"The feedback provided the positive momentum for us to make major changes in several sectors including self-build mortgages"
In November last year, introducers were asked for feedback to a comprehensive broker survey to find out what the Society was doing well and also understand the areas where further improvement could be made.
Business development manager, James Green, said: “The feedback provided the positive momentum for us to make major changes in several sectors including self-build mortgages, where, as an example, we were able to increase flexibility by making self-build accessible for those already in retirement and those who would enter the retirement age bracket during the mortgage term.
"Other areas which benefitted from broker feedback include adding a purchase option on our holiday let product and reintroducing lending into retirement which had been a very popular feature pre-pandemic. Introducers were particularly keen that we should improve our ability to not only continue underwriting ‘weird and wonderful cases’ as one respondent put it, but also to ensure that our product range was constantly refreshed to reflect rapidly changing market needs. In March, we launched 18 new products alone and added a 90% LTV option. Our acceptance of gifted deposits was also a direct consequence of the requests we received.
“We are passionate about our proposition and continually looking for ways to improve servicing, products and criteria. Our introducers have challenged us with thoughtful and innovative suggestions, and we have responded. Advisers are the closest to the mortgage coalface and are probably better placed than lenders in many instances to understand what customers are looking for. At the Society, we welcome the feedback of introducers at any time and will continue listening to their valuable insights in the future.”
