Major mortgage lenders throw weight behind website supporting intermediaries in treating customers fairly

A group of 18 prime and specialist mortgage lenders has thrown its weight behind TCF Info (www.tcfinfo.co.uk), the free website dedicated to supporting intermediaries in treating customers fairly (TCF). This brings the overall number of lenders backing the initiative to 26, spread across 37 mortgage brands. The move, which was facilitated by the CML, will enable TCF Info to spread its message farther and wider within the mortgage market, and is designed to help more brokers meet the March and December 2008 deadlines for implementing TCF - and prepare more generally for the move towards principles based regulation.

Since its launch in June 2006, www.tcfinfo.co.uk has earned praise from mortgage intermediaries for its ‘no nonsense’ approach to explaining how TCF applies to them, and for its range of user-friendly guides, checklists, tips and tools which can be downloaded for free and adapted for business or training purposes. The TCF Info website currently receives around 10,000 visits a month and has a database of 800 registered brokers who receive email alerts when content is updated and a quarterly TCF Info newsletter focusing on TCF developments relevant to the mortgage industry. The site also carries out periodic online surveys into brokers’ experiences of dealing with TCF – and provides follow up feedback to registered brokers.

Michael Coogan, Director General of the CML, said: “At the CML we have been impressed by the quality and scope of material provided to mortgage brokers through the TCF Info website. We also recognise the importance of providing such information from a ‘neutral platform’ dedicated to the needs of intermediaries rather than lenders – and in particular the need to offer this information for free. A model in which lenders can provide financial backing and ‘compliance review’ for such a website provides a solution that we feel is in everyone’s interests - those of the lender, the broker and, not least, the end customer.”

Chris Pearson, Director of RBS Intermediary Mortgages, one of 9 prime mortgage lenders joining initiative said: “We are delighted to be joining the TCF Info initiative and will be encouraging our introducer base to take advantage of the website’s excellent resources – not just now but also into the future as principles based regulation is developed further. Given the widened support base we’re particularly excited by the likely positive impact www.tcfinfo.co.uk will have on intermediaries’ ability to understand and implement the principle of Treating Customers Fairly – and the longer term knock-on effect for both quality of business and customer experience right across the market.”

Frank Eve, Managing Director of Frank Eve Consulting Limited, which manages the site, said: “With the support of a core group of specialist lenders we have been able to develop the TCF Info website over the last two years to a point where it is ready to be marketed across the mortgage intermediary market. Our feedback from registered brokers has been extremely positive every step of the way and we’d now like others to share that experience. We warmly welcome our new lender supporters and are confident TCF Info will in particular help many of their smaller introducers who, without the support of internal compliance departments, may still be struggling to get to grips with what they need to do in order to meet the TCF deadlines.”

- ENDS –

Enquiries:

Frank Eve, Managing Director, Frank Eve Consulting Limited
Tel:- 0870 351 8646 Mob:- 07880 505 707
Email:- frank@frankeveconsulting.co.uk

Sue Anderson Head of Member and External Relations CML
Tel:- 02074388924
Email:- sue.anderson@cml.org.uk

Notes to Editors (1/2)

The TCF Info Forum was established in November 2005 as a result of a shared desire by its members to offer mortgage intermediaries a single, neutral and highly practical source of information on TCF. The ‘first phase’ TCF Info website was launched in June 2006, since when the content has been developed to cover all aspects of the product life cycle.

Founding member brands of TCF Info

Future Mortgages
GE Money Home Lending
Money Partners
Platform
Preferred Mortgages
Rooftop Mortgages
Southern Pacific Mortgage (SPML)
Wave

Supporting member brands joining from October 2007

Abbey
Accord
Advantage
Alliance & Leicester
Barclays
Beacon Home Loans
Bradford & Bingley
C&G
Capital Home Loans
DB Mortgages
Edeus
First Active
First National
GMAC-RFC
I Group
Kensington Mortgage
Mortgage Express
Mortgage Trust
Nationwide BS
Nat West
Northern Rock
Paragon
Standard Life Bank
The Mortgage Works
The One Account
The Royal Bank of Scotland
UCB
West Bromwich BS
Woolwich

Notes to Editors (2/2)

Frank Eve Consulting Limited

Frank Eve Consulting Ltd is a leading UK strategic consultancy specialising in the mortgage industry, providing strategic advice for Intermediaries and Lenders across the whole value chain from customer enquiry to the Capital Markets.
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