Atom Bank has launched broker-instructed valuations and made improvements to its commercial mortgage underwriting process.

The company says the aim is to speed up and simplify processes for brokers and estimates it could reduce the time to completion by up to two weeks.

The new feature allows brokers to directly instruct a property valuation at any point up until an Agreement in Principle is issued.

This type of valuation will be optional, so brokers can still choose to have Atom instruct the valuation after an offer has been issued if they wish.

The bank’s head of intermediary distribution David Castling says: “We’re excited to be introducing broker-instructed valuations, which offers a huge range of benefits to both the broker and their customers, including faster decisioning and more certainty.

“We also know slow underwriting processes are one of the key barriers that brokers face when seeking a lending decision, which is why we’ve taken the time to implement so many key tech changes to support our broker community.

“As a digital lender, we’re constantly innovating and looking at the ways in which we can improve our processes, to make the experience of borrowing faster, easier and better value.”

VAS Valuation Group commercial director Louise Chapman says: “Brokers who instruct valuations directly with us stay in charge of the application all the way through to completion.

“This reduces friction in getting a deal over the line, delivering improved efficiencies and dramatic time savings.”

She adds that this change in the instruction path will ‘help to further refine the mortgage application journey for customers and brokers alike’.