"Seeking market advice from a mortgage intermediary is the right choice for many consumers, but often consumers aren’t quite sure where to start."
The campaign encourages consumers shopping for a mortgage to speak to their existing mortgage broker or, if they don’t have one, to visit findamortgagebroker.co.uk – a new website created by Virgin Money that helps consumers to find an intermediary that can offer market advice.
Over 8,000 of Virgin Money’s intermediary partners have already agreed to register their details on the new site.
Paul Lloyd, Marketing Director at Virgin Money, said: “Our mortgage business is built around our intermediary partners and we believe our proposition to intermediaries is second-to-none so the natural next step was to put our marketing money where our mouth is, creating an advertising campaign that has a very serious message. Seeking market advice from a mortgage intermediary is the right choice for many consumers, but often consumers aren’t quite sure where to start.
"Our new campaign not only promotes the benefits of talking to an adviser, but also helps consumers find one through the new website. Our ambition is to drive new business to our intermediary partners, helping them grow, in the knowledge that with the strength of our intermediary proposition, those clients that are right for us will come back our way. We believe our approach is in the true spirit of partnership.”
Jeremy Duncombe, Director, Legal & General Mortgage Club, added: “The role of the intermediary has become increasingly vital to homebuyers in recent years, yet the way in which lenders support intermediaries is rarely addressed. Virgin Money’s campaign is breaking this taboo and shaking up the market by doing more than just talking about partnerships; it is actively promoting the importance of advisors and championing the cause of intermediaries. Virgin Money is leading the way with this campaign. Brokers are being supported like never before by a lender who understands the value of the intermediary to the customer, and to the lender.”
Bob Hunt, Chief Executive of Paradigm Mortgage Services, commented: “This is very welcome news and the first time I can recall a mortgage lender investing its own marketing budget to drive customers to mortgage intermediaries. Virgin Money should be applauded for this. It’s recognised the need for quality mortgage advice and is making this effort so that customers know where to find it, whether or not they take their mortgage through Virgin Money or another lender. It’s a bold move, but demonstrates a real commitment from them to the intermediary channel.
“At Paradigm we have a very strong relationship with Virgin Money and the team there have listened carefully to what our partner firms need. It was a direct result of our feedback that they changed their affordability criteria recently and I know they have been using some of our partner firms in their ‘Mortgage Lab’ to design better processes that make it easier for an adviser to conduct business. It is refreshing for a lender to work so closely with a mortgage distributor in this way and we wish them very well with this initiative.”
