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LEEDS BUILDING SOCIETY
Shared Ownership

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Business Protection

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LATEST PARTNER BLOGS:

FLEET
Looking Ahead At The BTL Market In 2023

KEYSTONE
Multi-Title Split For Portfolio Landlord

GUARDIAN
It’s Time To Get On The Front Foot

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Paymentshield

New quote facility now live!

Paymentshield introduces a new, optimised home insurance quote journey that brings greater efficiencies for advisers while ensuring they can still deliver the best outcomes for customers.

The enhanced quote journey, now live in the Adviser Hub platform, asks fewer questions than before, meaning advisers can now generate a quote for their client in less than one minute. The total question set has been reduced by over half, with advisers finding they can now complete the quote journey in as little as 40 seconds.

Watch the latest New Home Insurance Quite Journey video or click here to find out more.

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Santander for Intermediaries

Contacting us is easier

We’ve listened to your feedback, and we’ve made contacting us easier.

From Monday 24 April, you’ll only need to call one number to talk to your Broker Support Team about new business and product transfer queries, and any existing mortgage applications.

Please enter your Company/Introducer code on our contact us page on our website to find your dedicated contact details.

Please note the following telephone numbers are no longer in use:

  • 0800 085 1390 (previously admin)
  • 0800 032 7865 (previously product transfer)

Please remove these from your contacts.

LV= PROTECTION

Supporting your clients financially, emotionally and practically

In 2022 LV= paid out over £127m in personal protection claims. That figure represents 8,000 individuals and families who have personally benefitted from an LV= protection policy.

Read more about how they’ve supported at claim and beyond in their new claims report.

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West One

New ‘Platinum’ residential range

West One Loans has launched a new range of residential mortgages with rates up to 94 basis points lower than its existing product set.

The specialist lender’s new ‘Platinum’ range has five and two-year fixed rates, respectively – 79 and 90 basis points lower than equivalent products in its existing ranges.

The new range is available to first-time buyers, home movers and remortgage customers and sits alongside West One’s existing Prime Plus, Prime and Near Prime product sets.

The Platinum range also has its own unique criteria, including:

  • Maximum loan size of £1m (Max £500k for unencumbered properties)
  • Maximum LTV of 70%
  • Maximum LTI of 4.5 times income
  • Interest only available up to 65% LTV
  • Mortgage/secured arrears – 0 in last 12 months, allowing for one missed payment in the last 24 months
  • CCJ’s and defaults – 0 in 24 months.

The launch follows West One’s recent decision to switch from percentage based fees to a flat-fee structure for its residential ranges. The move will benefit the vast majority of borrowers with arrangement fees fixed between £995 and £2,995, depending on the loan size.

Marie Grundy, managing director of West One’s residential and second charge divisions, said: “We’re absolutely thrilled to be able to launch such a highly competitive new range of residential deals so quickly after launching into this area of the market. “We’ve spent the past few months fine-tuning our criteria and making sure that it delivers on our promise to help those who are underserved by the high street.

“We’re confident it does but with the launch of this new range, we now have a pricing proposition that is a match for anything in the specialist residential market.

“We are able to offer such competitive pricing because we have an extremely strong and diverse funding network; and that is because our investors have confidence in our ability to lend prudently and at scale.

“We are very happy with what we have achieved in our first seven months in the residential space, but we have ambitions to rapidly grow our market share.”

View product guide here.

The Mortgage Lender

Consumer Duty – Supporting you and your clients

At The Mortgage Lender, we want to make sure every customer receives a great experience and a good outcome from us.  Consumer Duty provides another opportunity for us to review what we do and ensure that we provide the best experience we can.

We are working on a few enhancements for you and your clients, and how we engage with them.  We are also taking steps to ensure you have the information you need about our products, our target market and the value we offer to your clients.

We will keep you updated with any changes we make, but here is some helpful online content you can use in advance of the Consumer Duty implementation deadline of the 31st July:

  • Key changes – We will keep a note of all our upcoming changes, and when you can expect to see them, including our Fair Value Assessments, Target Market definitions, and updates to our Intermediary Ts & Cs.
  • Frequently Asked Questions – We have been gathering the questions we receive relating to Consumer Duty, and you can find these and our answers on our website.
  • Vulnerable Customers – We are updating our systems to help us identify customers with characteristics of vulnerability.  We will contact you by email when these updates are made.
  • Coming soon – Consumer Duty Online Event, with Robert Sinclair, Chief Executive at AMI. We will be running a webinar focusing on Consumer Duty and its impact on the intermediary market.  Look out for your invitation coming soon.

