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10 January 2018

Knowledge Bank is now providing detailed evidence of research for criteria searches. This is the first time that this has ever been available to the mortgage market

Knowledge Bank has enhanced its ‘evidence of research’ facility providing the missing piece of the jigsaw by giving brokers the tools to fully evidence their research with what the lender has declared their criteria to be at an exact moment in time. These findings will be time and date stamped and the broker will be able to be save them to PDF and add them to a CRM system or print them out and add them to the client’s file.

A broker will now also be able to personalise their results, not only with their name and company, but also with the client’s name and address, details of the property amount, the loan amount and term and the repayment method. It will also record the ‘criteria considerations that assisted the reason for recommendation’, with an area for a broker to record their reasons for recommending a particular lender. These findings will complement the results of any product sourcing research so that every broker has a complete, robust file which would pass even the strictest of compliance audits.

This will be particularly useful where the broker needs to recommend a product that is not the cheapest. Often product sourcing results are not reflective of what is available to the client. Based on the criteria involved, brokers are often put in a difficult position where they have to justify selecting a lender that is perhaps fifth or sixth down the product sourcing results.
In the event of a complaint from a client questioning their choice of lender, a broker is reliant on any notes they made on the client’s Fact Find and in their Suitability Letter, but without printing out pages from lenders’ websites or recording all telephone calls, until now there has been no way that they could evidence this research was actually carried out.

Searches for lenders who accept specific criteria are now possible in seconds on Knowledge Bank, while this detailed evidence of research should put brokers’ minds at rest that their files will pass all compliance audits. It will also provide security and comfort to compliance managers particularly within networks where they remotely have to ensure the compliance of hundreds of brokers at a time.

Philip Smith, Compliance Manager, First Mortgage (NE) says “Knowledge Bank has helped me greatly when undertaking file checks particularly as to why certain lenders have been recommended, especially if they do not feature particularly well in the traditional product sourcing systems. The fact that advisers are able to supplement their traditional research with documented evidence of criteria driven research is of great benefit.

“More importantly our clients receive a better experience as a result, as we are now able to identify with greater certainty the lender most likely to be able to assist and thus save vital time no longer applying to the wrong lender in the first instance.”

Nicola Firth, CEO of Knowledge Bank says, “Knowledge Bank is providing the missing piece of the jigsaw where evidence of research is concerned. The FCA requires brokers to provide evidence of research for their recommendations to their clients, but until now this has not been entirely possible. Up until this point, the industry has taken evidence of research to mean ‘save product sourcing results’. When cases were placed based on product alone this was indeed the most important element, but criteria is now so vital to lenders, that many borrowers do not qualify for the product which is at the top of the product sourcing results. Instead a wider search needs to be done and a broker needs to justify why they have recommended a loan which may be more expensive.

“Knowledge Bank’s enhanced evidence of criteria provides watertight evidence of what criteria was searched for and why a particular product was chosen for a client. This is the first time that this has ever been available anywhere in the market.”

Mortgage brokers can sign up for a 30 day free trial at: www.yourknowledgebank.co.uk while lenders can contact us to arrange access to the system to showcase their criteria by emailing hello@yourknowledgebank.co.uk