Woolwich to switch to online fund booking
Share
Woolwich is to change its tranche fund-booking system from a phone-based service to an online facility by March.
The online booking system will work in the same way as the phone service, with funding tranches given to selected clubs and networks.
Once brokers have booked funds they will receive a unique reference number which Woolwich will match with the application.
The lender came in for criticism when its booking system was laun-ched in February as some brokers were frustrated in their attempts to book funds.
But David Finlay, intermediary business director at Barclays, says those issues have now been resolved.
He says: “We have not had to close any booking lines for nearly 11 weeks. And did it serve the purposes we wanted it to? Absolutely.
“Internally, it allowed us to manage volumes and our service proposition while externally, it meant the key strategic partners we gave fund tranches to knew they had this money so they had a degree of security.”
Richard Morea, technical manager at London & Country, says: “Moving to an online system will be a positive thing. For Woolwich it will be better as phone lines won’t need to be staffed and it could lead to fewer mistakes being made.”
Robert Winfield, managing director of Chartwell Funding, says: “Brokers have to key in applications on-line anyway so it might be better if Woolwich’s fund booking facility was integrated into its online app-lication system so brokers could check if funds are available at the same time.”
If you enjoyed this article, sign up here to receive daily email updates from Mortgage Strategy and Follow @mortgagestrat
