Scarborough Bs/Basinghall Deal Tops Two-Thirds-Of-A-Billion

Press release published on 11 April 2006 by Scarborough Building Society

Scarborough Building Society Group has completed its third major asset sale to Basinghall Finance PLC.

This latest transaction of £200 million brings the total value of sales so far to more than £650 million.

The mortgage portfolios have been sold by Scarborough Building Society Group subsidiary North Yorkshire Mortgages to Basinghall as part of a third party administration partnership.

The Scarborough’s third party administration arm, SMS Mortgage Services, will continue to administer these and other mortgages on Basinghall’s behalf.

For the Scarborough Group, the Basinghall deal is a key element of its ambitious growth and diversification strategy, which includes expanding its mortgage origination and servicing activities.

It follows two years in which the top-20 building society has undertaken a major programme of investment in its business, processes and systems – including the development of an online broker portal for use by Basinghall.

The Scarborough’s Chief Executive John Carrier said: ‘Basinghall is a key client and will play a fundamental role in expanding our organisation’s horizons for the future.

‘This is a major contract which will give us the operational scale of a much larger organisation – supporting our plans to grow significantly the mortgage origination and servicing areas of our business.’

Commercial Director Martin Frazer added: ‘This partnership, and the state-of-the-art infrastructure we now have in place, will take us towards our goal of being at the forefront of the new business origination and administration market.

‘It dovetails well with our intention to expand our mortgage origination, trading and administration activities – offering a leading edge service to major clients as well as meeting the needs of brokers and packagers.

‘It also fits with our plans to review our product offering, to encompass more specialist lending options.’

Simon Wood, Spokesman for Basinghall, said: ‘Our recent asset purchases from the Scarborough provide us with the platform we need to develop our footprint within the UK mortgage business.

‘We look forward to working with the Scarborough Group in the future as it continues to administer these portfolios on our behalf’

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