Monthly updates

Vicky Askins

Welcome to March’s edition of Mortgage Monthly. This is where we will give you an insight into the Barclays Mortgage team and let you hear first-hand from the colleagues who support you and your customers through your mortgage application journey.

I’m Vicky Askins, I've worked for Barclays for 21 years and I've been a Business Development Manager since 2017 covering Lincolnshire, Peterborough and the Norwich area. In the last month, I've been speaking to brokers about helping first-time buyers get on the property ladder.

The three ways we can help first-time buyers is through the mortgage guarantee scheme, the joint borrower’s sole proprietor policy and our Family Springboard Mortgage. Family Springboard is where a customer can borrow 100% of the purchase price because a helper can use 10% of their savings as security. And the great news is that the Barclays Savers account for the mortgage helper is currently paying 6% annual gross interest.

Okay, now let's cover off our key service levels over the last month. Our average time to offer on a residential application was down to just over eight days. And our average live chat feedback score was 4.8 out of 5. And now I'd like to introduce this month's mortgage master Tom Smart.

Tom Smart

Hi, everybody. My name is Tom Smart, Head of Mortgage Pricing for Barclays. My job requires me to constantly review what's happening across the mortgage market and monitor other key economic factors that impact our pricing. I work with a great team to make sure we're constantly reviewing our policies and our pricing to best support our mortgage customers.

So, what's been going on in the mortgage market since the turn of the year? Firstly, it's been great to see the mortgage market start the year strongly, with applications running at about 10 to 15% higher for both residential and buy to let mortgages. This growth is primarily being driven by the purchase market for both first-time buyers and next time buyers. Continuing upon the theme that we saw through 2024. We've also continued to see house prices increase with annual growth of about 3% in the last 12 months. This is one of the factors that's giving customers the confidence to go out and purchase new properties.

Another key factor is interest rates. We saw the Bank of England reduce base rates by 25 basis points to 4.5% in February. This reduces costs for customers on tracker products and also improves affordability for new customers. Fixed rate mortgages are priced off swap rates which have been relatively volatile  in the first few months of the year but do remain about 50 basis points lower than the first quarter of 2024. This has been driven by mixed economic data particularly inflation, both in the UK and abroad. It's led to a high volume of repricing activity across the market as lenders have had to react to both rapid rises and falls in funding costs. We don't know exactly where base rates going to go for the remainder 2025 but the market does expect several more cuts this year.

So just to recap, the market has started well in 2025 with applications ahead of this point in 2024. House prices have stabilised and increased which is supporting the growth in the market. The Bank of England has continued to reduce base rates with the latest cut in February. Affordability will remain key but I'm confident the market will have a strong year in 2025.

I hope you've had a great start to the year and I look forward to connecting with you again in the future.

Doug Wood

Welcome to February's edition of Mortgage Monthly. This is where we provide you with

an insight into Barclays Mortgage teams. You'll be hearing first-hand

from colleagues who support you and your customers through

the Barclays Mortgage journey.

My name is Doug Wood and I've been with Barclays for 15 years and I've been a Business

Development Manager since 2015 and I look after the

north of England region.

Over the last month, I've been chatting to brokers about the benefits of using our online application system and submitting documents in a timely fashion. Our online system lists the required documents when the decision in principle also known as a DIP is run. Immediately submitting these documents allows us to make faster lending decisions. 

As a result of this in January it took us on average less than two days to review new applications or new documents submitted. And we actually reviewed 99% of these the next working day, a position that we've held for the last three months. Our average time to offer was just over nine days and our average live chat feedback score was 4.8 out of five. And where we need extra information our underwriters are actually able to make more outbound calls so we were able to progress cases in the moment for you.

Now I'd like to introduce this month's mortgage master Matt Aston.

Hi everybody, I'm Matt Aston, Head of New Build for Barclays, a role that allows me to focus on the important sector of new home development. This includes house builders, housing associations, industry bodies and of course, our key new build broker partners.

I've been in the intermediary team since 2006 and during this time  have witnessed significant change within the mortgage market. What is consistent is the need to build new homes and to support our customers with their home ownership ambition.

The change of government last year was followed by a number of key messages. These included new mandatory housing targets and planning reform. The key message though was the need to build more homes. At Barclays we continue to be committed to the new build sector as it evolves and we will support our broker partners to identify and maximise opportunities.

Looking back at 2024, Barclays delivered a number of positive changes to our new build proposition. This included the removal of the 5% builder incentive cap, as well as reducing our residency requirements to one year, down from two. We have our new build support team who are on hand to provide you with in the moment support for your time sensitive applications. This includes providing an update to outstanding documentation or clarifying the latest underwriter update.

