Graham Swann, director of Halifax-based broker Mortgage Innovation, says increasingly lenders are demanding paper bank statements from borrowers as proof of income and identity, but that they won’t accept printed internet banking statements.
Lenders are hyper aware of fraudulent mortgage applications which is a factor in the decision not to accept internet statements, however more and more people are using paperless internet banking and have to apply to their lender directly to have a paper statement issued.
Swann says in many cases there is a £5 to £10 charge to issue the paper statement and applicants can be forced to wait up to four weeks to receive documents, slowing down the whole mortgage application considerably.
He said: “Some lenders will accept bank statements printed off the internet with a stamp from the local branch authenticating it, but there are lenders which are completely inflexible on the paper statement. I understand they’re trying to cover themselves, but in this day and age with so many clients using paperless banking, it’s archaic.”
Swann says Northern Rock is one lender which won’t accept anything other than a full paper statement as proof of income. Platform, he said, is “one of the better ones”.
“They at least acknowledge that there is a problem and they’ll accept a stamped internet statement which saves the borrower a lot of time and the cost of requesting a paper statement from their bank.”
A spokesperson for Northern Rock disputed that the lender would never accept a print out of online statements. He said: “Payslips would be the key evidence of income and affordability, and if we needed to see bank statements, regardless of internet or hard copy, they’d need to be verified. We’d only look at statements to help us assess the affordability of the applicant. Generally three months’ of payslips plus ID and a few other requirements would be sufficient.
“It’s not right to say that we wouldn’t look at online statements ever. It may be that in one instance a client has been asked for statements, and the form of those online statement don’t meet our requirements. We may need to see statements with full details on transaction levels. We would consider this on a case by case basis.”
