Brightstar

Some bridging lenders have a 'non-existent' onboarding process, claims Rob Jupp during specialist lending debate




Today (1st July), Brightstar Group is hosting an all-day Specialist Lending Virtual Expo, which includes the latest insights to help introducers develop and grow their specialist mortgage business.

The event kicked off with an hour-long debate titled ‘State of the nation: The specialist lending market 2021’, which was chaired by Brightstar Group’s CEO, Rob Jupp (pictured above).

The panel included Emma Cox, sales director of property finance at Shawbrook Bank; Buster Tolfree, director of mortgages at United Trust Bank; Joshua Elash, director at MT Finance; Caroline Mirakian, head of national accounts at Pepper Money; and Adrian Moloney, sales director at OneSavings Bank.

When asked whether brokers should be financially penalised if bridging loans don’t redeem on time, Joshua is of the opinion that it’s the lenders job to consider a case in its entirety, assess and underwrite the risk correctly, and decide whether or not to lend. 

“It’s the broker’s role to package, present, be transparent, and give us all the information we require,” he commented. 

“If we’ve done things correctly at the outset, then the vast majority of our loans should perform. Ultimately, if they’re non-performing loans, I would argue that it’s our responsibility and/or our fault as a lender because we didn’t do our job to begin with. ”

However, the idea of aligning interests appeals to him, and he pointed out that some brokers opt to defer some of their commission so it’s payable on redemption. 

“[This] ensures that the broker stays with their client throughout what is a relatively short loan period,” he said. 

“I like that . . . but it’s not something that we’ve ever pushed and it’s not market standard.”  

Rob asked whether MT Finance looks at the source of any non-performing loans, and whether it no longer deals with that source if there’s a pattern of poor-quality business.   

“We would absolutely take that approach,” he responded. “It’s another facet of responsibility.”

“We have certainly seen it over the course of our 12-year history, where you have a broker who seems to systematically be introducing loans which aren’t fit for purpose, or sometimes even mislead us [to the point where we are] prevented from being able to withdraw at an earlier stage,” he explained.

“If you have someone who is doing that, then you refuse to work with them,” he added. “ We have an onboarding process — we don’t just randomly accept applications from any broker in the country without first assessing whether they’re FCA registered and regulated, and get a better feel for who they are; you have to in this modern age, even just from an AML perspective.” 

“Unfortunately, there are a small number of lenders whose onboarding processes are, at best, non-existent,” Rob claimed.  

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