The move, which has seen eight appointed representatives (ARS) agree to join so far, is one of a number of changes for the packager, which recently joined the ranks of the Professional Mortgage Packagers Alliance (PMPA).
Terry Chamberlain, director of FMS, commented: “We temporarily took on some ARs after regulation came in and while some have gone on to join networks, others have come back to us and asked to return to the set-up we had post-regulation. While that wouldn’t work, we think setting up our own network will help increase our packaging business and give us better control of the market.”
Other areas which FMS is looking to expand into includes more remote processing, and it has just agreed to undertake this for Rooftop and is expecting to do the same for PMPA’s lender, Unity, in the future.
To help with this, they are also recruiting a team of in-house solicitors, which, in Chamberlain’s opinion, will also help complete deals much faster.
Chamberlain added: “We are looking to do more remote processing as we think this will give a better service to our brokers. We are hoping to be able to do remortgages much quicker as currently, a deal is often delayed at the solicitor’s stage. By having our own team, we will bypass that stage, which will be good for us, good for the client and good for the lender.”
Alison Beech, sales and marketing director of Rooftop Mortgages, commented: “I’m delighted to welcome FMS to Rooftop’s packaging panel. As FMS is a well-established packager in the broker arena and a new PMPA member, we are confident that a mutually beneficial relationship will be quickly developed.”
