Nigel Pamment, senior mortgage consultant at Inspirational Financial Management, said: “I recently took a call from a client who wanted a further advance on their mortgage.
“When I contacted Halifax to sort out the deal I was informed by the lender that the client had to ring them directly. After speaking to my business development manager, I obtained a letter of authority but still they refused to speak to me.
“After much argument I had to put the client on the phone. This all seems like a Dickensian process by the lender so that they can then cross-sell other products without broker interference.”
Pamment went on to administer equal blame to Abbey for refusing to acknowledge the broker in a similar situation: “The same thing happened with Abbey, leaving me with two irate clients wondering why we had put them with lenders who don’t have a clue about the real world.”
Paul Hearnden, managing director of My Mortgage Direct, was adamant brokers were being pushed out of completing further advances: “It feels like lenders are trying to edge brokers out of the equation – and clients will be the ones that suffer.”
However, Paul Fincham, senior media relations officer at Halifax, denied brokers were being left in the dark: “We admit it’s not an ideal situation at the moment that we do not offer an intermediary solution for further advances but we are developing one which will be in line with our online solution and of a standard that brokers would expect.”
