New Street Mortgages has launched into the UK market as a new mass-market lending brand under the Northview Group.
The lender is promising analytics-driven mortgages, supported by fast, automated online applications and decisions.
Its product range will begin with the launch of buy-to-let focused products, with initial distribution available via London & Country, John Charcol and the LSL mortgage networks of Pink and First Complete.
New Street has worked with intermediaries over recent months to develop its products and technology for a broker-focused proposition.
It will be offering procuration fees of 0.5 per cent on buy-to-let mortgages and plans to further expand distribution channels and product offerings later in 2016.
The lending process is centred on online decision-making, combined with a broker portal which offers real-time case tracking and access to underwriter notes.
The lender has promised that customers will therefore be able to secure a mortgage in only five days.
Lending decisions will be based on analytics-driven credit profiling, rather than a standard score, meaning customers could benefit from better rates and terms through the new brand’s ‘Advance’ range, which analyses market sector risk and borrower profiles.
All criteria will be clearly published on the website and brokers will be given an explanation of lending decisions to help educate future applications.
Adrian Whittaker, sales director at New Street, argued mortgage lending is ripe for modernisation and the application process has not kept up with technological advances seen in other industries, which means getting to the mortgage decision can be slow and uncertain.
He said: “If you combine this with the extra time that brokers need to invest in every application following the Mortgage Market Review (MMR), it often feels that writing mortgages is harder now than it has been in the past.”
David Finlay, director of distribution at Northview Group, explained that New Street’s launch will compliment the existing focus of Kensington Mortgages and position the group as a brand which caters for borrowers across the market.
“Mortgage lending has become a slow and time-consuming process, but New Street’s use of intelligent data-driven credit profiling will offer the market fast and consistent decision-making to more straightforward cases.”
Karen Hedges, mortgage manager for Pink and First Complete, said their collaboration with New Street Mortgages should help their advisers to better serve their customers, via the brand’s “uniquely digital approach”.
John Charcol’s managing director Walter Avrili agreed the launch provides borrowers with a greater choice of mortgage products, “offering our brokers an easy-to-use online application system that enables us to get the customer the decision they want, more accurately and quickly”.
peter.walker@ft.com
