Newcastle provides broking for Zurich

As an independent mortgage advice service with access to a panel of more than 30 lenders, the agreement will add to the financial services already offered by Zurich Independent, one of the UK's leading wealth management consultancies.

It is also the first deal of its type facilitated by The Mortgage Advisor, and should lead to similar agreements in the future with other third parties.

Tony Davies, Managing Director, Zurich Independent Wealth Management, said: "Finding the right mortgage may not be part of our core business, but it is still something that clients ask us to arrange for them from time to time.

Rather than develop our own mortgage broking skills, it makes perfect sense to use the experience and know-how that already exists at The Mortgage Advisor, backed by the strength of ZMN".

"We have a number of high net-worth clients and we see this very much as a value added service we can now offer them."

Angus Macnaughton, the managing director of The Mortgage Advisor, added:

"We already provide a mortgage broking service to other building societies which use the service to help those borrowers they cannot lend to themselves, so it is rewarding to see this extended to the wider financial services sector