Leeds BSMay 17 2019

Leeds BS partners with Iress on mortgage platform

twitter-iconfacebook-iconlinkedin-iconmail-iconprint-icon
Search supported by
Leeds BS partners with Iress on mortgage platform

The society hopes Iress' Mortgage Sales and Origination platform will better the way advisers interact with their products as the automated and internal process removes the need for re-keying data.

This means an adviser does not have to spend time entering their client's details into the system more than once.

On top of this, the platform will then only display products the broker’s clients are eligible for and any ongoing cases can be tracked easily through the system.

Leeds also hopes the platform will bring increased "agility" through which it can respond to market changes and bring products to market as well as respond swiftly to future technology changes.

The platform will be phased with testing over the coming months and the full platform is expected to be fully operational by next year.

Martese Carton, Leeds Building Society’s head of intermediary distribution, said greater automation of routine mortgage applications would free up underwriting and intermediary colleagues to deal with more complex cases.

She added this would help Leeds focus on helping more borrowers who are not well-served by the wider market.

"Innovation continues to play a key part in our success as a lender and our investment in this new platform shows our commitment to future improvements to benefit both our members and intermediary partners," she said.

Paul Thornton, Iress executive general manager of lending, added: "Everyone on the team is delighted to be working with the Leeds Building Society, who we welcome to the growing community of lenders Iress works with.

"As the mortgage market continues to evolve at pace, progressive lenders such as Leeds Building Society are looking at their technology platforms to ensure they can compete."

Mr Thornton added that developments such as open banking and increasing consumer demands for connectivity were driving change and stressed that it was vital lenders could meet these expectations.

He added: "Iress’ platform will provide Leeds Building Society with a flexible solution for meeting these customer demands aligned with overall improved efficiency."

Commenting on the partnership, David Hollingworth, director at L&C Mortgages, said: "It’s good to see them investing to ensure it can maintain its relevance and agility in a fast paced market. 

"Technology offers the potential to bring big gains, not only to the ease of brokers submitting and processing business but right the way through to a simpler and painless process for customers.

"It’s good to hear that this won’t affect their focus on delivering for more complex borrowers as well and in fact, Leeds suggests it should only help enhance a more personalised proposition necessary for those borrowers."

Back in 2015, Iress partnered with Atom Bank — the first client to implement the MSO product — which had been re-engineered to meet the needs of challenger banks and regional building societies as well as traditional high street lenders.

Since then Iress has also launched its Xplan Mortgage product, which allows for a protection quote to be returned at the same time as a mortgage quote.

imogen.tew@ft.com

What do you think about the issues raised by this story? Email us on fa.letters@ft.com to let us know.