As of April, the EDGE system will allow instant agreements-in-principle, ranked according to interest rate, and also produce multi-lender cascading in the event of a decline with a particular lender.
EDGE already provides an audit trail of the broker’s search, to satisfy the Financial Services Authority’s (FSA) record-keeping and recommendation requirements.
With regulation an ongoing issue for intermediaries, the FSA has showed concern that brokers may abuse the system of cascading by simply advising clients on the cascaded product without conducting a new search. Enterprise Group stated that the new technology would enable brokers to avoid this issue by comparing product options from different lenders should they be cascaded upwards or downwards, without beginning the sourcing process again.
Michael Clapper, CEO at Enterprise Group, said: “There are other packagers developing this type of technology, but we are one of the first to deliver it. We think this new system will be revolutionary and hope to become a one-stop shop for networks and brokers.”
Darren Pescod, managing director at The Mortgage Broker, commented: “The multi-lender cascading allows us to instantly see if there are any other appropriate products via different lenders without sourcing all over again. This will make the decision whether to stay with the existing lender, on a cascaded product, or to move to an alternative lender easy, transparent and should tick all the right boxes for the FSA.”
