60 Seconds with.....Larry Banda
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Were you disappointed at the stance the regulator took on self-cert in the Mortgage market review?
I can’t say I was disappointed as it was expected, and anyway we now have the opportunity to formulate our response to the MMR. My concern is that we could lose the years of hard work we have spent finding ways of helping people to get on the property ladder - and that includes the self-employed consumers for whom self-cert mortgages were designed. When giving my feedback I want to ensure we continue to support the market with products for the self-employed and first-time buyers without too much negative impact from regulatory reforms.
Platform says it is considering an MMR-friendly product that caters for the self-employed - is this something The Mortgage Works is also looking at?
The Mortgage Works does not follow, it leads. More innovative products will be designed within MMR requirements that cater for the self-employed in the space that self-cert leaves. The UK market has always been at the forefront of innovation and product design is bound to focus on self-employed consumers and other sectors of the market that the MMR will set rigorous rules around.
Is the regulation of buy-to-let necessary?
I don’t see the need for buy-to-let to be regulated - I certainly haven’t noticed loads of complaints coming across my desk. All our buy-to-let business is done through brokers and we have high satisfaction levels among customers. The obvious hotspots that would concern the regulator would be inappropriate products and a lack of understanding about the products but I don’t see any problems there. We treat our buy-to-let products as if they were regulated anyway.
How integral are intermediaries to the success of Nationwide?
Very. Between 60% and 70% of the business we write is generated in the intermediary marketplace and that proportion is no different across the rest of the market. So we are as dependent on brokers to sell our products as any other lender in the country.
But what sets us apart is that we have put our money where are mouth is in the past two years by expanding our broker sales teams while everybody else seems to have been shrinking theirs. We now have a sales force that has both confidence and money behind it.
