Lenders to share conveyancer panel info

Paul Smee, director general of the Council of Mortgage Lenders, told conveyancers at the Conveyancing Association that the trade body was poised to engage a firm to build the system.

While Smee acknowledged it was still in the planning stages he said the intent was to help conveyancers deal with lenders' move to restricting their legal panels.

He said: "It must be intensely irritating for conveyancers to have to supply the same information to each lender independently.

"We are working to create a system that will allow lenders to pool basic data on their legal partners because the day of the panel is here."

Smee confirmed that the CML was facilitating the move rather than managing it and therefore couldn't give a timeframe for completion.

He also said the lender trade body hoped to work with the Law Society and the Solicitors Regulation Authority who already collect much of the data lenders are beginning to demand from conveyancers.

HSBC has already restricted its legal panel to just 43 firms while Lloyds Banking Group has kept its panel much wider at around 900 firms.

Smee said he believed some lenders were "really committed" to maintaining wide panels but acknowledged further cuts were likely to come across the industry.