Mortgage Finance Gazette Awards – winners from last year
Despite a difficult year for financial services organisations, particularly mortgage lenders, there are some good stories out there - and the Mortgage Finance Gazette Awards enables organisations within the mortgage industry to have their achievements recognised
The MFG awards acknowledge the achievements of people and organisations. The process involves nominations from within the industry and a judging panel then chooses the winners.
This year’s judges were Diana Wright of the Sunday Times, Bernard Clarke of the Council of Mortgage Lenders, Ben Wilkie who is Editor of What Mortgage and Joanne Atkin, Editor of Mortgage Finance Gazette.
Some of the categories are divided into ‘large lenders’ (the top 25 in size) and ‘small to medium-sized lenders'.
The best product providers are deciphered independently from a variety of analytical data compiled by financial research company Defaqto.
Winners celebrated at an informal gathering in the heart of the City of
To see the winners of the Best Mortgage Product Providers click here www.mfgonline.co.uk/article/Winners-of-the-Mortgage-Finance-Gazette-Awards-2010-Product-Providers-229583.html
To see the list of nominated winners click here www.mfgonline.co.uk/article/MFG-Awards-2010--Winners-at-a-Glance-in-the-Nominated-Section-229584.html
Community Services Award for Large Lenders
Winner: Nationwide Building Society
Nationwide has set up the Nationwide Education Programme – a free online interactive financial educational resource aimed at children from four years to 16.
The website is linked to the National Curriculum and has specific sections with hints and tips to help bring finance to life using interactive story books, games and activities. There are also guidance sections for parents and teachers. This Financial Capability programme has been accredited by the Personal Finance Education Group.
Highly Commended:
At the beginning of 2009 a group of five heads of department put in place the Heads of Department Charitable Fundraising Group - an initiative specifically to bring different areas of the business together to improve internal communications and peoples’ lives by raising money for various good causes. The priority was to involve staff in social functions, thereby improving interaction between the branch network and departments, while at the same time raising funds for charities chosen by staff.
Community Services Award for Small to Medium Sized Lenders
Winner:
The
above one branch has been converted to provide a meeting room for community groups to use free of charge.
In 2008/9, the
The society donates £5 to the British Trust for Conservation Volunteers for each current account where a customer agrees to stop receiving monthly paper statements and uses the internet banking ‘eStatement’ facility. There is also the AGM ‘Pledge for Votes’ scheme, which pledges 50p for every vote received, raising £11,475 for Barnardo’s.
Highly Commended:
Shepshed Building Society is the only financial institution in Shepshed and supports its community in a number of ways. It sponsors local organisations, including Shepshed Dynamo FC (a semi-professional club), Shepshed Town Cricket Club, Shepshed Amateur Boxing Club and Gotham Village Cricket Club. It makes various ad hoc payments such as support for a local gymnast in the special Olympics - he won two Gold medals, two Silver, two Bronze and overall Gold. Staff also get actively involved in the community.
The judges particularly liked the Shepshed’s affiliation savings scheme which enables any local club association or other organisation to benefit from an annual affiliation payment. Any of the society’s savings accounts can be selected and at the end of each year, an additional amount of interest is paid to the chosen group, based on the aggregate balance of all accounts affiliated to that group).
Innovator Award for Large Lenders
Winner: HSBC
In April 2009 HSBC launched the trial of its branch-based ‘whole of market’ mortgage service, which was rolled out in 20 branches. The service, known as HSBC ‘Mortgage Matcher’ was designed to appeal to the large number of HSBC customers who have their mortgage with a different lender or who would benefit from a type of home loan that HSBC does not currently provide.
The trial was made possible via an agreement with mortgage intermediary firm, John Charcol, to administer the service on HSBC’s behalf. A team of experienced consultants provide the service and although they are primarily based in the branches, customers can arrange for meetings to be held at home, work or anywhere convenient.
Highly Commended:
The society developed an Electronic Communication Strategy in-house to introduce automated e-communication at each stage of the mortgage process, with both intermediaries and its branch network. An initial survey showed that 74 per cent of intermediaries reduced their telephone contact as a result of the regular e-mail updates, creating greater capacity for the Mortgage Service Desk to handle more calls.
