To speed up the flow of information from Commercial First to the intermediaries that have submitted cases, all mortgage documentation (including legal charges and terms and conditions) is now being emailed to the intermediary with hard copies following in the post.
Commercial First has also reduced the amount of information required to verify customer identity. The lender no longer requires the national insurance number from an applicant; an explanation for any absence from the voters roll is now no longer required, and evidence of address for a Limited Company will now be satisfied by Commercial First.
The requirements for financial information for new business start-ups have been simplified and 12 months’ projections are no longer required to accompany the self declaration of income.
Changes have also been made to the lender’s policy regarding potential historical transactions at undervalue. In future, in those cases where a significant increase in value has occurred, Commercial First will no longer require an explanation. Instead, its solicitors will satisfy the lender’s requirements through a combination of a bankruptcy search on the vendor or a variation to its title insurance policy. Current transactions taking place at an undervalue will continue to require an indemnity policy.
Stephen Johnson, sales and marketing director of Commercial First, said: “We regard our relationships with our intermediaries as true business partnerships and we listen very carefully to their feedback. There is a continual demand for intermediaries to deliver a faster and more streamlined service to their customers, and this latest round of processing improvements is designed to help them achieve these higher service standards. We will continue to seek new ways to make our loan processing simpler and faster in future and we are currently investing in major IT developments in order to achieve this outcome.”
