An industry source contacted Mortgage Introducer after speaking to a ‘senior’ C&G employee who said it was revamping its entire computer systems in a move towards affordability-based lending and away from lending on income multiples. It was also speculated that the revamp is due to the lender putting together a new buy-to-let offering.
The source said: “It seems C&G will follow the current trend of lenders moving towards affordability-based lending which has the capacity to be both a good and bad thing for advisers and consumers alike.”
The speculation follows last months’ move by Alliance & Leicester to introduce greater lending flexibility and an affordability calculator.
A spokeswoman for C&G confirmed its system was completely offline at present and is in the process of building a whole new one but said it was too early to comment on specific changes.
She said: “This is a major overhaul of our systems and we are working through different scenarios at the moment. We can’t put a definitive date on when it will be up and running but it is expected to be around the early part of 2006. We currently have a great number of face-to-face advisers out in the field and our service and commitment to the intermediary market is second-to-none.”
James Cotton, mortgage specialist at London & Country, said: “Any lender is devaluing its intermediary needs if it doesn’t have sufficient online capabilities.”
Brokers are hoping the new system will include online KFIs accessible to all intermediaries. MI revealed last October that C&G’s online KFIs would only be available to a select number of brokers.