You can view our online content here. 

In the meantime, if you have questions on Consumer Duty, or about our plans, please contact us by speaking to your Business Development Manager.

Zurich

Income Protection – A little extra support goes a long way

Sometimes it’s the little things that can make all the difference if your client makes a successful claim, we’ll pay their monthly benefit, but Zurich’s support doesn’t end there: We can also guarantee their monthly benefit if their income falls after their policy begins.

When your client is ready, we’ll help them get back to work – even topping up some of their income if they earn less than they did before their injury or illness

Your client may go back to a new role, company or even industry. If they are on a reduced income, we’ll continue to pay your client a portion of their monthly benefit. And we’ll make things as straightforward as possible if their injury or illness returns, by restarting their monthly benefit straightaway. So, as well as helping your client safeguard their income, we do a little bit more to support your client.

Click here to read our latest Income Protection Sales Aid.

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LendInvest

Why are homebuyers entering this challenging market?

Despite the economic noise, homebuyers are still looking to buy their first or next home. Why is this, and what residential mortgage options do lenders need to provide to deliver these homes for them?

Find out more here.

Uinsure CX

GAME CHANGING TECHNOLOGY THAT AUTOMATES YOUR GI

Uinsure is now the first platform in the UK that can track an individual’s mortgage progress and provide fully automated communications at key moments in the mortgage cycle.

Watch the TMA Vidcast, where our very own Louise Evans, Head of Operations, goes on the UinsureCX journey from a client point of view and obtains a quote within seconds!

Watch now.

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Just

Consumer Duty – business update

We understand that the FCA’s Consumer Duty is a priority across our industry. To help you meet the regulator’s requirements, we’d like to reassure you that we’re just a phone call or email away, ready to offer our support and answer any questions you might have about our products and services.

The information below is:

  • designed to support you in complying with your responsibilities under PRIN 2A.3.16 R and PRIN 2A.4.16 R; and
  • provided to you to fulfil our responsibilities under PRIN 2A.4.15R and PRIN 2A.3.12 R (2).

Please note that you are ultimately responsible for meeting your obligations under ‘The Consumer Duty’.

Information to support you in complying with your own responsibilities and help you fulfil our responsibilities for the new Consumer Duty are now available at justadviser.com/products/consumer-duty.

Zephyr Homeloans

Let’s talk about Flats Above Commercial

Zephyr Homeloans ninth video in their new series is out now and this week, Zephyr RSM, Andy Rowe, makes placing a FAC case a breeze, informing you about the main points to consider for your clients and where to find out more information.

Zephyr will release a new video each week, so check their website often to watch them here, or sign-up to their email newsletter here to be kept up to date.

Crystal Specialist Finance

Do you know your MEES from your EPCs?

How are landlord clients funding their property upgrades?  Just to remind you that MEES (Minimum Energy Efficiency standards) are key to the government’s plan to make the country carbon net zero by 2050.

And since April 2018, all rental property must have had an EPC (Energy Performance Certificate) in place with a rating between F and G – as part of the wider push to MEES.

By 2025, all new tenancies must move from an E to a C rating, and all tenancies by 2028. If a property is found to fall short of the required rating, landlords could face a fine of up to £30,000.

Have you spoken to your landlord clients about funding EPC upgrades – estimated at nearly £5,000 per property?

Lenders are also waking up to the required standards too – with some refusing to lend on properties where the EPC is below E. This will no doubt change as EPC standards rise and become law.

With lending criteria having tightened in the BTL market, bridging finance could be the ideal way to fund property upgrades or fund the purchase of an addition to an existing portfolio and fund refurbishments and upgrades at the same time.

Rates are highly competitive – starting at 0.55% p.m. (with a 2% product fee), the application process is far simpler than a ‘traditional’ mortgage and money can be in the bank in days not months.

The BTL market is buoyant at the moment and you (and your portfolio clients) should be taking advantage.

So, if your BTL clients haven’t started funding their EPC upgrades, why not send us your case details right now to Crystal Specialist Finance using CrystalHUB? It will only take you a few minutes and you can book a call with one of our underwriters at the same time. In fact, you could be speaking to one of our mortgage experts within the hour!

https://www.crystalsf.com/