The positive impact of this is that our average time to offer for residential new build applications during January was under 13 days. A great performance. 2025 will undoubtedly bring its own challenges and the need for innovation and change. We are committed to supporting you, our broker partners and will have a strong focus during this year.

We'd love to hear from you and I look forward to working with you.

Paul Coker

Welcome to the 1st edition of mortgage monthly for 2025, providing you with insights in the Barclays Mortgage team, as well as hearing from colleagues who support you and your clients throughout their mortgage application journey. My name is Paul Coker, and I've been with Barclays for 38 years now. And I've been a business development manager since 2019 covering the East Angen area. Let's start by looking at key service levels for last month. The average number of days it took us to review an application or additional document was within 2 days.

Our average time to offer was just over 9 days, and our average live chat feedback score was 4.8 out of 5. So far this year, I've been talking to brokers about the effects of stamp duty and inflation, and how they affect the mortgage market, as well as the value of mortgages maturing in 2025. For now, let me introduce you to Gemma Hartley, who leads our mortgage support teams.

Gemma Hartley

Hi, everyone. I'm Gemma Hartley, director of Customer Care Mortgages, and I have the privilege of leading our intermediary and customer support teams across the UK. So I could talk to you all day about the great work the team have been doing over the last 12 months. But today, I'm gonna focus on a few key enhancements to the service, which are hopefully making your jobs easier day to day. So firstly, we have a team of 300 fantastic colleagues in Liverpool, Glasgow, and Sunderland that are there ready to support on telephone and chat.

As a reminder, telephone service is there for your pre submission and policy queries, and chat is there to help you with any ongoing cases. The team can make amendments to applications within chat. That can be anything from a product code change, which is really important in a rate reducing environment, solicitor amendments, basically anything other than know your customer KYC. And in 2024, we actioned almost 24,000 amendments in the moment without the need of you submitting a form. Through our intermediary chat team, you can also have a series of documents checked.

That includes payslips, p sixties, lender statements. Again, all you need to do is connect to our chat team, and they can get that sorted for you. In last month's update, Vicky mentioned our new build team, and I thought it's always worth mentioning them again. So if it's a new build case, no matter what the query, connect to our new build chat team, and they're there ready to help. Within Barclays, we've really been focusing on connecting you to the right colleague.

So if you've got a complex case where you need some help or support from an underwriter, just speak to our chat team, and they'll get that arranged for you. As well as excellence in service, the team also strive to answer all of your calls and chats as quickly as possible. And in December, our average speed to answer for the telephone was less than 30 seconds, and chat was less than 5 seconds. There are lots more exciting changes due to come across 2025, and I really look forward to sharing them with you soon. In the meantime, have a fantastic start to the year, and the team look forward to connecting with you.

Vicky

Welcome to our second Mortgage monthly providing you with insight into the Barclays Mortgage team and letting you hear firsthand from colleagues who support you and your customers through their mortgage application journey.

I'm Vicky Windsor. I've been with Barclays for 17 years and a Business Development Manager since 2017. I cover the central London area.

Let's start with our key service levels for the last month. In November, on average our operational service level agreement or SLA that's the number of days it took us to review a new application or additional documentation was within two days.

Our average time to offer for residential application was ten days. And our average live chat feedback score was 4.8 out of 5. That's a really strong set of results for a period that included a spike in application volumes, primarily driven by product repricing.

In the last months, I've been talking to brokers about potential stabilisation of swap rates and growth in house price inflation and the linked impact on the first-time buyer market. As well as their plans and optimism for 2025.

Speaking of 2025, I can't believe that Christmas is upon us already. This is the time of year we see a peak in mortgage completions and many of us take time off work. So please use our online case tracking system to stay updated on the current status of your mortgage application and any outstanding requests for documentation or information.

Should you need any assistance our UK-based Intermediary Support Team is on hand every day apart from Christmas day, Boxing day and New Year's day. Including the live chat support service which you can access from the Intermediary Hub homepage.

The live chat service also has some new options including the ability to connect directly with our New Build Support Team. And don't forget, there are just also a few days left to enter our advent countdown competition with a chance to win some exciting daily prizes.

Now it's time to meet a mortgage master. This week we're hearing from someone who is key to our business.

Michael

Hi everybody, I’m Michael Clarke I'm a Product Policy and Regulatory Manager for Barclays Bank. My job is a bit of a mouthful. What that really means and what people generally refer to me as is the Head of Mortgage Policy.

I really have to focus on what it is that we can do to really make sure we have a compelling offering for both our customers and our mortgage brokers that we work with.

