Paradigm & Foundation Home Loans join forces for an open banking pilot

08 May 2018

Foundation Home Loans has today partnered with Paradigm Mortgage Services to offer its residential products via use of new technology provided by software company, Castlight Financial. This will be on a pilot basis initially, allowing broker and client feedback to enhance the process in the future.

Using Open Banking, the Castlight Financial system will allow brokers and intermediaries to process specialist residential mortgage cases with more efficiency and prevents the need for collating outstanding documents such as bank statements. As part of this, Castlight Financial has implemented its Affordability Passport system, speeding up administration processes and aiding brokers’ ability to help clients.

All Residential products are also available to Paradigm brokers, with a discounted Arrangement Fee on its F1 and F2 products as part of the pilot.

Andrew Ferguson, Commercial Director, Foundation Home Loans, said: “With the pace of development and opportunity Open Banking delivers, we are adopting Castlight’s new technology to innovate the way we support client cases. Castlight’s system has proven easy to use and upholds our pragmatic and straight-forward approach. We are confident the exclusive offer will prove invaluable to brokers and clients, facilitating faster decision-making and removing the need to chase bank statements. Thanks to our working partnership with Paradigm Mortgage Services, we expect more lenders and distributors to follow suit.”

John Cofield, Head of Mortgages at Paradigm, said “We are delighted to be working closely with both Foundation Home Loans and Castlight on this project, where we believe this cutting-edge technology from Castlight will create greater efficiencies and ultimately speed up the mortgage application process for clients and intermediaries alike. Technology remains a common buzz word in the industry, and at Paradigm we are committed to offering advisers access to technology that will benefit both them and their clients. In this initiative, there are tangible benefits and therefore I’m sure it will be positively received by advisers”

Martin Leonard, Castlight Financial’s Chief Operating Officer, said “We are delighted that Foundation Home Loans and Paradigm Mortgage Services have been quick to recognise how the Affordability Passport can transform the mortgage application process and are looking forward to supporting the roll out of the pilot with brokers and intermediaries.

Our Affordability Passport is technology that keeps intermediaries at the heart of the process and allows them to manage their business in the most efficient manner. By accessing transactional and credit data in real time, the customer has a great experience and the lenders get the data required to make more informed, faster decisions”

To access this, brokers must utilize Foundation Home Loans’ portal and select the Residential option, once all screens have been completed access to Castlight Financial’s Affordability Passport will be granted. For a full affordability check at the Decision in Principle (DIP) stage, brokers should email Foundation Home Loans a copy of the Affordability Passport to FHL@foundationhomeloans.co.uk with the heading 'Dip referral case no xxx Affordability Passport attached'.

Foundation Home Loans is a specialist lender, providing buy to let and residential products exclusively through intermediaries.

Paradigm Mortgage Services is a mortgage club open to all directly authorised intermediary firms.