One source has informed Mortgage Introducer that Halifax is now checking one in five sub-75 per cent LTV cases.
But some brokers believe the lender is checking more than one in five cases and is also checking cases from certain brokers over other intermediaries. However, Halifax denies these claims and says its procedures for checking cases have not changed.
Paul Fincham, spokesman for Halifax, said: “We have quite a few checks in place, namely affordability and fraud checks. We randomly spot check a significant proportion of cases.
“If it wasn’t random, it wouldn’t be effective. These are prudent measures and we do not check cases that may be from certain brokers.”
London-based sole broker Roy New said: “Halifax does seem to take a long time to confirm cases, so whether or not they are checking me, I am not sure. But I wasn’t aware it spot checks cases. This would be something all lenders probably have in place.”
And Simon Chalk, mortgage planner at Mortgage Portfolio Services, commented: “A previous firm I worked for happened to be one of the biggest distributors to Halifax and it openly admitted to us that it did check cases from certain brokers.
“But this is just good risk management, especially now that we are in a regulated environment. Many lenders will have this policy but they would not readily admit to it.”
