Pink has denied it was Skipton Building Society, which owns both networks, that made the decision to combine the two operations, insisting the move was a mutual decision between Pink and Enable alone.
The combined network will trade under the banner of Pink Home Loans Network with Pink Home Loans providing the mortgage expertise and Direct Life (Enable) having responsibility for the delivery of the insurance proposition for appointed representative (AR) members.
It is said the arrangement will produce one of the largest networks in the mortgage market.
Tony Jones, managing director of Pink Home Loans, commented: “This move is not a result of Pink struggling. We have the highest recruitment numbers for ARs. We think this arrangement with Enable will put us in the top three of today’s networks. Pink’s experience in the mortgage market and Direct Life’s insurance expertise will mean we have an even stronger proposition to offer to existing and prospective ARs.”
Michael Ward, managing director of Direct Life, said: “Much has gone into building both networks which in the early days were quite dissimilar, but with the passing of time both have become increasingly similar in their approach to insurance, mortgages and the use of technology. Today we start the hard but important work of managing the integration which we are certain all the ARs involved in will benefit from.”
Jones admitted its packaging business now only equates to less than 20 per cent of its overall business but said it has no intention of leaving the market. He said: “Packaging still makes up a chunk of our business. In the adverse sector particularly there is a demand for packagers and brokers say we do this type of packaging well.”
