"Second charge mortgage brokers are required to do a portion of the legal work and greater levels of operational processing than in the first charge world."
FR: To start with, tell us a little bit about The Loan Partnership and your role.
I am the managing director at The Loan Partnership where I am responsible for all aspects of the business. I joined The Loan Partnership at the start of 2016 to run the operational side of the business and my role has evolved as the company has grown.
In September 2022, the founders completed the sale of the business to Pivotal Growth. One of the owners who worked in the business on a day-to-day basis left upon completion of the sale and the new owners asked me to step up to become managing director. I was delighted to accept, and I work tirelessly to repay their faith in me.
FR: In September 2020, you announced your partnership with OMS, how has the partnership developed since then?
Our partnership has continued to go from strength to strength. We first started working with OMS in early 2020 when the system was really geared to first charge mortgage broking. During lockdown I collaborated directly with OMS founder Neal Jannels to tailor OMS to the second charge process, which I think we did with great success. Today, some of the largest brokers rely on OMS for the day-to-day running of their businesses and we are constantly impressed by their continued drive to make the system the best it can possibly be.
FR: What are your highlights over the last three years and how has partnering with OMS helped your business?
The overriding highlight is being able to work in partnership with the system, rather than being left on our own, or feel like now we have the system implemented in our business that’s the end of it. Improvements are always being made to benefit the client and it has helped us a great deal in being able to evidence our compliance and consumer duty obligations. Relationships have also been formed with our lenders to integrate systems so that we can get almost instant decisions without the need for re-keying.
FR: How does OMS help with second charges specifically and what makes it so good?
OMS is now also geared to the second charge mortgage process which, whilst sharing the commonality of regulation, is very different from a first charge advice process. Second charge mortgage brokers are required to do a portion of the legal work and greater levels of operational processing than in the first charge world. Work which is normally undertaken by the lender, or their solicitor, in the first charge space.
As the system is now tailored for second charge business, this drives efficiencies which makes our job easier and, importantly, save us time. OMS is integrated not just with our lenders but with other third parties, such as the EPC Register, Hometrack and Land Registry. And it continues to evolve.
FR: What plans have you in place for the rest of 2023 and into 2024, and how will OMS support you achieve these plans?
Our plans for the future are very much “more of the same”. Our founding principal was that we may not be the biggest, but we do want to be the best, and that is still true today. We are on the panel of some major networks like PRIMIS and Stonebridge, and we have a dedicated army of introducers who consider a second charge mortgage alongside a first charge mortgage when trying to find the right outcome for their customers.
Second charge mortgages are becoming ever more popular and as demand grows we want to keep pace with it and further expand our market share. Our new owners Pivotal Growth have been fully supportive on this journey. They’ve been there when I need them but they let me run the business day-to-day and we have a great way of working together.
OMS’ continued focus on the second charge market, integrations with the third parties we use and focus on continual improvement will ensure that we are fully equipped with all the necessary tools to continue delivering for our customers, our introducers, our people, and our owners.
