Knowledge Bank launches industry Criteria Activity Tracker

11 June 2018

Knowledge Bank, the largest criteria search system for brokers, has today launched a new monthly Criteria Activity Tracker to keep brokers and lenders up to date with criteria movements in the mortgage and loan sectors.

As a monthly tracker, brokers will be able to see trends in the sector broken down by product type so that if they have a specialism they can keep abreast of activity in specific sectors. The standout figures from the tracker showed that in May 2018 there were 53,544 searchable criteria on Knowledge Bank, from more than 100 lenders.

The tracker also revealed that, on average, brokers searched on 4.5 different criteria categories for each client. This demonstrates how much more complex borrower’s lives are today and how important it is to be able to factor in all of a client’s unique circumstances at the same time.

The Criteria Activity Tracker shows the top five searches performed by brokers in three product sectors:

This information reveals that even for residential mortgages, brokers are struggling with those more hard-to-place cases. In the residential category brokers need to find out the best way to help those who are self-employed, who need a mortgage past retirement age or who need an interest only mortgage. This is in addition to searches for the most appropriate mortgages for first time buyers and those who may be struggling to raise a large enough deposit. These are all straight forward cases that brokers are facing every day, but until now there has been no quick way to discover every lender who can help.

With second charge loans brokers’ top searches are again often for cases brokers are likely to see regularly but which do not fit the norm.

The buy-to-let searches very much reflect the issues we know are facing this market – does a landlord need their own income and what is the minimum they can earn? What if they are a first time or accidental landlord? And increasingly, with rapidly changing criteria and regulatory requirements, what about those with an HMO or who have their properties in a limited company? Limited company buy-to-lets are becoming increasingly popular in searches so expect this to appear higher up in the weeks and months to come.

Over 203,000 criteria searches have been made using Knowledge Bank since its launch in September 2017. One of the key issues facing brokers is that most criteria changes are not publicised unless there is a particularly positive change and so brokers can be totally unaware of changes until they submit a case.

Nicola Firth, CEO of Knowledge Bank said, “We recognised the need for a definitive source of information in the market on the scale and frequency of criteria changes being made. One of the things that surprises most brokers is the sheer scale of changes being made every week. Brokers are simply too busy to spend time checking through countless spreadsheets or lender websites for updates, so the Criteria Activity Tracker will provide a simple and regular update on criteria movement in the sector.”

Michelle Lally from MAB recently wrote to Knowledge Bank to say: “Keep up the good work, your system saves my life on a daily basis!”