Under the agreement, Bradford & Bingley has agreed to purchase up to £2 billion of Kensington’s prime self-cert, buy-to-let and full status mortgages over the next two years. This supports Kensington’s recent launch of its prime range as part of its diversification of its core adverse mortgage range into the specialist prime sector building on the successful pilot which it rolled out at the end of 2006.
Alison Hutchinson, chief executive officer of Kensington Group plc, commented: “This forward flow agreement with Bradford & Bingley is part of the extension of our product range into specialist prime. It ensures we can increase our originations in this segment of the market and increase the number of mortgage intermediaries doing business with us.”
Under the agreement, Bradford & Bingley will acquire the loans on a monthly basis. Each portfolio will comprise a blend of prime self-cert, buy-to-let and full status loans, in line with agreed credit criteria. The acquired loans will be of a similar credit quality to those originated through Bradford & Bingley’s direct and intermediary specialist lending channels and Bradford & Bingley will carry out due diligence and test the loan books using its own credit scoring process to confirm they meet the their credit standards.
Chris Willford, group finance director of Bradford & Bingley Group plc, said: “We are particularly pleased to be working with Kensington and this agreement provides us with a predictable flow of prime specialist mortgages, fully underwritten, that meet our quality standards."
