Woolwich for Barclays manages the balance of its lending book by releasing a fixed tranche of funding every night at midnight.
But brokers sitting up till the wee small hours in an effort to get clients access to Woolwich’s rates have been met with “no funding available” messages seconds after the clock strikes 12.
Mike Fitzgerald, sales director of Essex-based Emba Group, said several of his advisers had experienced problems this week.
He said: “It’s stark raving mad to have to wait up till midnight night after night, you can’t go on like that.”
Fitzgerald said he thought Woolwich would tweak its rates up a bit in the coming week to manage expectations because brokers are running scared.
And he added: “It’s not just about rate for borrowers it’s also about knowing you can get the funds – especially for first-time buyers trying to beat the stamp duty deadline.”
Lea Karasavvas, managing director of Prolific Mortgage Finance, has also been having problems.
He said: “Woolwich says it doesn’t dual price but I’ve spent four nights waiting up till midnight trying to book for a client who’s now gone direct because I couldn’t access the funding.
“It’s infuriating for brokers who are trying to do a good job for their clients but we can’t compete with the branches that don’t have fund booking in the same way.”
David Finlay, intermediary channel director of Barclays, said the lender had seen a huge surge in demand over the past two or three days.
And he added: “We try to have a balanced approach to lending and to split it evenly across all our distribution channels.
“In the past few days our fund tranches have been running out exceptionally fast and we’ve written more cases and a higher value of business than planned.”
Finlay said the lender had a decision to make in “the very near future” about how to address the issue.
He said: “I genuinely empathise with brokers and we’re looking to rectify this as soon as we possibly can to ensure brokers aren’t sitting up all night.”
