Commercial Mortgage Decision Within 48 hours

Aldermore, the new UK bank, said that it is now providing 97% of business customers with a decision, in principle, on whether it will lend them money within 48 hours of receiving a completed application. Aldermore said that other UK banks are now leaving some of their small business customers hanging on for weeks for lending decisions. Phillip Monks, chief executive of Aldermore, said: “These delays have become a real problem for businesses – they cost businesses money and jobs. Small businesses who want to borrow to invest or to expand deserve to get a quick decision from their bank. Since the credit crunch started well over two years ago they haven’t been getting that. “We know that businesses want their bank to be reliable and straightforward. That is why we built our systems and IT infrastructure from scratch to give our customers a decision within the shortest possible timescale whilst still undertaking rigorous credit checking. “Imagine how hard it must be trying to operate a business in today’s competitive environment when for months your bank can’t tell you whether they will lend you the money you need. We don’t want to present businesses with that kind of dilemma.” Phillip said that as banks have centralised most of their lending functions, staff at branch level have very little input or control over lending decisions or the timeframe in which those decisions are now made. He continued: “Every week we have creditworthy companies coming to us who have waited two to three months without receiving a decision from their bank. “To put it mildly they are disenchanted! They feel like they have been strung along. We occasionally face a situation where we need to go back to a business customer for a bit more information but that is really the exception for us.” The reason some banks are now taking months to give some business customers a decision is partly because they do not want to be seen to be officially refusing loans. Aldermore has provided a total of £300m of commercial funding to SMEs in its first twelve months.