Both Alex Murray, group director of mortgages for Thinc Group, and Thomas Reeh, chief executive of blackandwhite.co.uk, told MI they had written to lenders on building stronger relationships between lenders and brokers through such moves as providing client information post-completion, including copy mortgage statements and missed payment information.
However, of the 70 lenders Murray wrote to, only seven responded and just three were willing to consider the idea. He stated a number of the major lenders were among those that failed to respond.
Reeh received feedback from six out of 23 lenders on his panel. He said those lenders were Standard Life, Mortgages plc, GMAC-RFC, Money Partners, Northern Rock and Salt, with only the latter not wishing to share annual statements.
Murray said: ““Apathy rules and it is the most frustrating thing. But we will keep pushing it. Especially as how many brokers know which of their clients are in arrears? Probably none and that’s not healthy.”
Reeh commented: “It’s a pretty poor level of response and a bit arrogant of lenders. The ones that haven’t responded – do they value intermediaries business, because it’s flat out rude to ignore the letter. We want to work with lenders that want to work with us.”
Julie Gaskin, corporate relations manager for GMAC, said: “In theory, this is a great idea, but the obstacle would be the way we trade. As we sell our assets on, it is for those people that buy the assets to pass on the information, not us. The other part is data protection. Like anything, does that need to be updated every year or two years? With anything like this, lenders are scared of the information they give out and the implications. We don’t own the client and nor does the broker. The only people that own the information is the client.”
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