GE Money Home Lending doubles direct channel team

GE Money Home Lending has reinforced its commitment to driving growth in the direct channel by announcing that it is doubling the sales and underwriting teams in this division, as well as adding some compelling new Buy-to-Let products to its portfolio.

The news comes as GE Money adds another two partners – M2000 and Personal Touch Financial Services - to its growing distribution network. These additions mean GE Money Home Lending has now signed a total of nine partners in less than 6 months, giving almost 17,000 brokers access to First National’s Direct 2 U range.

In addition, GE Money Home Lending is introducing a new range of Buy-to-Let products, which will also be available to all FN Direct 2 U partners from 15 June 2007. Buy-to-Let has already seen significant growth so far this year and research by GE suggests that this trend will continue, with 75% of UK mortgage brokers claiming that Buy-to-Let will be a key driver for growth for them throughout 2007.

The new First National Buy to Let products are as follows:

Two and five year fixed, join our existing three year product
New tracker rate introduced to the portfolio
Low completion fee option for greater customer choice

The above BTL enhancements reflect current demand - especially for two year products - and more flexible product options, whilst maintaining existing features of initial rate rental calculation, no higher lending charge and 100% rental income up to 85% LTV.

Duncan Berry, Director of Mortgage Sales, GE Money Home Lending said: “Our direct channel offering continues to go from strength-to-strength with the doubling of our sales and underwriting teams, as well as the addition of new partners and some very compelling new Buy-to-Let products. Since launch in January this year we have added nine new partners, allowing some 17,000 brokers access to our suite of First National Direct 2 U products. We believe our latest Buy-to-Let range will be very popular and will help to continue the impressive growth in this channel.

“Today’s announcement is great news for GE Money Home Lending and consistent with our multi-channel strategy of developing new distribution growth streams, whilst maintaining our commitment to existing packager relationships. Our entry into the Buy-to-Let market is evolving and we are confident that our new products will prove to be popular with brokers and packagers alike.”

Dev Malle, Sales Director at Personal Touch Financial Services said: “GE Money Home Lending have continued to bring innovation to the mortgage market and despite a number of our packaging partners offering their products, we started to get more and more demand for these products through direct distribution. A critical part of our proposition is giving members choice, so to be able to offer a solid set of products with criteria and price advantages through GE Money, adds value to that proposition.”