Second charge rise welcome but wider adviser engagement needed

22 March 2018

According to Fluent Money’s COO, Tim Wheeldon, the increase in January’s second charge business by 13% over the equivalent period in 2017 is very welcome, but the industry still needs to do more to engage a wider intermediary audience.

Figures from Finance & Leasing Association (FLA) showed not only a 13% monthly increase over last January’s figures but also an 8% increase in value.

Tim Wheeldon said, “Our own experience at Fluent for Advisers, our intermediary dedicated arm, shows that business introduced by brokers is rising strongly. This is a good sign that the negativity surrounding some of the recent second charge commentary has not derailed the growing acceptance of the wider use of second charge lending.

However, I am sure that we, along with our peers, will not be sitting back. The fact remains that wider acceptance of second charge as a legitimate and highly user friendly alternative source of capital raising funds is still very much our goal. Our focus in 2018 is to ensure that we engage an even broader cross section of the intermediary sector to champion second charge mortgages.”