Scarborough Specialist Mortgages All-Broker Launch Ahead Of Schedule

Press release published on 20 November 2006 by Scarborough Building Society

Scarborough Specialist Mortgages (SSM) is to offer its non-conforming products to the wider broker market earlier than planned from 20 November.

The new specialist lending subsidiary of Scarborough Building Society, SSM, was launched through selected packagers and key account partners on 9 October.

Its close relationships with key accounts partners will continue to form the backbone of SSM and packager associations, AMPD and Freehold, will retain exclusively in their sector.

The wider launch had originally been planned for early 2007.

However, although most of SSM business will continue to be drawn from these key relationships, the Scarborough Group is responding to requests to make its new non-conforming products available to all brokers.

‘The extensive market research we carried out in the run up to the launch of SSM was telling us we’d got the formula right,’ said Tony Burdin, Head of Group Marketing at Scarborough.

‘But even so the popularity of SSM has far outstripped anything we dared hope for.

‘The packager associations and key account partners who have been on board with us since launch have been extremely supportive, and are putting a good level of business our way in what are still, really, early days.

‘We will continue to reward their loyalty and support by offering exclusive products and enhanced procuration fees in response to what they tell us their members need.

‘However, the feedback we’re getting is that there is a demand for us to expand into the rest of the marketplace, and so we will now do so earlier than planned.

‘This means that – as with our Core Mortgage Range – all brokers will soon be able to take advantage of the wide variety of products we have on offer. These have market leading features including highly competitive rates; sensible underwriting criteria; and a bespoke service promise featuring direct access to experienced specialist underwriters.’

Tony added: ‘We deliberately did it this way. As with anything new, we wanted to launch our new subsidiary in a controlled way and give it chance to bed in properly before taking it to the whole of the market.

‘Within its first month, though, SSM has exceeded all our expectations and we are now in a position to roll it out ahead of the New Year deadline we had originally planned.’

Scarborough has established a dedicated Specialist Mortgage Centre in Leeds, where SSM mortgages are being dealt with by a team of former Kensington Mortgages non-conforming underwriters with a total of 30 years experience between them.

The product range offers a range of attractive features, including competitive rates ranging from 5.29% on prime loans to 6.49% on Adverse Buy-to-Let mortgages.

While SSM represents Scarborough’s first foray into specialist mortgage origination, the Scarborough Group has offered a mortgage administration facility to other lenders through its Scarborough Mortgage Services (SMS) subsidiary for a decade-and-a-half.

Other outstanding attributes of the SSM range include simplicity, flexibility, market-leading lending criteria, no hidden loadings and attractive procuration fees.

Full details of what SSM has to offer are available by logging on to the dedicated website at www.scarboroughsm.co.uk, where brokers can view full product details, request KFIs and download application forms.

Underwriting support can be accessed via its packager desk in Leeds (Tel – 0845 389 9593) or the Broker Desk in Scarborough (Tel – 0845 130 9737).

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