Opinion: Re-engineering the journey from bridging application to completion

By

josh knight

In specialist finance, speed is often discussed in terms of headline completion times. But the process behind a bridging loan involves multiple stages, from valuation and underwriting to legal work and completion.

Josh Knight, Managing Director of Sales and Marketing at Glenhawk, explains why improving the customer journey requires looking at the mechanics behind a transaction, from valuation and legal processes through to underwriting.

In a market where every lender claims to be “broker-focused” and every rate card looks broadly similar, it’s easy for brokers to become desensitised to announcements of “improved service.” But one of the things I’ve been impressed with the most since joining Glenhawk, is the company-wide desire to improve.

Over the course of the last few months we have taken steps to improve each stage of our customer journey.

Improved AVM policy

We have always used AVMs where appropriate, but we have now widened how and when they can be used – permitting them up to 75% LTV on residential properties up to £1.5 million, subject to maximum loan sizes being met. This enhanced scope was supported by the recent renewal and upsizing of a £200 million warehouse funding facility with a major institution and should help reduce timelines on suitable cases by a few days at least.

A meaningful legal shortcut

We have enhanced our Title Insurance Policy, by increasing coverage from £2 million to £5 million and extending protection to include certain products which were previously excluded. This enhancement increases the flexibility of the policy and facilitates its use across a broader range of applications. Title insurance isn’t a new concept in bridging, but the scope matters enormously – used well, it can remove much of the due diligence load from conveyancers by insuring against defects (from undocumented rights of access to search-related issues) rather than requiring them to be investigated and resolved manually before completion.

Alongside this, Glenhawk can also often offer dual representation – a single solicitor acting for both lender and borrower. This can remove an entire layer of correspondence, negotiation and duplicated searches between two separate firms, while enabling the lender to appoint a solicitor who specialises in bridging finance (and the timeframes it demands). In many cases, that can shorten the legal timeline considerably.

Underwriting muscle to match

None of these enhancements matter if the underwriting team behind them can’t keep pace, which is why we have strengthened the team with the recent appointments of Sonal Kavri, Loulou Rich and Sangeeth Balachandran; all experienced underwriters with strong reputations in the specialist lending space. Process improvements succeed when they are applied with sound judgement to real, often complex cases – so this is a deliberate joining of sharper policy and an experienced team.

The view from Glenhawk

We didn’t want to just talk about improving service – we wanted to change the mechanics of how a case moves from application to completion. The AVM policy improvements, our extended use of title insurance, dual representation and the appointment of underwriters of this calibre are all pieces of the same puzzle. Individually, they each save time. Together, brokers and their clients are receiving a genuinely different experience. And we’re seeing that improvement evidenced through improved SLAs and application to completion timeframes.

Google NewsFOLLOW ON GOOGLE NEWSGoogleADD AS PREFERRED SOURCE