MortgagesSep 6 2017

Online mortgage criteria search launches

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Online mortgage criteria search launches

An online system launching today (6 September) promises to save mortgage brokers hours of work by allowing them to search lenders’ criteria at the touch of a button.

Knowledge Bank provides a fully searchable database of more than 18,000 completed criteria categories across residential, buy-to-let, second charges, equity release, self-build and overseas mortagages.

Some 43 lenders are currently on the system, with more uploading their criteria every week.

Knowledge Bank was designed by a broker who became frustrated by the experience of spending hours on the phone to help desks or analysing lenders’ websites to find out who would accept a certain set of criteria, such as a client with county court judgements.

Our aim is have every piece of criteria a broker might need all in one place and eliminate the need to call help desks.Nicola Firth

It enables brokers to search multiple criteria simultaneously, with results displaying which lenders will lend against one or more of the criteria categories searched for.

Every search can be saved and the results printed out and retained in a broker’s file as ‘evidence of research’ alongside product sourcing results, supporting their recommendation to their client.

A similar system, Criteria Hub, was launched in May this year and continues to add lenders to its database.

Nicola Firth, chief executive of Knowledge Bank and its parent company Compass Systems, said: “Knowledge Bank has been designed to reduce the amount of time that brokers spend searching for the right mortgage and increasing the amount of time they spend with clients. 

“Our aim is have every piece of criteria a broker might need all in one place and eliminate the need to call help desks. It has been designed to be as simple to use as possible, with searches that take seconds.”

Broker Anita Smith, practice principal at Rotherham-based Smith Mortgage Services, said: “Let’s face it, most of our time as brokers is spent researching criteria in order to place a case.

"Knowledge Bank is the tool that has saved us time, by pointing out the lenders that can help in a particular situation and telling you straight away which lenders could not.”

simon.allin@ft.com