The contract will provide the Santander Group with extensive UK services across the risk, treasury and marketing areas of the bank. This will include the provision of objective residential valuations as well as the use of Hometrack's proprietary product 'Failsafe' for all new lending.
David Catt, Hometrack's chief operating officer, commented: "Hometrack has been working closely with Abbey for the last three years, helping them improve valuation efficiencies both in time and cost. More recently with the introduction of Failsafe, we have been able to offer vital fraud detection capabilities. In February Hometrack revalued The Santander Group's entire UK residential mortgage portfolio, the valuations of which were included in the Group's £15 billion securitisation programme. A licence agreement tailored to Abbey's needs was a logical move."
Iain Laing, chief credit officer at Santander UK said, "Santander UK has enjoyed considerable benefits from its relationship with Hometrack and with this new licence will be able to take advantage of future opportunities for even more rigorous management of risk, capital allocation, processing economies and detection of attempted fraud."