There has been a great deal written recently about the rush to go into Commercial Lending - a market seen as an attractive area of
diversification for many lenders. One of the latest to enter the arena is Salt Commercial, part of the specialist lending division
of top ten building society, the Derbyshire.
Dealing directly with the intermediary market, it offers commercial mortgages between £50k and £5m throughout England, Wales and Northern
Ireland - including commercial investment, owner-occupier, developing and bridging finance. Salt Commercial has recruited an experienced
sales and in-house credit team who are given the freedom and flexibility to structure a deal to suit the customer. With an average of over
20 years of commercial and banking experience, they provide a fast, no-nonsense approach without the usual tick box mentality. With a
simple approach and straightforward criteria, they've put a structure in place to allow every case to be evaluated on its individual
merits and have bought a refreshing 'can lend, will lend' ethos to the commercial lending market.
So, if diversification into Commercial is appealing, what is it that drives the need to implement a new system? MFG takes a look at
the reasons why Salt Commercial chose Phoebus 'Commercial' to run its new operation.
Salt Commercial implemented Phoebus Software's 'Commercial' package for the origination and servicing of its commercial mortgage portfolio.
Ian Herbert, head of operational transformation, highlights the key reasons why it's not, 'just another loan' and why they chose the
Phoebus route.
He told us, "In order to succeed in this market place we concluded that a system and supplier which can provide you with a business edge
and the capability to adapt your offering according to market drivers is of paramount importance. Securitisation and the need to record
much greater depth of detail on a loan are two key areas where the Phoebus product meets our current needs. Their knowledge of our
business is excellent; we have a partner who we know will help us to grow our business and who is committed to us for the long term."
Phoebus 'Commercial', specifically designed to run commercial loans, later this year will allow Salt's brokers to conduct proposal
submission and case tracking using the Web, a key requirement in today's world. Its unique, tree view of a customer account, which
visually portrays the relationship of data, gives Salt Commercial instant access to all customer and security related information
for both interrogation and update purposes.
At the start of their selection process, Salt Commercial put all prospective suppliers through a very rigorous programme. Herbert again,
"What stood out about Phoebus Software was their proven track record of implementing the system to meet clients' tight timescales,
despite the fact that this is a highly flexible and functionally rich product dealing with the full complexity of commercial mortgages."
Additionally, Phoebus Software prides itself on partnering with its clients - an attribute which fitted perfectly with the working
practices of Salt Commercial.
Phoebus Software has long recognised that many lenders' systems do not deal with the increased complexity of data capture and
account management required in the commercial mortgage market. As a result, their 'Commercial' module was designed from scratch,
to ensure it was able to capture and manage the data needs of this specialist lending sector.
Phoebus Software is clearly pleased to be working so closely with the team at Salt Commercial. Keith Rogers, Senior Consultant
for Phoebus told us "In the early meetings with Salt Commercial, it was clear that their comprehensive system needs had a very
close synergy with those available with Phoebus 'Commercial'. In addition our business expertise and partnership approach were
key to ensuring a smooth implementation." The integrated modular design of Phoebus allows the 'Commercial' package to benefit from
the specialist modules of 'Workflow', 'Securitisation' and 'Sub Participation' as the business model of Salt Commercial grows and
diversifies over the coming months and years.
The final words must surely go to Brian Carney, Salt's managing director, who had this to say on the successful implementation of
Phoebus: "Well done guys - for the system to have come in pretty much on time and within budget is a tremendous and from my experience,
an unusual achievement."
Phoebus 'Commercial' is also available as a serviced package through rated servicer Crown Mortgage Management. |
