The newly appointed CEO of Darlington Building Society, Colin Fyfe, has moved to reassure consumers that the Mortgage Market Review (MMR) will not deter lenders from offering them mortgage deals.
Fyfe sited media articles which claimed that mortgages will now be almost impossible to come by and if an applicant is successful in being granted a mortgage, this will only be after an interview lasting more than three hours, during which time their personal expenditure would be analysed and assessed down to the finest detail.
Darlington Building Society is keen to dispel these myths and reassure mortgage applicants that they have nothing to fear from the introduction of MMR.
The Society introduced the new rules one month earlier than required and the changes have been well received by both the society’s mortgage advisors and customers.
Under MMR, lenders are fully responsible for assessing whether the borrower can afford the loan and they have to verify income. Lenders must provide advice to customers and only qualified staff can offer this advice.
Colin Fyfe, chief executive of Darlington Building Society said, “From our perspective we welcome the introduction of MMR. The new rules endorse in many ways the approach to sensible mortgage lending the Society has always taken. Lenders have a clear duty to ensure mortgages are affordable by borrowers so our practices have changed little”.
He added, “Unlike with many lenders, mortgage applicants can still walk into our branches and mortgage interviews can usually be arranged if not immediately then within a reasonable period of time. We assess whether the proposed mortgage is affordable in a sensible way and we do not ask embarrassing questions about personal expenditure although we do have a duty to carry out a detailed affordability assessment, as would be expected.
“Mortgage interviews on average are taking between one and a half and two hours to complete which, bearing in mind the importance of the transaction we do not feel to be unreasonable. My message to anyone looking for a mortgage at present is not to take too much notice of some of the negative headlines relating to MMR.”
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