Inform 15th December 2023

Legal & General

Continuing to make improvements to your customer’s application experience.

Following the data – Analysis from our work with GP surgeries showed that the practice of chasing a GP for an update on day five following our request for medical records, wasn’t having much impact. The data showed that often the surgery hadn’t received the patient’s health report (PHR) by this time, or that they’d had time to review the request and complete it.

As a result of this, we now call GPs after nine days and surgeries are 22% more likely to confirm that they’ve received the report. Successful outcomes from our calls are up to 85% from 63%, keeping you better informed of the application progress.

IGPR efficiencies – IGPR is our electronic PHR system that we use to issue electronic reports to surgeries who then complete these for our customers.

To give surgeries more time to do this, IGPR now waits 30 days instead of 14 to record ‘no response’ from a surgery. As a result, the number of electronic PHR’s being rejected has gone down by 12% and there’s less need for us to send paper requests, adding further delays.

Building robust relationships – We’ve been working closely with our third-party medical provider, Inuvi, to review and reduce our pipeline of outstanding medical examinations. This positive relationship means we are responding to Inuvi queries 16% faster, resulting in a 10% reduction in outstanding medical examinations.

Getting you answers  – Finally, we’ve been training our staff to better support you with your underwriting queries. You’ll be pleased to know they can now more confidently understand and explain the reasons for a decision without needing to speak to an underwriter.

Useful Links 

• Underwriting
• Find your dedicated team
• Tools and calculators

Skipton Building Society for Intermediaries

Breaking News: We now offer 95% New Build Flats.

Great news! As part of Skipton’s commitment to helping first-time buyers and supporting more of your clients onto the property ladder, they’ve made changes to their lending policy for New Build flats.

Policy Update

• Skipton can now accept applications up to 95% LTV for New Build flats.
• Clients now have access to our New Build products up to 95% LTV on both houses and flats.

New Build Mortgages

“At Skipton we understand the challenges in the New Build market and the deposit hurdles facing prospective homeowners. We’re now supporting New Build flats at 95% LTV, unlocking more opportunities for home ownership.” Jonathan Evans, National Account and New Build Lead. 

Should you have any questions or require any guidance or support, please contact your local BDM.

Santander for Intermediaries

Residential and Buy to Let affordability updates

On Tuesday 12 December, we’ll be changing our residential and Buy to Let affordability rates.

Residential

We’re updating the residential affordability rates we use in our affordability calculation. This means most of your clients could borrow more.

Buy to Let

Our Buy to Let affordability rates will be reducing.

Please use our Buy to Let calculator on our website to get an accurate reflection of what we can lend your clients.

Pipeline rules

All full mortgage applications (FMAs) submitted by 10pm on Monday 11 December won’t be affected by these changes.

Any FMAs submitted from 6am on Tuesday 12 December will be assessed using our new lending policy.

If a material change is made to an existing application from 6am on Tuesday 12 December the case will be reassessed using our new lending policy.

Help and support

Our affordability and Buy to Let calculators and our Buy to Let lending criteria will be updated on our website on Tuesday 12 December.

3mc

Introducing Birmingham Bank

• Specialising in buy to let properties, flats, small HMOs and MUFBs
• Add different property types into one loan
• Unlimited number of properties accepted, subject to minimum individual property value of £135k
• Offer up to 75% LTV and no limits on background portfolios

3mc are delighted to introduce Birmingham Bank, specialising in standard buy to let properties, flats, small HMOs up to 6 rooms and small MUFBs up to 6 units.

A portfolio loan can include the same or mixed property types and Birmingham Bank accept unlimited numbers of properties, have a max £2m exposure per borrower and offer up to 75% LTV with no limits on background portfolios.

Speak with a member of the 3m team now: 0161 962 7800

PACKAGE OF SUPPORT – £95 packaging fee

• Saving brokers valuable time when researching specialist mortgage enquiries.
• 3mc will research and provide brokers with access to both the lender core range and packager exclusive products and criteria.
• Save valuable processing time by accessing our lender onsite underwriters and representatives, speeding up the application process.
• Dedicated key account support manager.
• Semi-exclusives products through 3mc.

*First charge residential and BTL packaging fee at £95 – other fees apply for different categories of lending

DOWNLOAD PRODUCT GUIDE

The Mortgage Lender

Real life lending stories, all together in one place

At The Mortgage Lender (TML), we are proud of our supportive, can-do approach. We call it Real Life Lending, and it’s how we’re able to help brokers like you get the right outcomes for your clients, even in complex, challenging cases.

We’ve have a collection of studies, featuring recent real life cases. Each example highlights how great collaboration can deliver successful outcomes, for everyone involved.

Find out how we:

• Fast-tracked a complex FTB case in just five days where the self-employed client had a history of missed payments
• Worked with a specialist property finance comparison site to put together a complex BTL package, including 14 separate mortgages for one experienced landlord
• Coordinated a complex refinance deal by getting three specialist lenders to work together

We always look for new case study examples. Take a look and contact your BDM to discuss your own case.

And don’t forget we have recently refreshed our residential product range, so could help you help more of your clients.

View our case studies

Metro Bank

Enhancements to policy & document requirements

To help simplify both our residential and buy to let applications, we have made the following positive changes to our policy and packaging requirements:

Policy enhancements
Self employed:

• Introduction of Accountants Certificate for cases under £1 million
• Minimum time trading reduced to 2 years (2 years figures needed)

Employed:

• No minimum time required in current role (1 payslip needed from current role and 1 from previous role)
• Minimum time in employment reduced to 6 months for both primary and secondary jobs

For full details on the points above, please refer to our Lending Criteria Guide.

Document requirements
We have simplified our packaging requirements for employed, self employed and contractor cases. Download our updated Packaging Guides.

Vitality

To close the protection gap Income Protection needs to work harder

At a time of continued economic and health volatility, ensuring clients are financially resilient is essential. With income protection widely recognised as the cornerstone of good protection planning, products must move with the changing needs of consumers to remain relevant and deliver good outcomes.

Read the article

Watch on demand: Growing your protection business in a challenging market

In our recent webinar, Growing your protection business in a challenging market, our panel of industry experts explored how advisers can maximise opportunities.

To ensure their businesses thrive in an ever-challenging market, whilst delivering the best outcomes for their clients. They discuss:

• Navigating the challenges of a volatile market
• How products are evolving to meet the changing needs of clients
• The impact of Consumer Duty on the advice market.

Watch now

LOUGHBOROUGH BUILDING SOCIETY

SUPPORTING SHARED OWNERSHIP

Following feedback from our panel members I am pleased to announce a positive change around our shared ownership products. We have added a 2-year fixed rate in additional to our current 5-year fixed rate.

This is in addition to our recent criteria change where we can now accept benefit income for shared ownership applications.

The following table list the benefit and the amount acceptable for income purposes and the amount will be verified via the client bank statements or letter from the DWP.

The Loughborough can also consider the following on shared ownership applications.

• Up to 95% LTV on purchase 90% on remortgages
• Minimum purchase 25% of the property – minimum loan amount £25,000
• Self-employed applicant we can consider the most recent year net profits if there has been an increase.
• Zero hours can be considered where the applicants has worked for the same employer for the last 6 months.
• CIS can be accepted where they have worked for the same employer for the last 6 months and we would average the last 3 months earnings