A broker, who wished to remain anonymous, said: “One of my clients was contacted by L&G asking her if she wanted life insurance. She asked where it had got her details from, and L&G said edeus had provided it with the information. When I telephoned the lender to check, it confirmed that this was normal practice within the company, and didn’t really see anything wrong with it.”
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He added: “What will stop edeus from cutting out intermediaries? If it is passing client details to L&G as an introducer now, what is to stop it from going further?”
However, Alan Cleary, managing director at edeus, said the practice it employed was fully above board. He said: “We have a relationship with L&G as an introducer, but the only way that clients will ever be contacted is when the mortgage intermediary ticks a box asking for us to introduce the client to L&G. It is not an opt-out box, so intermediaries have to tick the box indicating that they want us to introduce the client to L&G who will help them with their insurance needs.”
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Cleary added: “This is the fairest way of doing things. It protects the borrower and the mortgage lender, and is all fully above board. It helps intermediaries who only do mortgages.”