together and we look forward to playing our part in helping the intermediary commercial mortgage market realise its full potential."
Mark Johnson of Commercial First accepts the Best Provider of Commercial Mortgages Award from MI Editor Angela Faherty and Hal Cruttenden
