One year on: public SLA figures still unique to Shawbrook

25 August 2015

Shawbrook Bank’s Commercial Mortgages division has released its Service Level Agreement (SLA) metrics for July. Shawbrook shares the monthly data with its broker partners as part of its commitment to transparency, but nearly a year after releasing its first SLAs publically, Shawbrook remains the only lender to publish these figures.

July’s results show the Bank was able to uphold service levels for its brokers, despite the seasonal impact of the summer holiday period. Shawbrook saw improvements in processing times and a good performance from the teams across the various SLA categories.

With many of the Bank’s team, solicitors, valuers and broker partners taking holiday during the month, Shawbrook was able to process a total of 4,649 items, comprising of 3,468 term loans and 1,181 short-term loans.

Karen Bennett, Sales and Marketing Director, Commercial Mortgages, Shawbrook Bank said:
“Many businesses would see releasing SLA data on a monthly business as a high-risk approach, but we take a different view. Efficient processing across the offering is critical in today’s fast moving property market, so we believe it’s right to be open with brokers about our standards.

“We know our brokers appreciate this demonstrable commitment to transparency, and 11 months after we released our first set of SLA figures, we remain hopeful that Shawbrook’s openness will help set the standard for transparency in the industry. It remains to be seen whether other lenders will follow suit.”

The Bank revealed strong processing times for both term and short-term loans, with over 99.6% of term loans processed within 72 hours and 100% of short-term loans processed within 48 hours.

The breakdown of Shawbrook’s valuation times shows a significant drop in the turnaround times for Business Valuations from June to July, and further consistency across the Bank’s other categories.

• Business Valuations: 8.00 days (June – 17.00 days)
• Commercial Valuations: 10.49 days (June – 10.67 days)
• Residential Valuations: 7.84 days (June – 7.09 days)
• STL Commercial Valuations: 7.59 days (June – 8.14 days)
• STL Residential Valuations: 5.29 days (June – 3.94 days)
• STL Refurbishment Valuations: 4.91 days (June – 4.33 days)

Pure Law worked closely with Shawbrook to conclude another successful month for the Short Term Loan and Non-rep Refinance teams, with over half of instructions completed within 30 days, at 54% and 62% respectively.