Mortgages: 5-star providers

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Mortgages: 5-star providers

A rundown of our the five-star winners and their key activities and upcoming plans behind their success.

Natwest Intermediary Solutions

Key activities

  • Technology – Launched a new online A-Z of the provider’s lending criteria and a new option for brokers’ customers to be emailed their offers direct so they get them quicker.
  • Process – Now instructs valuations on day one to speed up the process and provide a refund if the application is declined due to underwriting or credit scoring.
  • Reliable processing – More explicit about packaging requirements and online ‘real-time’ mortgage application tracker means Natwest can check on progress of all applications in just a few seconds.
  • Broad range of products – From New Build purchasers, Help to Buy and high LTV mortgages, through to landlords looking for buy-to-let mortgages.
  • Greater accessibility to team of business development managers via phone or web.

Upcoming plans

  • Continued investment in BDMs.
  • Continued broker support.
  • Looking for new ways to improve offering.
  • Buy-to-let – Introducing further enhancements on buy-to-let proposition.
  • Retention – Launching a retention process enabling brokers to recommend another NatWest mortgage deal to their customers that comes with a 0.2 per cent procuration fee.

Graham Felstead head of Intermediary Mortgages NatWest Intermediary Solutions, said: “We have had another record-breaking year where we have increased the number of mortgages we have written and have maintained our service levels throughout that time.”

 

 

RBS Intermediary Partners

Key activities 

  • Technology – New option for brokers’ customers to be emailed their offers direct.
  • Process – Instructs valuations on day one to speed up the whole process.
  • Reliable processing – More explicit about packaging requirements  and online ‘real-time’ mortgage application tracker means they can check on progress of all applications in just a few seconds
  • Broad range of products – for New Build purchasers, to Help to Buy and high LTV mortgages, through to landlords looking for buy-to-let mortgages.
  • Greater accessibility to team of business development managers via phone or web.  

 

Upcoming plans

  • Continued investment in BDMs.
  • Continued broker support.
  • Looking for new ways to improve offering.
  • Buy-to-let – Introducing further enhancements to the buy-to-let proposition.
  • Retention – Launching a retention process enabling brokers to recommend another RBS mortgage deal to their customers that comes with a 0.2 per cent procuration fee.

Alasdair McDonald, head of RBS Intermediary Partners, said: “We will be introducing further enhancements to our buy-to-let proposition and launching retention fees. We have built up a team of experienced, dynamic and motivated people who are committed to driving forward our intermediary business and we will look to strengthen our relationships even further with the broker firms we work with.”

 

Virgin Money

Key activities

  1. Introduced a product transfer service so intermediary partners can refer existing customers back to Virgin Money if appropriate and receive procuration fee.
  2. Transformed underwriting process to underwrite cases upfront – with aim to give decision in 24 hours.
  3. Improved case tracking.
  4. Expanded proposition with launch of Custom Build and Shared Ownership products.
  5. Improved affordability policy for applicants borrowing into retirement.

Upcoming activities

  1. Maintain ongoing focus on developing and improving mortgage proposition and service to intermediaries.  
  2. Continued measurement and feedback.
  3. Intermediaries rating of Virgin Money service published on website.
  4. Feedback into ongoing activities.

Peter Rogerson, director of mortgages at Virgin Money, said: “One of our key priorities for 2017 has been to continue to deliver outstanding levels of service to our network of professional mortgage intermediary partners. I am delighted that we continue to raise the bar on service, with our independent market insight showing that we have a market-beating Net Promoter Score from our intermediary partners.”

 

 

BM Solutions

Key activities

  • Setting out approach to buy-to-let portfolio lending ahead of new underwriting standards.
  • Holding workshops for several thousand brokers to help them understand portfolio landlord changes.
  • Introducing rental income calculator.
  • Responding to broker feedback by introducing free standard valuation and legal products.
  • Maintaining position in Financial Adviser’s Five Star Service Awards.

Upcoming plans

  • Planned improvements to document upload system.
  • Proposing use of webchat to further enhance the broker experience.
  • Quarterly broker feedback programme.
  • Greater access to field and telephone-based BDMs.
  • Focus on specialist underwriting process for portfolio underwriting.

Phil Rickards, head of BM Solutions, said:

“In an incredibly challenging period for the BTL market, I am extremely proud of the way BM Solutions has continued to support the intermediary market with a dedicated business development team and trusted service proposition, backed up with an excellent product offering.”

