Negotiations between RAMP managing director, John Rice, and the eight lenders have sealed exclusive product agreements in return for an assurance of compliant mortgage processing from the packagers. In addition to Platform, SPML, Mortgages plc and Future Mortgages appointed in January, new panel members include Capital Home Loans, igroup, The Mortgage Distributors Co-operative and GMAC-funded branding lenders Victory Homeloans, Enterprise Homeloans, County Homeloans, EM-Financial Homeloans and Pavillion Homeloans.
RAMP members will not be seeking Principal or regulated status of any kind, said Rice, who added that reaction from lenders had been positive.
“They [lenders] are very keen to forge long-term relationships with what is an already major force in mortgage distribution,” said Rice.
He added: “The lenders joining us are fully supportive of the packager channel and have undertaken to provide us with excellent products designed to appeal to mortgage intermediaries and the public in return for compliance support and volume commitments.”
David Wylie, managing director of County Mortgage Services, said most packagers with plans for their own networks will automatically close off 90 per cent of their distribution under regulation.
“None of the packagers with plans for their own networks have come out and said they won’t be using other packager’s networks, but they will be competing against each other for business and for brokers,” said Wylie.
Rice added: “You can see where some packagers might come a cropper after ‘Mortgage Day’, but I imagine many of these firms will also have thought long and hard about what they are going to do under regulation.”
RAMP members include County Group, Solent Mortgage Services, MD Nationwide, Enterprise Homeloans, The Finance Centre, Vesta Money, EM-Financial, Pavillion Securities and IMB. RAMP members handle more than one in three of all sub-prime mortgages in the UK.
