FTAdviser.com

Advertising

While bosses at Pink Home Loans, Sesame, Premier Mortgage Service, Legal & General, Openwork and The Mortgage Alliance said they were unhappy with dual pricing they refused to turn their backs on lenders that were offering better deals direct.

In such an under-supplied market it would be disadvantageous to their members to remove dual pricing lenders from panels, they said.

Keith Richards, sales and marketing director for Tenet, described some lenders' dual pricing strategy as "naive".

Mr Richards said the network was lobbying a number of lenders and was optimistic pricing differentials could shorten in the couple of weeks.

However he said: "If it persists, if lenders do not respond more positively, then I think it could extend to longer term relationship issues with some lenders."

John Cupis, head of mortgages and general insurance for Sesame, said some lenders' current pricing policy was a knee-jerk reaction to market conditions and it would not be constructive to react in an equally knee-jerk manner.

However he said Sesame was looking at what its long-term relationship with lenders.

He said: "We are talking to them all individually about their future pricing strategy so we can understand what we should do in the long term."

Paul Shearman, mortgage proposition director for Openwork, said he was disappointed lenders did not appear to be supporting the intermediary sector through the current market turmoil.

However he felt the solution would not be resolved by terminating any relationships.

He said: "At the moment clearly we are working very closely with the lenders, they are aware of our views but from our perspective this is all about partnership and we are keen to make sure both parties are delivering on their commitments to each other, working together to get through the issues that everybody is facing."

Ben Thompson, mortgages director for Legal & General, said limiting the number of lenders available to advisers would only make a challenging situation worse.

He said: "We are continuing to lobby and looking at all options to provide members with the upper hand again as soon as possible."

John Malone, managing director of Premier Mortgage Service, said dual pricing was certainly not a valid reason to remove a lender from its panel.

He said: "It might not suit intermediaries, it certainly might not suit ourselves as well, but dual pricing has been around in the financial services for probably 40 to 50 years in one guise or another."

Phil Whitehouse, head of The Mortgage Alliance, said the purpose of a mortgage club was to provide its members with as much choice as possible.

However he said: "I am quite sure some advisers would bear in mind the issues they are facing now and it might influence their decisions going forward."

Barry Meeks, chief executive of Pink Home Loans, said: "We are supporting the Association of Mortgage Intermediaries in their ongoing discussions with lenders to achieve a mutually beneficial result in the current economic climate"