It has been almost 100 days since we announced our return to the intermediary sector and I can honestly say that this feels like the quickest 100 days of my career. The support from brokers and our distribution partners has been superb and so I thought I would use this article to highlight the value of getting distribution right as a lender.
As we were an intermediary-only lender previously, there was never any question of ever deviating from this vital distribution channel upon our return to the specialist buy-to-let marketplace. However, having a history in this space does have its opportunities and challenges when establishing a distribution strategy to match our relaunch. One of the pros is that CHL Mortgages is a well-known and highly regarded brand amongst the adviser community. However, as a business we recognised a challenge of winning over the hearts and minds of the brokers who did not know CHL.
When re-entering the market we knew that we could not go in too aggressively from the outset. Being a new team with new processes and new technology, we had to carefully manage the quality and quantity of business. If we exceeded capacity and too much business flooded in too early, then this would create its own set of challenges, especially as a cornerstone of our proposition was to provide consistently best-in-class service.
As a ‘new’ lender there was always likely to be some initial teething problems, no matter how stringent and robust testing periods are. Beta testing and piloting is crucial in uncovering bugs or issues before any launch. In a market as fluid and complex as buy-to-let, it is important to remain agile and ensure we have sufficient resources to quickly iron out any issues from the onset.
Our ethos was to start as we meant to go on from a service perspective. As such, we initially launched with a selected panel of distribution partners in Mortgages for Business, 3mc and Master Private Finance plus a number of directly authorised firms that we know well. This initial panel afforded us a strong level of control and has resulted in receiving high quality levels of business. It has also enabled us to carefully monitor our processes and ensure that we can service the right volume of business, with all the nuances attached to the current lending arena in the best possible manner.
Through the confidence gained in our processing and service over these early days – via feedback from the launch partners – we have been able to further extend this panel to include distribution giants such as Legal & General Mortgage Club, Paradigm, Mortgage Advice Bureau, Simply Biz and others. These Network and Mortgage Club partners always featured heavily in our plans but due to their sheer size and scale we had to carefully stagger our launches with their Appointed Representatives (AR) and Directly Authorised (DA) brokers.
Of course, establishing such partnerships takes work and constant evaluation from both sides to ensure the relationship remains vibrant and successful going forward. This is something we will constantly assess and as we continue to extend our distribution channels for both ARs and DAs, we will do so in a responsible manner to ensure that the highest service standards remain in place, as service will always remain the bedrock of our offering.
As we enter our next phase since re-entering the market in May, let me say thank you to all those who have supported us so far and we look forward to working with you and others over the coming weeks, months and years.
Ross Turrell, Commercial Director, CHL Mortgages
CHL Mortgages widens intermediary distribution panel with TBMC