PMPA unveils details of packager code

The PMPA is currently in the final stages of launching its Service Charter code which will be transactional rather than theoretically based.

Key elements within the draft proposal of the code include: DIPs and AIPs to be conducted within 24 hours; valuations instructed within 24 hours of receipt of application; post opened and actioned within 24 hours; phone responses within half a working day; dedicated teams for intermediaries; 75 per cent of cases should go to offer first time and within 24 hours of the lender receiving a completed application package; and 75 per cent of all offered cases to complete.

Vic Jannels, director of PR and marketing at the PMPA, said: “We are still in the draft stages but the code will ensure packagers offer some definitive assurances to the intermediary marketplace.”

PMPA’s code follows the launch of the Regulatory Alliance of Mortgage Packagers’ (RAMP) code of conduct last week which comprises a range of standards from compliance to training and succession management.

John Maltby, chairman of the Intermediary Mortgage Lenders Association (IMLA), which has rejected a proposal to draw up a lender code for packagers, said plans to launch an alternative code between willing members of the association was still likely to go ahead, although it was too early to say if it would use RAMP’s or PMPA’s code as a basis. “Lenders will have their own requirements that they will want to put in place.,” said Maltby.