Abbey case declines will be final

Abbey for Intermediaries (AFI) has taken steps to improve its service offering by making changes to its application process, meaning cases that fail to meet the lender's new guidelines will be declined and not reconsidered.

The lender says the move is a response to the 'exceptionally high' volumes of new mortgage applications it was experiencing, adding that many of the cases submitted were incomplete, either without all the details requested or without the additional documentation required to complete the application.

In order to combat the negative impact this was having on its service offering, the lender has issued brokers with a set of new policy guidelines, containing information that must be included in the application.

The lender says the changes - which come into immediate effect - are part of an 'ongoing drive' to improve service. If a mortgage application is declined on the first submission to an underwriter, brokers will receive a Mortgage Application Tracking System (MATS) message and telephone call advising them of this.

This will be the lender's final decision and there will be no further opportunity to challenge the decision. If there is a significant change or insufficient detail provided by an intermediary that has led to the decline and the broker feels that the decision could be reversed, they will now have to submit a new Full Mortgage Application (FMA) referencing the original application made in the 'notes' field. A spokesman for AFI, says it is currently spending considerable time working on incomplete submissions in order to help ensure they got processed.

He explains: "Consequently, this is impacting on both our service levels and the time it takes to process the complete and accurately submitted cases we receive from many brokers. As such we have decided to implement some changes into how we approach these incomplete mortgage applications.

He adds: "These changes will in no way affect mortgage brokers who submit fully complete applications, indeed we expect there to be an immediate improvement in application processing time and service response times."