60 Seconds With... Ian Lonergan

12 October 2009

How would you define your Intelligent Mortgage Servicing system?
It covers primary and special servicing and offers a bespoke approach to borrowers whereas other servicers often adopt a one-size-fits-all approach. We use credit information, look at the value of properties and take a lot of other factors into account so when we speak to borrowers we have sufficient detail to help them achieve the right outcome. Most other servicers operate a dialer system, meaning the collecting agent has no prior knowledge of the borrowers they are speaking to.

Are there any areas of the market you would not consider servicing - for example, commercial mortgages?
We are looking at many markets including commercial, second mortgages and unsecured loans. Our primary target at the moment is first charge residential mortgages but there is no part of the market we would say no to.

Do you have your own arrears policy?
We do - it is fit for purpose in today’s market and compliant with Treating Customers Fairly. With any clients who come on board we look at how their policies work and whether they are TCF-compliant. If they have a policy we consider to be non-compliant in any way we talk to them about adopting our policy or amending theirs.
We deal with institutions such as investment banks, hedge funds and private equity funds that may not have arrears policies so we usually expect them to want to adopt ours.

What do you think of the government’s arrears schemes?
I believe our policy for borrowers who fall into arrears is far better than anything the government has come up with.

Now that off-balance sheet lenders no longer exist how do you expect to grow Exact’s servicing proposition?
Our market is in run-off books - the books owned by firms that no longer have any desire to grow them and more than likely want to run them off. We have designed and implemented strategies for a number of high profile institutions and estimate that the size of this alone is around £150bn, or 12% of the whole market.
We will be looking at acquisitions as well as organic growth as we develop the business in the next five years.

Interview by Robyn Hall