Three quarters of brokers unwilling to use a lender that withdrew products at short notice

Just over 76% of brokers have said the level of notice a lender gave them regarding the withdrawal of a product would impact their willingness to consider using the lender again in the future, according to Castle Trust Bank.

Broker research carried out by the lender as part of its ongoing Pulse surveys, found that over 60% of brokers said they would be less willing to use a lender if they thought the level of notice provided was unreasonable, while nearly 16% said that product withdrawals would always impact their consideration.

Despite this, nearly two thirds of brokers said they are sympathetic to lenders needing to reprice at short notice. The research found that the largest group of brokers (29%) think 48 hours is an acceptable amount of time for a lender to provide for the submission of a full application on a product where they have already received a positive DIP. A further 24% of brokers said they thought that five working days was acceptable.

Just over 60% of brokers said the main challenge of short notice on product withdrawals was managing their clients’ expectations. A further 55% said they needed time to go back to research the market to see if there was another option for their clients’ circumstances. The next biggest challenges cited by brokers were the extra time and administration involved and needing to gather supporting documentation to submit a full application.

During the research, one broker said: “The worst feature of today’s market is uncertainty. No one is sure what’s going to happen next and when.” Another said that short notice product withdrawals meant hours of work outside of normal business hours, which had an impact on their family.

Anna Lewis, commercial director at Castle Trust Bank, said: “The Castle Trust Pulse survey provides a snapshot of the trends and challenges brokers are currently experiencing in the market, and short notice product withdrawals have certainly been a key challenge in recent months.

“However, our research found that brokers are, on the whole, sympathetic to lenders in this situation – they just want a reasonable amount of notice to enable them to better serve their clients. And most brokers would reconsider using a lender if they think it hasn’t provided enough notice in the past.

“The study highlights the importance of certainty, particularly in an uncertain environment and serves as a reminder of the critical role of communication for brokers and lenders to work together for the ultimate benefit of the customer.”