Mortgage Introducer has been told the Society could be launching its first non-conforming deals as soon as next week.
Rob Clifford, managing director of Mortgageforce, which was acquired by the West Bromwich last March, confirmed that it would be one of the firms distributing the deals along with four packagers including m2-d&p and TMP.
Clifford said: “Access to the products will be through limited distribution at first. There are also different launch dates for West Brom’s consumer branches and the broker market.”
“There is no question that building societies getting into specialist lending will be attractive to consumers as they have long-standing brands. Consumers do like established, well-known names and building societies have the balance sheets and access to capital to launch extremely attractive products,” he added.
Sean Hornsby, managing director of Mortgage 2000, said: “ West Brom is taking a sensible approach by launching into this specialist market through a pilot basis at first. It is making sure it has the systems and product offerings right before widening the distribution. It will monitor the situation for four months before looking at offering a direct to lender option as well.”
Hornsby also told MI that Mortgage 2000 is part of another deal to distribute non-conforming products for a new lender, soon to be announced.
John Mawdsley, director of TMP, was unavailable for comment.
