15 July 2004
Fourteen new lenders have been selected to join Zurich’s mortgage panel as part of Zurich’s ongoing programme to enhance its mortgage proposition ahead of regulation in October.
Five new specialist lenders have joined:
- One Account – offset/current account experts
- Paragon – buy to let specialists
- Capital Home Loans – buy to let specialists
- Scottish Widows – professional/graduate mortgages
- Build Store – self build mortgage providers
Alongside nine lenders with strong regional reputations:
- Norwich & Peterborough – South
- Portman/Mortgage Works – South
- Chelsea – South
- West Bromwich – Midlands
- Coventry – Midlands
- Leeds & Holbeck – North
- Lloyds TSB (Scotland) – Scotland
- Principality – Wales
- Ulster Bank – N Ireland
More than thirty lenders were involved in the original selection process, which measured companies against a range of factors, including their product offering, quality, readiness for regulation, capacity and financial offer.
Richard Coulson, Director of Zurich Mortgage Network explains the rationale behind the decision to choose the final 14: "Having gained an understanding of what was important to our network members through discussion, we had a very clear idea of what we were looking for from potential partners. Our primary focus was on sector expertise, breadth of proposition, service reputation, highly competitive procuration fees and a strong regional presence, where appropriate. The selection process was tough, with potential partners shortlisted to present their propositions during May, followed by intensive negotiations to determine the final choice."
"These additional lenders bring our total panel membership to 39, providing our network members with a representative whole of market offer. We are now developing a number of exclusive deals with both new and existing lenders and are confident that advisers and their clients will be reaping the benefits of these in the near future."
The new panel lenders will be available from 1st August.
-Ends-
Note to Editors:
Last year, the Zurich lender panel was responsible for over £15 billion of lending.
Our current panel of lenders now includes:
- AbbeyBank of Scotland
- Bristol & West
- Halifax
- Intelligent Finance
- Nat West
- Northern Rock
- Royal Bank of Scotland
- One Account
- Alliance & Leicester
- Cheltenham & Gloucester
- Skipton
- Woolwich
- Paragon
- Capital Home Loans
- Scottish Widows
- Buildstore
- Norwich & Peterborough
- Portman/Mortgage Works
- Chelsea
- West Bromwich
- Coventry
- Leeds & Holbeck
- Lloyds TSB (Scotland)
- Principality
- Ulster Bank
- Accord
- BM Solutions
- TMB
- Mortgage Express
- Platform
- UCB
- Enterprise – (GMAC, iGroup, Kensington, Mortgages plc, SPML, Platform, Preferred)
For further information please contact:
Fay Ford, Erica Harper or Jon Atkins
Tel:01793 502873, 503969 or 505586.
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