Innovator Award for Small to Medium Sized Lenders
Winner:
Bath Building Society is keen to help first-time buyers and has created PAM - the Parent Assisted Mortgage. First-time buyers provide a 10 per cent deposit but use a collateral charge on their parent’s home to reduce the risk of the loan. With PAM parents stand as guarantor to put some of their own equity in as security, in the event of default or sale in possession causing a loss.
This is an efficient way of using the equity that parents have in their homes to allow their children to buy into the property market whilst values are relatively low. Since launch in the spring this product has been extremely effective and has given the society excellent quality applicants.
Highly Commended:
The Organisational Learning Initiative has embraced all levels of staff to create a learning environment where people have the opportunity to develop through understanding themselves and others.
The initiative evolved from a successful pilot and encompassed three programmes. The Executive Development Programme was a two year post-graduate programme designed for the society by the
Excellence in Treating Customers Fairly – Large Lenders
Winner:
Coventry Building Society puts the fair treatment of customers at the centre of everything it does through its six ‘Members First’ Principles. All staff are measured against the contribution they make to these principles and there is a strong parallel between them and the Financial Services Authority’s TCF consumer outcomes.
Some examples of TCF include mortgage products which are equally available to new and existing customers, no matter which channel they choose to use, so there is no dual-pricing. The society listens to customers through its Members’ Council, Members’ eForum and Member Roadshows. Performance is closely monitored through a range of management information, including regular customer surveys, and TCF goes to board level.
Highly Commended:
Internally all key business areas have a TCF Champion, including the board. There is an internal TCF Steering Group which drives and monitors progress and the TCF Champions feed into this group.
A bespoke e-learning package has been developed and is compulsory for all staff, at all levels, to complete. The e-learning is based around the FSA’s six key outcomes and is designed to take individuals out of their day-to-day roles and think about the impact fair treatment of customers has on business success. The comprehensive story-based, interactive package brings TCF to life in a financial organisation. Throughout the exercise employees become a TCF consultant in a fictitious building society looking at the business practices across the organisation.
Excellence in Treating Customers Fairly - Small to Medium Sized Lenders
Darlington Building Society set up a TCF Review Committee of senior management, which includes a non-executive director. TCF measures were introduced based on the FSA’s six consumer outcomes. These measures are outcome based with a clear audit trail. The society introduced a Staff Audit team, where the members challenge the society’s TCF approach on any topic and reviewed all customer contracts.
There is an annual staff TCF feedback form where TCF performance is scored in 10 key business areas based on the product life cycle. A TCF computer based training package was produced, which staff undertake twice each year. The intranet is updated regularly with summaries of industry-led TCF speeches/seminars and TCF is incorporated into the Induction Training Programme for new staff.
Excellence in Treating Customers Fairly – Non Lenders
Winner: AToM
The winner is mortgage packager AToM for maintaining good customer service to its broker clients during a difficult year. Nominations stated that AToM looks after its brokers and their clients, the company cares, and is always helpful and professional. On a practical level the paperwork is clear and understandable and they have a good range of products.
Ecological/Green Award
The society provides mortgages only for ecological properties and offers a mortgage range called “C Change”. This offers discounts between 0.50% and 1.25% off the society’s SVR to specifically reward homeowners when either buying or renovating properties in an energy efficient manner. The higher the energy rating, the greater the discount. By increasing the energy efficiency of our homes we can make an impact on carbon dioxide emissions and contribute to combating climate change.
Best Debt and Arrears Management Strategy
Winner:
Leeds Building Society has put in place a Collections Transformation Programme which brought together a range of activities to enable staff to work more effectively with customers.
This included introducing an independently run Training & Competency Programme for staff; redeploying experienced staff in the field to provide a bespoke free home visit service for customers; setting up a ‘hot key’ transfer for customers to independent free debt advice agencies, rather than just giving out telephone numbers; shortening the lines of communication between front line staff talking to customers, and senior management; and investing in technology including developing a possessions database and loss recovery system.
Highly Commended: GE Money Home Lending
GE Money Home Lending has formed a counselling partnership in conjunction with the Consumer Credit Counselling Service (CCCS).
