The clinics, which are being held on Mondays over the next six weeks, will see a panel of experts from a cross section of lenders focusing in on a particular lending issue.
The brokers, meanwhile, will be able to have their voice heard by lenders on any problems they are encountering and can ask questions about criteria issues.
Nicola Firth, founder and CEO of Knowledge Bank, explained: “We wanted to do something that was really different to anything that’s out there and which was entirely focussed on helping brokers to better understand certain areas of the market that are of interest or importance to them.”
The first Criteria Clinic was held this week to see if the concept worked and to judge the demand for future sessions.
The subject was placing self-employed cases and 165 brokers registered to take part. It was such a success Knowledge Bank committed to holding at least another four Criteria Clinics.
Placing complex cases
What’s more, during the clinic some brokers placed their complex cases ‘live’ on the session, with the lenders demonstrating how other brokers can place similar types of cases.
Firth added: “There were some amazing and surprising insights which came from our lender panel experts and, amazingly, we managed to place some cases while we were live. This was so popular it will continue to be a feature of other clinics.”
Meanwhile, one of the attendees, Tony Columbine of Quilter Financial Advisers, said: “This was really different and the informal style of the session was brilliant and I got a lot out of it.
“I’m really looking forward to joining in with more of these on the different subjects that are coming up.”
Lenders’ view
For lenders the session provided a chance to explain more about how they applied criteria.
Richard Miles, area manager for Swansea Building Society said: “For lenders like us at the Swansea, it allowed us to demonstrate how our personal, tailored and common-sense approach to lending by manually underwriting cases can really help brokers.”
Details of next session
Next week’s session, which has already had 123 brokers sign up, will take place on Monday 13 July at 12.30pm and the subject is first-time buyers and higher LTVs.
Lenders participating and answering brokers’ questions include:
- Adrian Moloney, group sales director, OneSavings Bank
- Tim Vigeon, head of lending, Buckinghamshire Building Society
- Andrew Millard, corporate account manager, Accord Mortgages
- Neil Tribick, business development manager, Furness for Intermediaries
Attendees who attend the full session will be sent learning certificates which can be used for CPD.
Other subjects due to be discussed at future clinics include HMOs, contract workers, equity release, holiday lets, adverse credit and semi-commercial properties.
