Adding to the eight prime and specialist lenders already behind the free site - www.tcfinfo.co.uk - the total grouping now spreads itself across 37 mortgage brands.
Facilitated by the Council of Mortgage Lenders (CML), the site is designed to help brokers meet the March and December 2008 deadlines for implementing TCF - and prepare more generally for the move towards principles based regulation.
Launched in June 2006, the site promotes a no nonsense approach to explaining how TCF applies to intermediaries. It offers downloadable guides, checklists and tips and tools for both business and training purposes.
Brokers can also sign up for a quarterly newsletter focusing on TCF developments relevant to the mortgage industry.
Michael Coogan, director general of the CML, said: “At the CML we have been impressed by the quality and scope of material provided to mortgage brokers through the TCF Info website. We also recognise the importance of providing such information from a ‘neutral platform’ dedicated to the needs of intermediaries rather than lenders – and in particular the need to offer this information for free.
“A model in which lenders can provide financial backing and ‘compliance review’ for such a website provides a solution that we feel is in everyone’s interests - those of the lender, the broker and, not least, the end customer.”
Chris Pearson, Director of RBS Intermediary Mortgages, one of 9 prime mortgage lenders joining initiative said: “We are delighted to be joining the TCF Info initiative and will be encouraging our introducer base to take advantage of the website’s excellent resources – not just now but also into the future as principles based regulation is developed further.”
Frank Eve, managing director of Frank Eve Consulting Limited, which manages the site, said: “Our feedback from registered brokers has been extremely positive every step of the way and we’d now like others to share that experience. We warmly welcome our new lender supporters and are confident TCF Info will in particular help many of their smaller introducers who, without the support of internal compliance departments, may still be struggling to get to grips with what they need to do in order to meet the TCF deadlines.”