 

Halifax Intermediaries

Key activities 

  1. Updated self-employed lending policy – two-year income information required, rather than previous three.
  2. Launched online product transfers.
  3. Continued full procuration fees payments for product transfers.
  4. Introduced an appeals process for remortgage valuations.
  5. Continued support for affordable housing sector with shared equity and shared ownership clients’ products.

Upcoming plans

  1. Continued interaction with advisers on improving business.
  2. New 95 per cent product range for Help To Buy2 that will continue in 2018.
  3. Continued help to first-time buyers – group committed to lending £10bn to help people buy their first home.
  4. Expert-to-expert service. Partners in customer service team are CeMaP qualified with industry experience.
  5. Continued support from knowledgeable BDM team.

Ian Wilson, head of Halifax Intermediaries, said:

“Our proposition has its foundation in the desire to make it easier for intermediaries to provide exemplary service for their customers, and this will continue to be our key focus.

“During what is our twelfth year of delivering product transfers to the intermediary market, we have launched an enhanced online system and retained our procuration fee stance. 2017 has been an excellent year for Halifax Intermediaries and we look forward to supporting this key market once again in 2018.”

 

TSB

Key activities

  1. Access to decision makers.  Brokers have direct access to underwriters to discuss application.
  2. Call-back promise. TSB Intermediary promises all calls to relationship managers will be returned within three hours.
  3. Speed of service. In 2017, 240,000 calls taken by TSB Intermediary were answered within 40 seconds.
  4. Expert-to-expert service. Partners in customer service team are CeMaP qualified with industry experience.
  5. No sales targets. Focus is solely on delivering great service to brokers and customers.

Upcoming plans

  1. Continue to deliver quality service.
  2. Launching TSB Mortgage Pro, a sales system to allow TSB to provide better and faster service to brokers and customers.

Roland McCormack, TSB’s mortgage distribution director, said: “Thank you to all the brokers who voted for us. When we launched TSB Intermediary in January 2015, we set out to ‘shake up the market’ and, nearly three years on, I think it’s clear that we’re doing exactly that. We’re going from strength-to-strength and I’m focused on making sure we continue to deliver great service.

“Finally, I want to thank all the partners at TSB Intermediary for their hard work and dedication; none of this would have been possible without them.”

 

Skipton Intermediaries

Key activities

  1. Day one valuations. Company has knocked around five days off application-to-offer turnaround times.
  2. Average telephone response times to broker queries less than 20 seconds.
  3. Continually high feedback scores from brokers attending roundtable and roadshow events.
  4. Rolled out web chat facility, which is now available on website and through the eMortgages system.
  5. New online product transfer service and retention procuration fees rolled out to whole of market following pilot.

Upcoming plans

  1. Continued interaction with advisers to get feedback.
  2. Maintaining and reaching out further to offer personal face-to-face broker service from highly skilled and knowledgeable Intermediary Relationship Managers (IRMs);
  3. Enabling broker partners to have direct access to underwriters;
  4. Increasing digital facilities, including introduction of e-signatures for all brokers.
  5. Prioritising delivery of short and trouble-free borrower journey.

Paul Darwin, Skipton’s director of intermediary relationships, said: “As a mutual lender we pride ourselves on offering exceptional levels of service. People don’t want a mortgage, they want a home. And they want the best value, the least hassle, and the quickest service. It means so much to us that everyone at Skipton is working so well together to make that happen.”

 

Just

Key activities

  1. Just was recognised by Plain English campaign for documents relating to its life and pension products and it has rewritten a further 150 documents.
  2. Provided education and training to help advisers identify and advise potentially vulnerable customers – especially relevant in the lifetime mortgages sector. Just has helped more than 300 advisers complete a Dementia Friends course.
  3. More than 600 advisers have attended Just ‘Adviser Forums’.
  4. Worked with compliance firm Thistle Initiatives, to help advisers and compliance officers reduce their exposure to risks.
  5. Relaunch of brand.

Upcoming plans

  1. Plain English to be rolled out across all staff activity.
  2. Continuing vulnerable customers work.
  3. Continuing with adviser forums.
  4. Compliance forums.
  5. Assessing operations and seeing if they can be changed to help colleagues look after customers better.  

Stephen Lowe, group communications director, said: "Growth in the lifetime mortgage sector has accelerated in the last 12 months and competition has intensified. Against this backdrop, at Just we’ve been busy successfully integrating our two businesses at pace. It’s a great credit to our people that we’ve maintained our focus on providing advisers with outstanding customer service as well as supporting them to deal with the changing and challenging market in which they operate."

