Lender Exchange Interview

Lender Exchange Interview

Lender Exchange, a privately run centralised panel management system for lenders to collate information from law firms in the conveyancing sector, is set to launch over the next few weeks. Today’s Conveyancer spoke to Justin Parkinson, Managing Director of Decision First, which will operate Lender Exchange, in the run-up to launch.

When does Lender Exchange launch?

‘We had March 31 as the anticipated launch but it’s probably going to slip back by a couple of weeks as we have amendments to make off the back of some late changes to terms and conditions and some changes to screens to make it easier for firms. But that’s just the nature of the beast of systems development, so we’re now looking at launching to firms around the end of April.’

Where will Lender Exchange be based?

‘The two parent companies have offices in Kent, London and Leeds and in Scotland and Northern Ireland as well as Dublin. The majority of the administration team for Lender Exchange will be based in Leeds. New jobs have been created and we hope as we go forward that we’ll be able to create more as lenders come on board.’

What exactly will Lender Exchange do and what makes you believe that Decision First is the best company to do it?

‘In very simple terms, Lender Exchange offers a single platform through which law firms can provide data to lenders whose panels they are on. We are confident that, through this, law firms’ workload and indeed costs will be significantly reduced.’ ‘

And why Decision First? Well, both of Decision First’s parent companies have a longstanding pedigree of providing first class services to law firms and to lenders and we are pooling that capability and resource by providing the Lender Exchange through Decision First.’

‘We have been working with both Lloyds and Santander independently through our parent companies for a few years now, so we’ve already amassed data on the vast majority of law firms that are practising conveyancing. We really understand the need to deal with data in a secure manner and comply with strict banking procedures and those principles are core to how we store and use data in the Lender Exchange.’

‘There was a formal tendering process that was run by a collection of large lenders including Lloyds, RBS, Santander, Nationwide and Coventry. It was at that point that Decision First was created and we were selected unanimously by the lenders as the preferred supplier.’

Why do you believe the sector needs Lender Exchange?

‘What we saw through our parent companies’ activities with Lloyds and Santander was that things were reaching a point where it was untenable to have lenders doing things independently of each other. Law firms were collecting and providing the same data several times over for different lenders and it was unwieldy.’

‘And it goes further — PI companies ask for the same information on policy renewal quotations so it wouldn’t be difficult to facilitate providing that information and save the law firm a further headache. So we’ll constantly be looking at where we can make improvements in process efficiencies and data efficiencies to make life easier for law firms.’

Do you predict that when people see Lender Exchange in action any concerns, such as those raised by the Law Society, will be assuaged?

Like anything, there is a natural scepticism with new services, especially when lenders are requiring firms to adopt them. What we need to bear in mind is that the alternative is lenders pursuing their own independent action and potentially charging for that, which could be much more costly and burdensome on law firms. So I fully understand the Law Society’s desire to protect the interests of its members and ensure that data is held securely — lenders and Decision First share that desire.’

‘We’ve had dialogue with the Law Society of England and Wales and the Law Society of Scotland and we’ve taken feedback on board — it’s been extremely constructive. The feedback is mainly centred round the terms and conditions of use of Lender Exchange so we are making some amendments which we hope to be able to share with the Law Societies once we’ve shared them with our lender clients.’

How many lenders do you have on board?

‘Lloyds Banking Group and Santander are the lenders looking to use the Lender Exchange immediately with another four lenders keen to come on board shortly after launch. We’ve also had encouraging discussions with about eight other lenders regarding the system. Ideally one day we’ll have all lenders on board. There are, obviously, other systems and other products available but we think if we have all lenders on board it’s easier for law firms.’

What is the sign-up process?

As we’ve been working with Lloyds and Santander independently of each other through our parent companies for some time we already have a good deal of data available to us in two different systems. We’re keen to avoid a situation where firms are having to resupply a lot of this information so we’ve been asking law firms to provide a consent to have the data migrated from one system into Lender Exchange before launch. Then, once we’ve actually launched, we’ll invite law firms on the panels of the launch lenders to register on the system and to accept the terms and conditions of use of the Lender Exchange.’

‘Our plan is to launch to 500 law firms in the first week and then to rapidly ramp up to get all firms on the lenders’ panels registered. Undoubtedly there will be some additional information required of firms or at the very least some updates required to the information that’s already held but as more lenders join us the law firms can apply to those lenders with minimal effort.’

Is the technology easy to use?

‘It’s a very structured web-based system with a number of menus and sub-menus and it’s very used friendly. There’s an easy to follow instruction guide as well as telephone support available. And people can communicate via the system so they can effectively post an instant message to the IT support team while they’re on-line if they require assistance.’

What are Lender Exchange’s longer term intentions in the conveyancing market? Do you think you might ever become an ABS, for example?

‘I can’t see us ever becoming an ABS. Our premise is that the firms on the lenders’ panels do the conveyancing work — not Decision First. We simply provide a platform for collaboration.’

‘Short-term, I’m focused on making sure we get as many lenders as we can on Lender Exchange. In the medium-term, I’m interested in adjacent opportunities within the sector such as broker validation and surveyor validation — the information required by lenders on these third parties is similar in nature to the data we collect on lawyers so there’s an obvious correlation there. As for the longer term, who knows? I wouldn’t want to prophesise but I can see lots of benefits for law firms, whether in risk mitigation services we might provide or further reduction in administrative tasks.’

What would you say to people who do have concerns ahead of the launch of Lender Exchange?

‘The launch of Lender Exchange is exciting — this is a big piece of web development and it covers a big piece of the industry. We’re helping to move the industry forward.’

‘What Lender Exchange will be doing is no different to what lenders are doing today. Law firms have to go through this process anyway — the only difference is that instead of a pile of papers to fill in, it’s a secure website. So Lender Exchange will make the process easier for law firms.’

‘We have to be able to share the data with the relevant parties for panel management purposes but we won’t share it further. And the information held on the system is very secure — it’s been independently security checked for and given a clean bill of health.’

‘There’s an opt-in whereby if individuals tick a box we might send them information about products and services related to conveyancing — but they’ll only receive this if the box has been ticked. And we definitely won’t be selling the data and sending out adverts for Dominoes Pizza or the like — that’s exactly what we want to avoid.’

‘We have been pleasantly surprised with feedback from law firms so far — many can see the merits of what we’re doing. And, ultimately, Lender Exchange will benefit the consumer too. From a fraud perspective there’s less chance of whichever law firm a consumer uses being hijacked if they’re on Lender Exchange and it also gives the consumer some surety over the law firm they’ve chosen.’

When you’re up and running, will you be getting feedback from people all the time?

‘We will — we’ll run formal user groups and invite feedback and commentary and suggestions from both lenders and lawyers alike. In the meantime, there’s more information available at our ‘corporate’ site: www.lenderexchange.co.uk.’

General News

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *