This week Virgin Money is beginning the next stage of its intermediary market push by allowing brokers to take part in the product transfer process
Peter Rogerson, Virgin Money’s commercial director for mortgages, told FTAdviser that letters are being sent out to adviser partners ahead of a new system going live in early July that will allow them to see what deals are being offered at the end of a client’s mortgage term.
This will enable intermediaries to submit product transfers for existing Virgin Money customers, with a “competitive retention fee” for doing so, he explained.
Mr Rogerson said: “The products we offer existing customers – which match those offered for new customers – will appear on the industry sourcing systems, making it straightforward for intermediaries to compare our deals with what else is available in the market and provide advice accordingly.”
He admitted “a fair chunk” of clients will still opt to go direct, but the changes are designed to make the process easier and fairer for advisers.
Earlier this month, the lender launched a national advertising campaign promoting the benefits of buying a mortgage through an intermediary, encouraging consumers without an adviser to visit a newly-created Virgin Money directory, which more than 8,000 intermediary partners have signed up to.
The bank’s intermediary push began in February 2015, with a ‘manifesto’ for brokers, comprising commitments to the market, including notice before mortgage rate increases; no under pricing of deals to make them cheaper direct; dedicated business development managers; and “competitive” procuration fees.
Mr Rogerson said this summer will also see the rollout of a new front-end web portal to make it easier to access the Virgin Money website from mobile devices.
Later in the year, a second portal is also planned, which will be more of an intermediary exchange, featuring tools and marketing materials brokers can use to grow their businesses, as well as a networking feature where they can discuss industry issues.
“This will be rolled out towards the end of the summer”, said Mr Rogerson. “Hopefully it will help us gauge what more intermediary partners like and don’t like about our service and inform what we do next.”
Last month, brokers called on lenders for more action on procuration and retention fees, stating the payments have not kept apace with increased workloads.
Kent Reliance has since launched a product transfer scheme paying a procuration fee for brokers, covering all the products in its range.
This follows Metro Bank’s switching portal last autumn, with their head of mortgage distribution Charles Morley suggesting only seven lenders paying fees for product switching - the others being Barclays, Lloyds, Clydesdale, TSB, Skipton and Kent Reliance.
peter.walker@ft.com