I get a real sense of satisfaction out of my job when we're able to help more people onto the housing ladder, or to purchase their dream homes.

So over the last 12 months, we've been making a number of exciting changes to our mortgage policy. Sadly, we won’t have time to talk about all of those today but there's three that really stand out for me that I would like to talk about in a little bit more detail.

Back in April of this year, we made a change to our minimum time in the UK for our customers who do not have permanent rights to reside. These customers can take up to a 90% loan to value mortgage with Barclays provided they’ve spent just one year in the UK. And this has proved to be really popular across the market with our application numbers increasing significantly since we're able to launch it.

In May of this year, we launched our NHS bank staff policy. This is great news for people working for the NHS who are doing additional hours because what we're able to do is to take their last three months income multiply that by four to give them an annual figure and we take all of that income into account when we're considering the affordability for the case.

This means that for those people who do work in the NHS whether it's their core work through bank, or they're doing it as additional hours they're going to get enhanced affordability and really be supported on that home ownership journey.

At around the same time, we also updated our policy for limited company contractors, and this is where we can use their day rate to work out their affordability. We now allow that assessment take place up to 90% loan to value.

We're also now able to accept where they've got multiple contracts or where there's multiple people who own the limited company. The only condition of that is that they do need to be named on the mortgage application.

This has been really popular since we launched it and helped us help lots more customers. Looking ahead to next year, we've got loads more exciting stuff to come down the track.

We're looking to develop the scope of what types of income we can accept to support the right client and make that journey even more magical for them. We also have our new application system. This is going to create the opportunity for us to do things a little differently including things like dual stress testing. And that means for customers taking a five year fixed product they're going to benefit from even greater borrowing power when they choose to take a mortgage with Barclays.

But look, it's nearly the end of the year so all that really remains is for me to wish you a Merry Christmas and have a Happy New Year.

Welcome to the first ever mortgage monthly.

We'll be providing you with insight into Barclays’ Mortgage Team and letting you hear first hand from colleagues who support you and your customers through their mortgage application.

I'm Sim Sahota.

I've been with Barclays for thirteen years and I've been a business development manager since 2015 covering the West Midlands region.

Over the last few months my focus has been meeting as many brokers as possible where we've discussed policy enhancements and upcoming changes to our application system.

Let's start with our key service levels over the last month.

In October our operational SLAs remained at a really strong level.

The average number of days it took for us to review a new application or additional document was just under two days.

Our average time to offer for a residential application was just over ten days.

And you rated our live chat service at 4.8 out of five.

My conversation with brokers centre around two main areas.

Firstly our policy change relating to maximum age.

And secondly volatility in the market following a significant number of rate changes ahead of the recent budget and US election.

Looking forward to December I expect these will continue until we see more stability return to the market.

I'm Vincent Nadar and I help lead the mortgage underwriting team.

I love what I do.

It's a fast-paced environment and our success really depends on how effectively we establish and maintain relationships with our Barclays internal teams and our brokers.

I get a lot of satisfaction knowing that our customers get the best quality of service at every interaction.

We in Barclays see our relationships with our brokers as a genuine partnership one that's founded on cooperation and collaboration.

We share the same goal and you would agree we both want to move a case to offer as quickly as we can.

For the month of October our average time to offer was 10.6 days.

And that's brilliant.

If I break it down into numbers one in every ten applications gets offered the same day I want to focus on cases that do not get offered in the first ten days.

And these are the cases that we need to effectively handhold to offer.

Where you can help you can help us get these documents upfront at the time of submission especially payslips and bank statements which allows us to make a lending decision on the first contact.

If we request for more information midway through our application process it is not because we are trying to be difficult.

We sometimes need this information just because we want to make the correct lending decision.

One that will support the customer and effectively operate in line with the policies and procedures we have in the bank.

There is no relationship that can't be improved.

And we are constantly trying to ensure that we streamline the process for you.

Through your feedback we recognise that one of the pain points has been the number of underwriters touching the application.

There are multiple touchpoints which means inconsistency in service.

We will make sure through a case-ownership model that the same underwriter touches the application from start to finish from the time a case is submitted to the point at which it's offered.

Only on a few cases where there is a need for hand-holding by a senior underwriter or a specialist we will hand these cases to the individual.

Otherwise you will experience the same underwriter having all the interaction with you throughout the application process.

Another thing that I'm excited about is the outbound calling that we are now able to make.

We have increased the scope which means more and more cases will receive an outbound call to the broker to you.

What does it mean?

It essentially means that we will be able to speak to you discuss the application where applicable get the information and move case to offer quickly.

Now that all said me and my team are looking forward to speaking to you and working with you in the weeks and months to come.

Thank you.