The broker-only service will be provided via a stand-alone subsidiary of the society, called The West Bromwich Mortgage Company.
The West Bromwich Mortgage Company handles all intermediary generated business together with loan portfolios purchased by the society. Although the ‘brand’ which intermediaries deal with is ‘westbromforintermediaries’, borrowers who are introduced to the society via intermediaries will have their mortgages provided by the West Bromwich Mortgage Company.
Paul Marland, assistant general manager intermediary sales at West Brom, said: “The society has structured the business in this way because it recognises the importance of having a business channel which is specifically dedicated to serving the needs of intermediaries.
“westbromforintermediaries has its own processing centres in Coventry, Nottingham and West Bromwich, which are staffed by underwriters and mortgage processors who only deal with intermediary generated business. Likewise, we have a dedicated team of account managers located throughout the country, who are focussed on providing intermediaries with a high standard of specialist service support.”
The Society has also unveiled its dedicated intermediary website: www.westbromforintermediaries.co.uk which gives brokers the ability to submit buy-to-let applications electronically, obtain immediate decisions, generate KFI’s and obtain current product and mortgage rate information, which includes buy-to-let, prime and non-prime products.
The online system links seamlessly to the ‘back office’ processing system, which ensures a fast and reliable mortgage service for brokers. The society will continue to develop its online trading capability throughout 2006 and beyond and will announce further enhancements on an ongoing basis.
westbromforintermediaries has ambitious plans for growth. During the 2005/06 financial year, the society generated £968 million of new mortgage business from the intermediary mortgage market and during the 2006/07 financial year the Society intends to increase this level to £1.5bn. The focus will be on buy-to-let primarily, but westbromforintermediaries also has competitive products in the prime and increasingly the non-prime markets.
Paul Marland concluded: “This is an exciting time for everyone involved in intermediary lending at the West Brom. We have made the important decision to develop a dedicated intermediary channel which includes specialist intermediary products, service support and an online trading capability, all of which is encapsulated by our new brand westbromforintermediaries. I hope mortgage brokers like what we have to offer.”