 

More 2 Life

Key activities

  1. Made improvements to online portal to make it even easier to use.
  2. Introduced dedicated adviser support personnel and direct dial numbers to give advisers faster access to the team.
  3. Focused on back office process improvements to speed up the processing of applications and to get to offer even faster than ever.
  4. Bringing in new staff and developing existing employees.
  5. Continued to work with funders and used feedback from advisers to improve lending criteria and underwriting processes.

Upcoming plans

  1. Make further improvements to online portal, adding new functionalities.
  2. Having accelerated the application-to-offer process, More 2 Life now wants to speed up the time frame from offer to completion.
  3. New products.
  4. Extend adviser support and development initiatives.

Stuart Wilson, channel marketing director, said: "More 2 Life is focused on delivering even more lending options over the next five years, bringing new funding to this rapidly expanding market. We are known as an innovator and pioneer in the equity release market and we intend to build on that reputation to become the UK’s leading provider of later life lending solutions."

 

Coventry Building Society

Key activities

  1. Extended the opening hours for intermediary development team by one hour, so brokers can now call between 9am and 6pm, Monday to Friday.
  2. Introduced procuration fees for product transfers this year to recognise the work intermediaries have to undertake in order to give advice.
  3. Made process of paying procuration fees easier and quicker.
  4. Developed easy-to-use offering for brokers and their clients following the changes to buy-to-let rules and regulations.
  5. Continued investment in staff.

Upcoming plans

  1. Will continue to listen to the views of brokers and make improvements.
  2. Continued investment in a new team of business development managers to further support brokers in the field.
  3. Continuing to publish service levels on website every day, allowing brokers to make an informed choice when placing business.
  4. Will continue with pledge to give 48 hours’ notice of product withdrawals.
  5. Investing in new telephony system

Kevin Purvey, director of intermediaries: “We continually strive to deliver consistently strong service levels, and recognition of this shows that our continued investment is appreciated by brokers – which is what matters to us the most."

 

Santander

Key activities

  1. Made intermediary support tool easier to use, taking feedback direct from brokers to simplify the format.
  2. Enhancements made to online affordability calculator, giving brokers the numbers they need quickly.
  3. Launched retention procuration fees and an online retention platform for brokers to transact on.
  4. Launched chatbot to provide instant responses to simple questions.
  5. Systems changes enabling underwriting and support teams to make more calls to brokers and reduce application process times.

Upcoming plans

  1. Looking to roll out a specific service charter going into next year with broker commitments.
  2. Launching a livechat pilot later this year alongside telephone support.
  3. Lending and policy enhancements. 

Graham Sellar, head of business development at Santander Mortgages, said: "We work tirelessly to support brokers and their customers, we are always looking at how we can build on and improve our existing offering, working to provide a simple and secure service to all intermediaries across the UK. We hugely value the work the intermediary market does and work hard to deliver them excellent products and services to support them."

 

 Scottish Widows Bank

Key activities

  1. Simplified evidence requirements to support applications, for example, no longer asking for certified documents.
  2. Migrated to an upgraded platform to improve service.
  3. Set up separate team for large loans to improve service.
  4.   Recently increased the size of new business team by 20 per cent. New team members are being trained.
  5. Introduced automated valuations for remortgages to speed up time to full offer.

Upcoming plans

  1. Introduction of an online application system to provide real-time case tracking, status alerts, improved document upload and simplified application forms.
  2. Will instruct valuations earlier in process to speed up time to full offer.
  3. Further advance process will be fully online.

Martin Fleming, managing director, Scottish Widows Bank, said: "2017 has been a year of change. We put service first and it is great to see the improvements we have made in our service reflected in the scores we have received from advisers and their clients.  Even more impressive is that we have achieved this result whilst doubling our market share and delivering a major upgrade to our platform."

 

Accord Mortgages

Key activities

  1. Trained more than 100 caseworkers to underwriter level.
  2. Mortgage advisers deal with one underwriter from start to finish of application.
  3. Increased the number of applications approved in principle which are accepted on the system.
  4. Reduced documentation requirements.
  5. Rolled out welcome hamper initiative to strengthen relationships between advisers and their clients.

Upcoming plans

  1. Training more staff.
  2. Investing in and upgrading mortgage platform.
  3. New products and entering new markets.

David Robinson, national intermediary sales manager, said: “For us to have this recognition and change in perception, it has been a long, hard journey – not without its challenges. We will keep investing in the work we have done over the past 12 months. The other work we are doing to add to the service angle is make sure we continue to support brokers in other ways.”