A broker, who wished to remain anonymous, said he contacted Nationwide with a mortgage application and submitted the recently launched Association of Mortgage Intermediaries (AMI) wording which has been created to help brokers gain access to client data.
He said: “A mortgage application was submitted along with the AMI wordings to Nationwide. When I contacted the lender to confirm receipt of the application I was told the wording would be obsolete in six months’ time.”
The response sparked suggestions that the lender would launch retention fees within the next six months.
However, Tim Hughes, head of intermediary markets at Nationwide, denied the reason behind this was due to any retention strategy plans. He said: “We have yet to decide about the whole retention issue and as yet, no final decision has been made. The issue surrounding the AMI wording on client ownership has been surpassed in many ways by the ‘Treating Customers Fairly’ (TCF) initiative. Any broker adhering to the TCF guidelines should be staying in regular contact with their clients anyway.”
However, Rob Griffiths, associate director at AMI, said Nationwide was missing the point of the wording. He said: “The whole point of the wording is that it gives brokers access to client data post-completion should they need to get details about mortgage balance, the redemption figure and general payment information. The whole situation about brokers keeping in touch with clients is a TCF issue, but the wording is about the relationship between the lender and the broker – that is where the problem lies.”