The lender actively encourages borrowers in arrears to pursue the benefits of high quality, impartial and free advice. The opportunity to maximise this innovation has been increased through technology, where the installation of a "hot key system" within the dashboard of GE's collection dialler system, means the customer can be proactively and immediately transferred to CCCS to speak to a counsellor and make an appointment.
Best Overall Insurance Provider
Winner: British Insurance
The ethos of British Insurance is to make Payment Protection Insurance affordable and accessible to all. The firm is consistently refining its portfolio, taking into account changes in customers’ needs. The products are easy to understand, transparent, competitively priced and reflect the changing dynamics in property ownership.
British Insurance was first to extend cover to people renting and in shared-ownership agreements. It also extended benefits to carers, financially supporting those who give up their jobs to care for a family member. Its policies offer a free back to work service with self help guides, access to a specialist website, job vacancy database and telephone advice via employment counsellors.
Best Anti-Fraud Measure
Winner: Quest
Q-Guard from Quest is an intelligent software tool that provides an additional layer of security to the existing mortgage approval process, helping detect and prevent incidents of risk or fraudulent activity. It helps safeguard the mortgage lending community by offering a unique fraud analysis review at the point of valuation.
Using historical and real-time mortgage valuation reports (Quest has around 85% share of this market), Q-Guard applies layers of intelligent pattern-matching techniques and data analysis to assist in alerting lenders to potential areas of risk.
Analysing a wide range of data, the system quickly ‘flags up’ any potential areas of concern or suspicious characteristics for closer inspection and can track fraudsters who make multiple applications across several lenders.
Best Use of Technology
Winner: Phoebus Software
Phoebus Software was nominated for its mortgage servicing system by CapQuest, which entered the mortgage servicing market in 2007.
The system is adaptable, fast and delivers CapQuest’s key goal of having a competitive advantage through technology. The Phoebus platform has an integrated workflow system which therefore did not need another system to be grafted on top of it. The system came with a developer licence so its own developers can change and enhance the system to meet its needs - and those of the clients – as they evolved over time.
CapQuest also liked the mortgage market expertise within the Phoebus team, its partnership approach and the option to purchase or rent the software.
Highly Commended: The Charlbury Group
The Charlbury Group’s Arrears Management System was launched in 2009. It provides the pipe work to create seamless two-way data flow from lenders to their asset managers, litigation solicitors and contractors throughout the repossession process.
Once the task has been performed, milestone data is collated from all suppliers to produce a central, independent and secure pool of management information. This is automatically deposited into a secure data warehouse for audit and evaluation purposes.
Individual Achievement Award
Carol Kirby,
Carol Kirkby is banking services manager at Skipton Building Society but she has also devoted much time and effort to raising money for both local and national charities, including two local hospices and Oxfam.
The first challenge Carol set herself was to run two marathons (
She also took part in the gruelling Trailtrekker challenge where teams of four people walk together covering 100km in under 30 hours. The trek includes walking through the night and takes in one of
Carol’s team was called ‘3 Men and Not a Lady’ and came a highly respectable 18th out of 171 teams that started and Carol was actually the fifth lady to cross the finishing line. She lost six toenails in the process but the team raised over £2,000 for Oxfam. They completed the walk in 25 hours and aim to do it again next year having set themselves an 18 hour target!
Ambassador Award
Sara-Ann Burgess
Sara-Ann Burgess is managing director of online Payment Protection Insurance (PPI) provider, Burgesses. She has lobbied tirelessly for change in the PPI industry and been a vocal opponent of expensive policies, pressurised sales tactics and mis-selling, which ultimately damaged the reputation of PPI.
Sara-Ann inputted to Citizens Advice Bureau, Office of Fair Trading and Competition Commission investigations and as the PPI mis-selling scandals gathered pace, so did her reputation as a consumer champion with frequent requests from the media, trade bodies, research specialists and consumer groups for her advice and opinion.
The Competition Commission has now called for lenders to stop selling single premium policies, it has banned them from offering cover at the time a loan is taken out and asked for greater clarity in the information they provide both to consumers and the Financial Services Authority for inclusion in comparison tables.
Sara-Ann does not believe her job is ‘done’ and is endeavouring to rebuild the reputation of this much-maligned sector. She continues to ensure media commentators and consumers receive a steady flow of information regarding PPI developments and is committed to highlighting any injustices.
