“This decision in no way reflected any dissatisfaction with HMLs service or the relationship between us,” said Graeme Hartop, managing director of Scottish Widows Bank. “Our long term strategy has always been to administer our business in-house when the time was right. It shows just how good HMLs service was and how responsive they were to our business needs that we decided to stay with them for so long.”
Scottish Widows Bank launched into the UK mortgage market in the mid 1990s, signing the contract with HML in 1996. As a pioneer in terms of product development, Scottish Widows was one of the first UK lenders to offer a flexible mortgage product.
The company’s wide ranging product offering includes provision of drawdown credit facilities, an offset mortgage product and an equity release (lifetime) mortgage.
HML was able to prove itself and enhance its own capabilities by meeting Scottish Widows Bank’s demanding requirements in terms of innovations such as these.
Steve Haggerty, HMLs managing director, commented: “When Scottish Widows Bank started, we provided a systems platform and operational expertise to help a lender to market who at the time didn’t possess the capability to service mortgages post-completion. That included a full new business process from packaged stage through to completion and, when needed, a full credit management operation. Now with almost 10 years under its belts and now owned, of course, by Lloyds TSB, its reached the point where it wants to do it in-house.”
He continued: “HML has grown and developed hand in hand with Scottish Widows Bank and it’s definitely been a win-win partnership. When we first started work with it, HML had just 15 clients and £2 billion of assets. We’re 16 times the size now. We’ve also come a long way in terms of product development and technical capabilities – we now handle more than 9,000 different mortgage products, and have successfully come through many hoops such as the Millennium issue and Mortgage Regulation, to name but ten.
“We’re naturally sorry to see Scottish Widows Bank move on, but the relationship and mutual respect between the two companies remains as strong as ever.”
Hartop agreed: “We have a very high regard for HML and the professionalism and expertise of their team – and, true to form, the transfer was handled impeccably. In fact HML for the time being still handles our deeds management. We would have no hesitation in recommending them, and for a start-up or to service mortgages of a type that a lender can’t handle in-house, they are the natural choice.”
