Mortgage Introducer was inundated by brokers after last week’s article ‘Abbey’s fast-track policy criticised’, who claimed they had no idea whether the product should be termed as self-certification.
Shaun Ginley, mortgage specialist at Magic Mortgages, commented: “I have been using Abbey fast-track specifically because it isn’t called self-cert only to be told it actually reports it to the FSA as self-cert. Abbey is not the only company to use fast-track and if companies report it as self-cert they should state so clearly.”
Danny Lovey, sole trader at The Mortgage Practitioner, added that some lenders even guarantee they will not ask for documentation once the client has passed the credit score.
“Fast-track is for when a broker can prove the income. Self-cert is when you can’t. But lenders like Northern Rock even give a guarantee not to check even though they say it is fast-track and it doesn’t do self-cert.”
Lovey pointed to a clause in Northern Rock’s terms and conditions, which stated: ‘We guarantee that we will not request any additional documentation to verify income following submission of the application, providing that the application meets the relevant criteria at decision-in-principle stage.’
However, pointing to the regulator’s November 2005 review on the self-cert sector which stated ‘fast-track mortgages are a type of self-certification mortgage’, Robin Gordon-Walker, spokesperson for the FSA, said:
“If it is not requiring income certification then it has the characteristics of a self-cert product. Ordinary regulatory practices should apply but if brokers are in any doubt, they should call our contact centre.”
But Linda Will, managing director of Accord, insisted: “Fast-track is not a product but a service used to speed up applications for clients who don’t pose much risk. Self-cert is charged as a product, with extra on the rate. This doesn’t remove the requirement on a fast-track case to have the documentation should it be asked for.”
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